HealthyLivingOPSomewhere In, Tennessee USA4,775 posts
If you aren’t already purchasing organic or GMO-free rice, you should be. Rice that has been engineered with actual human genes is on its way to a supermarket near you. In Junction City, Kansas, this human gene-tainted rice is being grown on 3,200 acres by the biotechnology company Ventria Bioscience.
Ventria began cultivating this rather horrifying product in 2006 with human liver genes. What exactly was the purpose of this, you ask? Their intention was to harvest the artificial enzymes produced by the rice and use them in pharmaceuticals. Ventria has taken one of the most widely grown and consumed crops and turned it into the base for new prescription drugs — all with USDA approval, of course.
Their decision to allow plants intended for pharmaceuticals to be grown outdoors has not gone without protest. Ventria initially wanted to plant their “crops” — if you can call them that anymore — in Missouri. However, they were met with staunch opposition from Anheuser-Busch and others, who promptly threatened to boycott all rice from the state if the biotechnology planted their GMO rice within the state’s borders. Eventually though, Ventria found a place to settle in Kansas. In 2007, Jane Rissler from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) told the Washington Post, “It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors.”
The threat of contamination and cross-pollination between this genetically-modified rice species and natural rice is of utmost concern. While it may seem rather basic, widespread contamination of unmodified rice could lead to chronic disease.
Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), who published a report back in 2007 about the dangers of Ventria’s GM rice, states, “These genetically engineered drugs could exacerbate certain infections, or cause dangerous allergic or immune system reactions.”
For our government agencies to allow Big Biotech companies such as Ventria to just do as they please is simply beyond words. The USDA exists not for corporate interests but to protect the American people, though it looks like they may have forgotten that. After all, why else would they allow such a corporation to potentially contaminate our food supply with a crop that will likely make people sick?
HealthyLivingOPSomewhere In, Tennessee USA4,775 posts
One2note: I can't see it being any more harmful that the other crap you export over here
I would have to agree with you there albiet I don't export anything, but the U.S. does. Non-organic and GMO foods are very dangerous no matter which country they come from.
Butcher559Whangarei, Northland New Zealand750 posts
Best we can do is boycott the product like the people of Missouri did, and that goes for any suspect product. The USDA is most likely all for corporate interests, big corporate companies being able to sue the governments of countries is wrong in so many ways.
HealthyLiving: I would have to agree with you there albiet I don't export anything, but the U.S. does. Non-organic and GMO foods are very dangerous no matter which country they come from.
Read Labels! Shop Wise! Live Healthy!
HL
It's my job to provide nutritional meals & list all the 14 allergies on food items.
HealthyLivingOPSomewhere In, Tennessee USA4,775 posts
Butcher559: Best we can do is boycott the product like the people of Missouri did, and that goes for any suspect product. The USDA is most likely all for corporate interests, big corporate companies being able to sue the governments of countries is wrong in so many ways.
Absolutely! Boycott! We must stay informed to know which companies to boycott. In the U.S. there are a few large corporations that own the many companies. You have to hunt for the parent company and boycott All of their companies to put a good hurting on them. Shows you mean business!
raphael119washington d.c., District of Columbia USA5,181 posts
Lobbys control the senate,house and president. Esp. the repubs, ( only because they worship the 1 % and big business). Government regulatory agencies like DOA would be destroyed if Repubs had there way and the repubs would say "leave it to the business to regulate itself".
Dont laugh, it almost happened several times since 1980 !!!!
HealthyLivingOPSomewhere In, Tennessee USA4,775 posts
Sir_T: if you want to read about this in a less hysterical,, more factual and far more informative fashion, you can read the wiki page on Golden Rice here
Sir Your wiki link tells of biochemically adding Vitamin A to the rice strain. Hardly the same as what my article reveals regarding Ventria cultivating theirs with Human Liver Genes to harvest the artificial enzymes produced by the rice and use them in pharmaceuticals.
Big Difference but I will agree that bioscience is jackin' with our rice!
Hmm, I looked and the only thing I could find out about it is that its being grown in one field in Kansas and is not allowed to be consumed by humans. I certainly would not want to eat it.
I'm a bit undecided on the GM thing personally, as I can see the benefits and I can see the drawbacks. It does not help that Monsanto has acted really really arrogantly over the years even when in the right, and they really are a bunch you would love to hate. But they have created varieties of food that have really, genuinely, helped feed millions. So its a wash on that score.
I think the basic thing is that I agree that they need to be watched closely in case they do something really stupid.
A second tremor in a 24-hour period has been recorded at the UK’s only active fracking site near Blackpool.
Cuadrilla was forced to halt operations for 18 hours on Friday after a 0.8-magnitude tremor. Fracking restarted on Saturday morning before a second tremor was detected.
Saturday’s tremor is the 18th in the area since fracking recommenced 12 days ago. It was too small to be felt above ground and was not categorised as a “red” event by the Oil and Gas Authority, unlike the one on Friday, because it occurred after operations had finished at 1pm. The company only has permission to frack until that time on Saturdays.
UK fracking rules on earthquakes could be relaxed, says minister Read more The 0.8-magnitude event was about 200 times smaller than the 2.3-magnitude tremor recorded in 2011 that led to fracking being suspended.
After much controversy, the practice resumed at Little Plumpton, the only fracking site in the UK, on 15 October.
If a tremor takes place during fracking operations, anything above 0.5 magnitude is considered a “red event” and requires the firm to stop injecting water and monitor the area for further seismic activity.
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Ventria began cultivating this rather horrifying product in 2006 with human liver genes. What exactly was the purpose of this, you ask? Their intention was to harvest the artificial enzymes produced by the rice and use them in pharmaceuticals. Ventria has taken one of the most widely grown and consumed crops and turned it into the base for new prescription drugs — all with USDA approval, of course.
Their decision to allow plants intended for pharmaceuticals to be grown outdoors has not gone without protest. Ventria initially wanted to plant their “crops” — if you can call them that anymore — in Missouri. However, they were met with staunch opposition from Anheuser-Busch and others, who promptly threatened to boycott all rice from the state if the biotechnology planted their GMO rice within the state’s borders. Eventually though, Ventria found a place to settle in Kansas. In 2007, Jane Rissler from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) told the Washington Post, “It is unwise to produce drugs in plants outdoors.”
The threat of contamination and cross-pollination between this genetically-modified rice species and natural rice is of utmost concern. While it may seem rather basic, widespread contamination of unmodified rice could lead to chronic disease.
Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), who published a report back in 2007 about the dangers of Ventria’s GM rice, states, “These genetically engineered drugs could exacerbate certain infections, or cause dangerous allergic or immune system reactions.”
For our government agencies to allow Big Biotech companies such as Ventria to just do as they please is simply beyond words. The USDA exists not for corporate interests but to protect the American people, though it looks like they may have forgotten that. After all, why else would they allow such a corporation to potentially contaminate our food supply with a crop that will likely make people sick?
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