Hmmmm Factor….. Did you think the genetically modified pig was gone? Think Again.

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Two New GE Pigs Want to Go To the Market

Posted on November 11, 2015

By Heather Callaghan

Did you think the genetically modified pig was gone? It is true that Canada’s “Enviro Pig” was scrapped in 2012 after consumer backlash and lack of university funding. That vacancy mainly left genetically modified salmon in the running to become the very first commercial GM animal.

But there are two new types of engineered pigs poised for approval in their respective countries. Now, with the secret Trans Pacific Partnership out in the open, it becomes clear that the deal opens the door for a swarm of global biotech ventures that can more easily glide their wares across country boundaries.

Whereas Enviro Pig’s genetic splicing was supposedly intended to cut down on phosphorous waste that kills waterways, two more pigs are vying for public acceptance.

It’s important to note that these animals aren’t “transgenic” like many of the GE crops on the market. That is, they do not contain genes from other species or kingdoms like bacteria. Biotech involves more than GMOs, and some methods currently fall outside of regulation or definition. However, we are still talking genetic engineering.

CBC News reports on them:

• Bruce Whitelaw and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh are developing a pig resistant to African swine fever, a devastating disease with no vaccine or cure that has led to hundreds of pigs being slaughtered in Europe to prevent its spread.
• Jinsu Kim and his colleagues at Seoul National University have developed “double-muscle” pigs that produce twice as much muscle as a regular pig, resulting in higher protein, lower fat pork.

 

Read More Here

 

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CBC News

Genetically modified pigs raise concerns about food regulation

Regulatory system lacks transparency, critics say

CBC News Posted: Nov 03, 2015 11:50 AM ETLast Updated: Nov 04, 2015 8:59 AM ET

Two kinds of genetically modified pigs are on their way to becoming pork on our dinner plates. If they do, they’ll be some of the very first genetically modified animals to enter our food system. (Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

The Current: GMO pigs’ cautionary tale of genetically modified food research 24:43

Two kinds of genetically modified pigs are on their way to becoming pork on our dinner plates. If they do, they’ll be some of the very first genetically modified animals to enter our food system, along with genetically modified salmon that is also trying to gain regulatory approval.

But consumers are wary and lack confidence in governments’ readiness to regulate this new class of food product, researchers and activists say.

The genetically modified pigs under development are designed to improve pork production in different ways:

• Bruce Whitelaw and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh are developing a pig resistant to African swine fever, a devastating disease with no vaccine or cure that has led to hundreds of pigs being slaughtered in Europe to prevent its spread.
• Jinsu Kim and his colleagues at Seoul National University have developed “double-muscle” pigs that produce twice as much muscle as a regular pig, resulting in higher protein, lower fat pork.

In both cases, researchers have precisely targeted an individual pig gene to create a mutation that turns up or turns down certain genes. The African swine fever resistant pig has an immune gene that is slightly more like a warthog’s. The double-muscle pig has a mutation similar to one produced by normal breeding in a muscly cow breed called the Belgian blue.

The pigs aren’t “transgenic” — that is, they don’t contain genes from other organisms. That makes them unlike some genetically modified crops already on the market, which may contain genes from organisms such as bacteria.

 

Read More Here

 

 

Related Stories

• GMO debate shows big opinion gap between scientists, public over safety
• World’s 1st lab-grown burger cooked and eaten
• GMO pigs’ cautionary tale of genetically modified food research
• GMO salmon firm, AquaBounty, applies to sell in Canada
• Synbiota biohacking kits let you do genetic engineering at home
• The Guardian: Could these piglets become Britain’s first commercially viable GM animals?
• Nature: Super muscly pigs created by genetic tweak

Washington Post columnist admits to spreading GMO propaganda while collecting ‘plenty’ of money from biotech front groups

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NaturalNews

Monday, November 09, 2015 by: J. D. Heyes

 

(NaturalNews) Readers of Natural News know that most mainstream, legacy newspapers pretty much parrot the corporate line on everything from finances to banking to industry and food, especially genetically modified food.

As noted in a recent TruthWiki entry, one reporter who regularly shills for GMOs and profits from it is Tamar Haspel of the Washington Post. Truthwiki notes this phenomenon is called “buckraking” – profiting financially by promoting certain foods and products (and so-called “science”).

The site notes:

Most readers of the Washington Post would like to read actual news when they read the paper, but with Tamar Haspel at the wheel of the adulterated food conversation, they’re getting complete fiction – the industry-hack-written propaganda reiterated that says consuming chemicals is good for you, and chemicals are good to spray on the soil, the crops, the animals and the children. All chemicals are wonderful and are backed by solid science so never worry if it says “peer reviewed” or “GMO” it’s good to go. There is a horrible conflict of interest here between Haspel’s beat as a food columnist and pocketing a small fortune from the likes of Monsanto. How could you ever say anything bad, or ask any tough questions, or challenge the “norm” or even report the real news on food, agriculture, organics, and sustainability? Tamar Haspel is reporting fiction, much in the way best-selling fiction writer Amy Harmon is selling the public on the false benefits of GMO.

TruthWiki’s findings are based in part on research by U.S. Right To Know (USRTK), which reported on September 28 that Haspel admitted on Twitter that she had received “plenty” of cash from pro-agricultural chemical firms.

“Following her admission, I thought it might be useful to report on journalists – including Haspel – mentioned in the documents we have received from state public records requests,” Gary Ruskin wrote for USRTK.

He said the organization is conducting an investigation into food and agri-tech industries as well as their public relations firms and front groups and the professors and academics who speak on their behalf.

Haspel is part of that investigation.

As further noted at TruthWiki, the concept of “buckraking” is poisonous to journalism because it destroys any semblance of objectivity; the site says buckraking is to journalists what huge speaking fees from foreign governments are to Bill and Hillary Clinton, the latter of whom is attempting to become the next president. The compromising position in which such practices put people makes it impossible to remain fair-minded.

Pretending to be journalists

“Which company will Haspel write about next, a sponsor or a co-sponsor? Will she write for a for-profit company if they hand her lots of cash as long as there’s a non-profit over in the corner at the event, even if she doesn’t collude with them?” says the TruthWiki entry. “Is that the cover story Haspel will continue using to justify her interactions with the most hated, sinister company on the planet–Monsanto? This is the epitome of buckracking.”

In recent weeks, Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported that a number of other mainstream media journalists writing for mostly left-wing propaganda sites and newspapers have been exposed as buckraking shills for corporate advertisers and industries trying to control the narrative and debate over certain dangerous compounds.

“These Monsanto operatives pretending to be journalists write for The Washington Post, New York Times, Discover, Slate, Nature and various ‘science’ websites,” he wrote. “Many of them openly admit to being paid by Monsanto and gladly accepting the money. Then they turn around and write stories attacking clean food activists or hawking whatever GMO propaganda Monsanto is pushing that day.”

You can read Adams’ full report here.

Read the full TruthWiki entry here.

Sources include:

TruthWiki.org

GMWatch.org

USRTK.org

NaturalNews.com

 

About NaturalNews

The NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams, receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product reviews.

The vast majority of our content is freely given away at no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide) that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and life fulfillment.

Learn More About Natural News Here

SCIENCE WARNING: Genetically modified soybeans cause stunted growth of animal offspring

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NaturalNews

Thursday, November 05, 2015 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Pregnant goats fed a diet of genetically modified (GM) soybeans produced small, slow-growing offspring compared with goats fed a diet of non-GM soybeans, according to a study conducted by Italian researchers and published in the journal Small Ruminant Research.

The soybeans used in the study were “Roundup Ready,” engineered for resistance to Monsanto’s global bestselling herbicide Roundup (glyphosate). This is the GM soybean variety most widely grown around the world.

Further analysis revealed that the milk produced by the goats fed GM soy was less nutritious and contained lower levels of a key growth-promoting class of antibodies.

Milk from GMO-fed goats is deficient

Sixty days before kidding, the researchers assigned pregnant Cilentana goats to be fed a diet containing either Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybeans at one of two different concentrations or the same concentrations of non-GM soybeans. After birth, the kids were fed only their mothers’ milk for 60 more days. The growth of the kids was assessed at 30 and 60 days after birth.

The researchers found that kids of mothers fed GM soy were an average of 20 percent shorter and weighed 20 percent less than kids from the control groups.

Analysis of the mothers’ colostrum (the type of milk produced for the first period following birth) revealed surprising findings. The milk from the mothers fed GM soy was significantly lower in quality, with lower levels of both fat and protein. For example, the milk from the control goats was 18 percent protein, while the milk from the GMO-fed goats was only 6 percent protein. These differences disappeared after several weeks. Perhaps even more significantly, the antibody composition was significantly different between the two groups. Milk from mothers fed GM soy had significantly lower levels of IgG antibodies, which promote growth and development of the immune system.

“This was a carefully conducted study,” said Judy Carman of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research, Australia, who was not involved in the research.

“The differences in the composition of the colostrum between the mothers fed the GE soy and the non-GE soy were particularly striking. The colostrum from the GE-fed mothers contained only 2/3 of the fat, 1/3 of the protein and close to half of the IgG of the mothers fed the non-GM soy.”

The researchers also detected transgenic (modified) DNA in the colostrum of 10 of the 16 GMO-fed goats, and in none of the colostrum of the control goats. This confirms prior findings that transgenic DNA from the diet can pass into the milk of ruminant mammals.

Another reason to avoid GM crops and Roundup

Because there was no significant difference in size between kids from the two groups at birth, the researchers believe that the differences observed in the mothers’ milk likely account for the growth differences in the kids. There might also have been other changes in nutrient content of the milk that the researchers did not test for.

Significantly, prior studies have shown that IgG antibodies also play a role in nutrient absorption by promoting newborn gut development.

“It is already known that Roundup Ready soybeans have various defects including a Manganese deficiency,” said Allison Wilson of The Bioscience Resource Project, who was not involved in the study. “Yet regulators and GMO developers have continuously dismissed credible reports of GMO crops causing apparent harm to animals, from many different research groups.”

Roundup Ready crops are also known to be coated with higher average levels of glyphosate residue than non-GM crops. Glyphosate, in turn, has been linked to various toxic effects, including on the reproductive system and on growth and development, in addition to causing cancer.

Sources for this article include:

IndependentScienceNews.org

NaturalNews.com

 

 

About NaturalNews

The NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network is owned and operated by Truth Publishing International, Ltd., a Taiwan corporation. It is not recognized as a 501(c)3 non-profit in the United States, but it operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams, receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books other than reimbursement for items purchased in order to conduct product reviews.

The vast majority of our content is freely given away at no charge. We offer thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable reports and guides (like the Honest Food Guide) that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and life fulfillment.

Learn More About Natural News Here

E. Coli Outbreak : All Chipotle restaurants in a four county region in Oregon and all in Washington state have closed.

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Food Poisoning Bulletin

E. coli Outbreak Linked to Chipotle Restaurants in OR, WA

The Oregon Health Authority released a statement today saying that there is an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in Washington state and Oregon. At least 19 people are sick in Washington and 3 are ill in Oregon.

 

Eight of those sickened have been hospitalized in this outbreak. No one has died. The patient age range is from 11 to 64 years old. Those sickened live in Clackamas and Washington counties in Oregon, and in Clark, King, Skagit, and Cowlitz counties in Washington. The patients have reported eating at six of the restaurants in those states.

If you or someone you know ate at any Chipotle restaurant in the Northwest between October 14 and 23, 2015 and has been sick with vomiting and bloody diarrhea, see your health care provider. Mention this outbreak.

All Chipotle restaurants in the four county region in Oregon have been voluntarily closed.  All of the Chipotle restaurants in Washington state have closed.

 

Read More Here

Rhino Dietary Supplements Recalled for Unapproved Drugs

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Food Poisoning Bulletin

Rhino dietary supplements are being recalled because they contain undeclared drugs and may be a health hazard. FDA analysis found that the products contain undeclared desmethyl carbondenafil and dapoxetine. Desmethyl carbondenafil is a phosphodiesterase PDE-5 inhibitor, a class of drugs used to treat male erectile dysfunction, making these products unapproved new drugs. Dapoxetine is an active ingredient not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No reports of adverse effects have been received to date.

Desmethyl carbondenafil can interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs such as nitroglycerin and may lower blood pressure to life-threatening levels. Dapoxetine has not been approved for use by the FDA. This chemical is an SSRI used to treat depression, which can increase the risk of suicidal thinking and ideation in children, young adults, and adolescents.

 

Read More Here

Skippy peanut butter recalled over possible metal shavings

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msn

Reuters

Anjali Athavaley

 

…

Mr. Granger    A Fool’s Gold Loaf sandwich.  Wikimedia.org

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Hormel Foods said Thursday it’s voluntarily recalling a limited number of jars of its Skippy peanut butter in seven U.S. states because they might contain small pieces of metal shavings.

The recall involves 153 cases, or 1,871 pounds, of Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread. It is limited to 16.3 ounce jars with a “Best If Used By” date of DEC1416LR1 with a package UPC code of 37600-10500.

The jars were sent to distribution centers for Publix , Target and Walmart located in Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware and Arkansas, Hormel said.

 

Read More Here

Consumer Advisory Issued for Uncle John’s Apple Cider for E. coli

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Food Poisoning Bulletin

 

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a consumer advisory for Uncle John’s Old Fashioned Apple Cider produced by Uncle John’s Cider mill in St. Johns, Michigan because it may be contaminated with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli bacteria. A random sample collected by a government inspector tested positive for the pathogenic bacteria. No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with the consumption of this product.

 

 

The recall is for about 1,200 gallons of cider produced on October 17, 2015. The cider was sold at the cider mill from the retail cooler, packaged in various sized plastic jugs with a sell-by date of October 30, 2015, or served directly to consumers by the cup as cold cider, frozen cider slushes, and hot cider from October 18 through October 21, 2015. The company has stopped selling cider while awaiting more test results.

 

Read More Here

What Caused E. coli Contamination in High Hill Ranch Apple Juice?

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Food Poisoning Bulletin

Unpasteurized apple juice sold at High Hill Ranch in Camino, California has sickened at least seven people with E. coli infections, according to the El Dorado County Environmental Management and Public Health division. All of the patients live in Sacramento County and all consumed the product from the ranch in mid October this year.

One person has been hospitalized and is expected to recover. The juice was consumed at home or at High Hill Ranch. Officials are warning consumers to not drink any unpasteurized apple juice purchased from the ranch on or after October 6, 2015.

Unpasteurized apple juice, just like unpasteurized milk, has caused E. coli outbreaks in the past. An outbreak in Michigan in 2012 linked to unpasteurized juice sickened people. And an outbreak in Canada last year that sickened people with E. coli infections was linked to the unpasteurized beverage.

These products can be contaminated with E. coli bacteria and other pathogenic bacteria. Pasteurization destroys the bacteria in those products and makes them safe to drink. While the FDA requires that unpasteurized apple juice have a warning label that tells consumers about the risks of drinking that product, that warning is not required on juice that is freshly squeezed and served to the public at orchards, farmers markets, roadside stands, and in some restaurants or juice bars.

 

 

Read More Here

 

 

 

HUMAN DNA found in popular hot dog and sausage brands and 10% of vegetarian varieties contain meat

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Hotdogs   Jersyko

Wikimedia.org

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• Analysis examined 345 samples from 75 brands sold at ten food retailers
• DNA was in two per cent of all samples, predominantly in veggie products 
• Found ten per cent of vegetarian hot dogs and sausages contained meat
• Clear Food study found 14.4 per cent of hot dogs or sausages had issues
• Americans spent more than $5.5billion on hot dogs and sausages in 2014

By Evan Bleier For Dailymail.com

Published: 11:24 EST, 26 October 2015 | Updated: 16:25 EST, 26 October 2015

A study exposed some issues with veggie hot dogs

Human DNA – or deoxyribonucleic acid – has been found in two per cent of hot dogs and sausages, a major study of popular brands has revealed

Tests on 345 samples from different 75 brands also revealed ten per cent of vegetarian hot dogs contain meat.

Out of the samples that tested positive for DNA (seven), 66 per cent (four) were vegetarian.

The genetic material that was found could have come from a hair, a fingernail, a dribble of spit or a drop of blood.

Twenty-one vegetarian products were tested overall.

The genetic testing analysis carried out by Clear Food, which looked at major brands and regional favorites being sold by ten retailers, did not specify which brands contained the human DNA or what caused the contamination.

Read More Here

New England Journal of Medicine article by Renowned Children’s Health Expert calls for GMO labels on foods

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MassLive

New England Journal of Medicine article calls for GMO labels on foods

Roundup is a product of Monsanto. (Republican file)

  By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com

on August 20, 2015 at 11:33 AM, updated August 20, 2015 at 11:48 AM

A Perspective article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for the labeling of genetically modified foods.

“We believe the time has come to revisit the United States’ reluctance to label GM foods,” writes Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, co-author with Charles Benbrook, of the article entitled “GMOs, Herbicides, and Public Health.”

The two write that such labeling “is essential for tracking emergence of novel food allergies and assessing effects of chemical herbicides applied to GM crops.”

“It would respect the wishes of a growing number of consumers who insist they have a right to know what foods they are buying and how they were produced,” the two write.

“And the argument that there is nothing new about genetic rearrangement misses the point that GM crops are now the agricultural products most heavily treated with herbicides and that two of these herbicides may pose risks of cancer.”

The article also calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to delay its permit to allow the use of Enlist Duo, what the article refers to as “a new combination herbicide” that has been “formulated to combat herbicide resistance” to such agents as glyphosate (Roundup).

 

Read More Here

 

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Environmental Working Group

Citing GMO-Herbicide Link, Renowned Children’s Health Expert Calls for GMO Labeling

By Libby Foley, Policy Analyst

Thursday, August 20, 2015

 

An article published today in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine by two of the nation’s most respected experts on pesticides and children’s environmental health calls for the Food and Drug Administration to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) food.

This comes after the House of Representatives passed a bill last month that would block states from enacting their own labeling laws and make it nearly impossible for the FDA ever to implement national mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Titled “GMOs, Herbicides, and Public Health,” the paper by Philip J. Landrigan, M.D. and Charles Benbrook, Ph.D. focuses on the widespread adoption of GMO crops across the U.S. and the resulting explosion in the use of toxic herbicides – some of them, like Monsanto’s glyphosate, linked to cancer – and argues that labeling these foods is a matter of protecting public health.

Landrigan and Benbrook write that since being introduced in the mid-1990s, 90 percent of U.S.-grown corn and soy has been engineered to tolerate being doused with weed-killing herbicides, resulting in an enormous increase in the use of herbicides:

Widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant crops has led to overreliance on herbicides and, in particular, on glyphosate. In the United States, glyphosate use has increased by a factor of more than 250 – from 0.4 million kg [kilograms] in 1974 to 113 million kg in 2014.

As a result of the overreliance on glyphosate, weeds have increasingly become resistant to the weed killer, forcing growers to add other herbicides, including 2,4-D, to control them. The Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the sale of Enlist Duo, a new weed-killer made by Dow AgroSciences that combines glyphosate and 2,4-D. Landrigan and Benbrook argue that the agency’s risk assessment of the product relied on flawed science:

The science consisted solely of toxicologic studies commissioned by the herbicide manufacturers in the 1980s and 1990s and never published, not an uncommon practice in U.S. pesticide regulation. These studies predated current knowledge of low-dose, endocrine-mediated, and epigenetic effects and were not designed to detect them. The risk assessment gave little consideration to potential health effects in infants and children, thus contravening federal pesticide law.

 

Read More Here