Pharma Nightmare - Natural Awakenings, November 2007, Issue.
Since 1991, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has allowed biotechnology companies to turn food crops into drug and chemical factories, in the hope that genetically engineered "Pharma", crops might reduce corporate production costs of drugs and industrial chemicals. But, hidden costs to public health are coming to light.
"Pharma and industrial crops look for the food supply, but, the drugs and chemicals they contain could be harmful if they wind up in foods such as: cereal or baby foo", reports of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The ease of contamination was demonstrated in 2002 when drug maker ProdiGene allowed corn plants, which were engineered to produce a pig vaccine, to grow in a Nebraska soybean field. The subsequent harvest contaminated a grain elevator, and 500,00 bushels of tainted soybeans had to be destroyed.
Already, companies are engineering crops such as corn, rice, soybeans and safflower to produce human insulin, growth hormones, medical proteins, biofuels and plastics. Worse, they want to cultivate them outdoors. Such self-interested industry practices combined with current lax government oversight foster a scenario that could pose serious health and environmental risks for years to come.
Petition the USDA today to safeguard our food supplies as officials consider sweeping changes to existing regulation. Insist that they ban outdoor cultivation of genetically engineered food crops.
From ProtectOurFood.org.
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