Video link here

Vandana Shiva, the well known anti-GMO activist is one of the co-authors of the newly released report entitled: The GMO Emperor has no clothes describing the failed promise of GM foods and how it promotes food insecurity, superweeds and the use of pesticides.

The report which can be downloaded here, is co-ordinated by Navdanya and Navdanya International, The International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, with the participation of The Center for Food Safety (CFS).

John Vidal from the Guardian writes:

Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of “superweeds”, according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.

The so-called miracle crops, which were first sold in the US about 20 years ago and which are now grown in 29 countries on about 1.5bn hectares (3.7bn acres) of land, have been billed as potential solutions to food crises, climate change and soil erosion, but the assessment finds that they have not lived up to their promises.

The report claims that hunger has reached “epic proportions” since the technology was developed. Besides this, only two GM “traits” have been developed on any significant scale, despite investments of tens of billions of dollars, and benefits such as drought resistance and salt tolerance have yet to materialise on any scale.

Most worrisome, say the authors of the Global Citizens’ Report on the State of GMOs, is the greatly increased use of synthetic chemicals, used to control pests despite biotech companies’ justification that GM-engineered crops would reduce insecticide use.

Read the rest of the article here

Further links you may be interested in:

EWTT: Dr Vandana Shiva’s Sydney Peace Prize Lecture: Time to End War on Earth

EWTT: Vandana Shiva: Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity and Sustainable Living

Share/Save

Dr Mira Shiva is a renowned medical doctor and public health activist from India. She was a member of the Drug Pricing Review Committee in 2001, and has been a member of various bodies such as the National Population Commission, National Human Rights Commission, Voluntary Health Association of India, Health Equity and Society, All India Drug Action Network, Doctors for Food and Biosafety and Diverse Women for Diversity.

She gave her feedback to various public hearings on the introduction of Bt Brinjal (aubergine) in India. In February 2010, the Indian Government made a decision to halt the commercial production of Bt Brinjal, the world’s first genetically modified (GM) aubergine or eggplant with insecticidal toxin protein from the soil bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis)

In this video taken at Navdanya, Dehradun, India, Dr Mira Shiva spoke to us about her feedback to various public hearings on the introduction of Bt Brinjal.

Video link here

Here are some explanations to some of the names and terms mentioned by Dr Mira Shiva in the video:

1. She refers to Arpad Pusztai at the Rowett Institute who investigated the possible health hazards of GM potatoes which had been genetically modified by a gene from snowdrop bulbs.

As summarised by Mae-Wan Ho and Lim Li Ching in their Independent Science Panel study called “GMO-Free: Exposing the Hazards of Biotechnology to Ensure the Integrity of Our Food Supply.”

The studies showed that the two transgenic lines which originated from the same transformation experiment, and were both resistant to aphid pests, were NOT substantially equivalent in composition to parent-line potatoes, nor to each other.

More importantly, the results showed that diets containing GM potatoes had, in some instances, interfered with the growth of the young rats and the development of some of their vital organs, inducing changes in gut structure and function, and reducing their immune responsiveness to injurious antigents.  In contrast, the animals fed on diets containing the parent, non-GM potatoes, or these potatoes supplemented with the gene product, had no such effects.”

Arpad Pusztai also gave an affidavit during the Bt Brinjal hearing in India last year

According to Arpad Pusztai and Susan Bardocz in “Potential Health Effects of Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Plants: What Are the Issues?”

The basic tenet of the biotechnology industry engaged in the production of genetically modified (GM) crop plants and foods is that no ‘credible’ evidence exists that GM crops damage the environment or that GM foods harm human/animal health. Accordingly, they are as safe as their ‘substantially equivalent conventional counterparts’ and need no safety testing. The general acceptance of such a view could, of course, save a great deal of money for the biotechnology industry that otherwise would have to be spent on very expensive environmental and health risk assessments of their GM products.

However, practically all recent reviews that have critically assessed the results of GM crop/food safety research data published in peer-reviewed science journals have come to the conclusion that, at best, their safety has not yet been adequately established, or at worst, that the results of risk assessment studies, particularly (but not exclusively) those carried out independently of the biotechnology industry, have raised important safety concerns which have not been properly settled.

2. Dr Mira Shiva mentions Ann Venemen to show how pro-industry some US goverment appointments have been. Ann Venemen has been profiled here.

3. Dr Mira Shiva also refers to a study by Irina Ermakova. The study has been described by Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception in his article, “ Most Offspring Died When Mother Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy”

” The Russian scientist planned a simple experiment to see if eating genetically modified (GM) soy might influence offspring. What she got, however, was an astounding result that may threaten a multi-billion dollar industry.

Irina Ermakova, a leading scientist at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), added GM soy flour (5-7 grams) to the diet of female rats. Other females were fed non-GM soy or no soy at all. The experimental diet began two weeks before the rats conceived and continued through pregnancy and nursing.

Ermakova’s first surprise came when her pregnant rats started giving birth. Some pups from GM-fed mothers were quite a bit smaller. After 2 weeks, 36% of them weighed less than 20 grams compared to about 6% from the other groups (see photo below).

Photo of two rats from the Russian study, showing stunted growth – the larger rat, 19 days old, is from the control group; the smaller rat, 20 days old, is from the “GM soy” group.
But the real shock came when the rats started dying. Within three weeks, 25 of the 45 (55.6%) rats from the GM soy group died compared to only 3 of 33 (9%) from the non-GM soy group and 3 of 44 (6.8%) from the non-soy controls.

Ermakova preserved several major organs from the mother rats and offspring, drew up designs for a detailed organ analysis, created plans to repeat and expand the feeding trial, and promptly ran out of research money. The $70,000 needed was not expected to arrive for a year. Therefore, when she was invited to present her research at a symposium organized by the National Association for Genetic Security, Ermakova wrote “PRELIMINARY STUDIES” on the top of her paper. She presented it on October 10, 2005 at a session devoted to the risks of GM food.

Her findings are hardly welcome by an industry already steeped in controversy.

GM Soy’s Divisive Past

The soy she was testing was Monsanto’s Roundup Ready variety. Its DNA has bacterial genes added that allow the soy plant to survive applications of Monsanto’s “Roundup” brand herbicide. About 85% of the soy gown in the US is Roundup Ready. Since soy derivatives, including oil, flour and lecithin, are found in the majority of processed foods sold in the US, many Americans eat ingredients derived from Roundup Ready soy everyday.

The FDA does not require any safety tests on genetically modified foods. If Monsanto or other biotech companies declare their foods safe, the agency has no further questions. The rationale for this hands-off position is a sentence in the FDA’s 1992 policy that states, “The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way.”[1] The statement, it turns out, was deceptive.

Documents made public from a lawsuit years later revealed that the FDA’s own experts agreed that GM foods are different and might lead to hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, new diseases or nutritional problems. They had urged their superiors to require long-term safety studies, but were ignored. The person in charge of FDA policy was, conveniently, Monsanto’s former attorney (and later their vice president). One FDA microbiologist described the GM food policy as “just a political document” without scientific basis, and warned that industry would “not do the tests that they would normally do” since the FDA didn’t require any.[2] He was correct.

There have been less than 20 published, peer-reviewed animal feeding safety studies and no human clinical trials—in spite of the fact that millions of people eat GM soy, corn, cotton, or canola daily. There are no adequate tests on “biochemistry, immunology, tissue pathology, gut function, liver function and kidney function,”[3] and animal feeding studies are too short to adequately test for cancer, reproductive problems, or effects in the next generation. This makes Ermakova’s research particularly significant. It’s the first of its kind.”

For the rest of the article by Jeffrey Smith, please click here.

Photo courtesy:

Bt Brinjal pictures from Navdanya’s campaign brochures.

Further links you may be interested in:

EWTT: Vandana Shiva: Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity and Sustainable Living (Recent Interview with Dr Vandana Shiva at Dehradun, India on the myth of GM, growth and development and ecological agriculture)

YouTube: Health Implications of Bt Brinjal Dr. Vandana Shiva, a renowned environmentalist, discusses some of the health implications on the genetically modified eggplants that are trying to be forced into India.

Google Videos: The Dangers of Genetically Modified Food by Jeffrey Smith

Share/Save

Dr Vandana Shiva needs little introduction as a prominent environmental, social justice and anti-GM activist.  In 2010, she received the Sydney Peace Prize and was named by Guardian UK in March 2011 as one of the top 100 women in the world.

In the following interview, she explains the work done at the organisation she founded in 1987 – Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm and Bija Vidyapeeth, the research and training arm. She reiterates that ecological farming is  pro-peace, pro- biodiversity, pro-culture and pro-livelihood for the poor.

Dr Vandana Shiva

She spoke to us recently during “Grandmother’s University” at Navdanya, Dehradun, India.  The three day course was intended to celebrate Traditional knowledge, Biodiversity and Sustainable livelihoods in an era of globalisation where these are coming under increasing pressure. Not only is this traditional knowledge disappearing, knowledge as a commons is being appropriated and patented by corporations to be sold for abnormal profit.

The participants of the course interacted with the Garhwali women of the Himalayan hills, who had travelled far to teach us some of their wisdom.

The wisdom of grandmothers is in Dr Shiva’s words, “our capacity to love, unconditionally. In our society of competition, of insecurity and fear, that steadiness of love and compassion is brought to the next generation. Just because they are grandmothers, they have a long view. It’s called sustainability in today’s jargon. It’s really a thinking about future generations – not just of me, myself, today.”

Dr Shiva answers here questions about the myth of GM, how to feed cities, the shadows of growth and development, and the role of civil society.

Video link here

The importance of saving seeds:

Seed list at Navdanya

We visited the seed bank within Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm, which distributes valuable traditional seeds to farmers.  By interacting with the co-ordinators of Navdanya – Rukmini who oversees about 100 villages in the Garhwal region (Uttarakhand district, N. India), and Jumana who works with farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, which has the maximum number of suicides in the country due to the economic hardships caused by Bt Cotton; the importance of saving traditional seed varieties against the onslaught of hybrid and GM seeds became amply clear.

Preserving Biodiversity

Navdanya is now a network of seed keepers and organic producers across 16 states in India. It has helped set up 54 community seed banks across the country, and has trained half a million farmers in sustainable agriculture. It is also actively involved in reviving indigenous knowledge, creating awareness about the problems of GM foods and the rights of people against biopiracy in the face of globalisation and climate change.

Here’s a recording in part, of a session by Dr Vandana Shiva at Navdanya, where she clearly explains four kinds of seeds – open pollination, green revolution varieties, hybrid varieties and GM seeds. This distinction is fundamentally important to understand the arguments against genetic engineering.  She also describes how the cost of GM seeds and pesticide use soar astronomically, which are major factors behind the indebtedness and consequent suicide of farmers.   (Kindly excuse the poor lighting conditions in the room, which is more than made up by Dr Shiva’s articulate discourse)

Video link here

About the Writer:

Bhavani Prakash is the Founder of Eco WALK the Talk .com. She is passionate about the role of individuals and communities in bringing about the much needed change we need to see in the world.  She was an economist in her previous avatar, and is now an environmental and social justice activist using social media as well as offline community participation in her advocacy of a greener, fairer and happier planet. She writes and conducts talks and workshops on sustainability and can be contacted at bhavani[at]ecowalkthetalk.com. Follow Eco WALK the Talk on Facebook, Twitter, Linked IN and YouTube

Further links you may be interested in: