Zcause Blog; Anthony Zolezzi.com

Withdrawal of genetically altered corn
a major victory in battle against GMOs

February 22, 2010

In the struggle to stop the biotech industry from taking over the world, with genetically modified crops, I have some good news to report: The concerns of independent scientists appear to have successfully halted Monsanto’s plans to launch a “second generation of GM corn” that the company had foreseen as a source of several billion dollars in annual global sales. Designed to accelerate the growth rate of animals, these two high-lysene strains were also reportedly being considered for consumption by humans as well.

According to a press release sent out last week by Dr. Brian John of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, a Monsanto subsidiary, Renessen,has “pulled two GM corn varieties from the regulatory and assessment process at the eleventh hour” by informing the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) that it no longer wished to pursue its application for them. Citing “decreased commercial value worldwide,” the letter noted that the two varieties “will no longer be a part of the Renessen business strategy in the near future.”

However, “(s)cientists who have followed these two applications are quite convinced that the “decisions to withdraw” have nothing to do with commercial considerations and everything to do with food safety. In other words, the varieties are too dangerous to be allowed onto the open market — although they would certainly have been approved by EFSA and most other European regulatory authorities had it not been for the diligence of independent scientists in New Zealand who subjected the application dossiers to very close scrutiny.”

What we have here, in other words, is nothing short of a major victory in the fight to stop our food supply from being contaminated with genetically modified organisms. It’s a moment worth savoring for those of us who have been engaged in trying to stem the tide of untested genetic tampering that now threatens the integrity and safety of our food supply – one that should be celebrated by conscientious consumers and their advocates throughout the world.

While we celebrate the moment, however, we must also continue to educate the public to the fact that just like these two strains, we now have a proliferation of GMOs in our food supply that pose an undetermined risk to our health. So let us congratulate the diligence of the scientists of New Zealand, and try to get some of our own scientists here in the U.S. to start protecting our interests on this score as well.

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