This is what I intend to say at the Municipal Council meetings in Courtenay and Comox next week: Your worship, members of this Council, It is not fear that drives me and the people who came today. It is experience. We have been misled before by the chemical Industry. We have gone through controversies many times in the last 40 years. Remember lead in paint and in gasoline – a potent neurotoxin that was considered safe by government agencies and the chemical Industry that peddled the additives. We had a controversy about asbestos for a long while too. And you remember of course the controversy about smoking cigarettes and how safe it was. That was 20 years ago. And an Industry that assured us that PCB’s were safe, and DDT too. I sprayed DDT in my shirt before going to bed at night when I went camping as a kid. Spiders, you know. The chemical Industry generates its own evidence of safety and create a controversy to reassure the governments and the public globally. But there is no controversy in 64 countries, including the big ones: China, India, Russia, Japan, and of course most of Europe. Their scientists can read and their elected leaders can hear. GMOs are banned or clearly labeled on the food packages. And if engineered crops are smuggled, they are burnt. I don’t think I have become a pseudo scientist because I am speaking up. There is now a large body of publicly funded science that you can read, published, peer reviewed, in prestigious Journals, that says a completely different story from the Industry funded research. Universities and scientists are bought you know, it’s called Industry research grants, and patents too. Perfectly normal. Just like doctors during the cigarette controversy of 20 years ago. The story says that mice and rats and pigs eating GMOs – laced with the magic herbicide of course, show chronic chemical stress that translate into organ damage and cancer. The story says that a good number of animals (and people too) react quite strongly to allergens and toxic proteins in engineered ingredients. Before I talk about GMOs, I must spend a minute on the magic herbicide that comes with it. When I was in graduate school I read all sorts of things about how safe RoundUp was. It was like aspirin, biodegradable and of course completely safe. And now I am reading that the bacteria in my gut are badly affected by residues of RoundUp in my food. The bacteria are poisoned just like the plants. And I read that my gut flora produces 90% of the serotonin that I need to be happy. And many other essential hormones and chemicals are produced by my gut bacteria. Do I want my gut flora to be happy ? Do I want to be a friend to my gut bacteria ? You bet I do. I don’t want RoundUp residues in my food. According to a recent report this chronic effect on our gut bacteria can create most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet. Gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression – serotonin of course, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. It is coincidental of course that all these illnesses have been on the rise in the last 20 years at the same time that our RoundUp intake has gone through the roof. Apparently in many cities, it is in the water, in the air, and of course in the food. The engineered crops or the foods derived from them have separate problems. Problems with resistant weeds and insect pests. The magic does not work anymore. Problems with contamination of the environment. With GMOs everywhere your garden or your field is contaminated. Tough. Export markets have been lost because of contamination - rice in southern US states, flax and canola in the prairie provinces in Canada. Tough. Serious problems with genetic pollution. Spread of antibiotic resistance genes or any other bacterial transgenes from engineered crops in the environment. Tough. Genetic pollution of our own bodies. It is proven and published that the bacterial transgenes in GMO foods can be picked up by bacteria of the human gut. How would you like to become a pesticide factory ? Do you think I am joking ? There are serious problems and any one of them should recall any product or technology. But not this one, not as long as we have a controversy. And what about the claims of increased yields and better nutrition ? The farmers are aware and willing to trade a bit of yield with GMO corn for reliable weed management. It is documented and published that the herbicide tolerance trait is physiologically costly. There is a yield drag. Whether with soybean or corn. And the Europeans who don’t use this technology have made greater advancements in yield. Better nutrition is a joke. RoundUp is a chelator in the soil and in the plants. The bioavailability of certain minerals is affected. So much so that farmers must supplement their soil with extra manganese and other metals. And yet the plants can be deficient in certain metals. There is absolutely no evidence of superior nutrition, there are strong reasons for the opposite. And I don’t need to repeat what RoundUp residues in your food can do to your symbiotic gut bacteria. Because the weeds and the bugs are becoming resistant everywhere farmers are being asked to switch to different chemicals to make the magic happen again. Please do not think for a minute that it won’t happen here. It is on its way. It happens wherever genetic pressure is applied. Weeds and insect pests will adapt. They are all over the US and they have spread to Ontario and Alberta. The growers will be forced to a chemical treadmill and switch to a different herbicide to replace RoundUp. The next magic herbicide will be 2-4 D. It does not have a good reputation. Lots of science demonstrating toxicity to humans. It was, as you probably know the active ingredient in Agent Orange. The ultra toxic and teratogenic dioxin contaminants were complementary when spraying Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. As far as resistant bugs, there is no engineered alternative. Just spray more of our insecticides the Industry says. I appreciate your determination to keep the economy is your number one priority, and I commend you for this. But I am here to convince you that the health of your constituents and your own, is more important than the economic health of the dairy farmers. I am not here out of fear, just experience. And I will go with publicly funded science rather than corporate funded science any day. Thank you for hearing me out. And about the UBCM vote, I hope every one of you will be allowed to vote by your conviction.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 05:54:30 +0000
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