Myron (Mike) Stagman, PhD
Concerned Citizens Information Network
www.ccin.info  (environmental website)
www.MyronStagman.com
email:  artemesium@gmail.com


GMO
DISEASE EPIDEMICS:

(14) 
Mad Cow Disease??



I. 
The Face of Frankenstein's Monster

Genetic
Engineering Biotechnology (GE, GM, GMOs) evades Evolution's safeguards
by injecting genes of one species into a totally unrelated species,
something impossible in Nature.

GM evades Evolution's safeguards, and may therefore give rise to PATHOGENS that can
-- and HAVE, many times --  caused crippling and deadly
DISEASE EPIDEMICS -- documented but unpublicised.

Genetic Engineering is also ideal for developing horrific biological
and other military weapons --- sufficient cause to OUTLAW GM.

The Greatest Racket in History (Listen to this !): ---

GM contamination is virulent, spread by wind, bird, insect, animals and
travelling  human beings.  Co-Existence with GM is
completely impossible, only fools or liars would say differently.

GM
has contaminated  crops in areas of North America which dwarf
the UK
and even Western Europe.   Planetary contamination is
inevitable, if We
don't stop it.

The Biotechnology corporations know oh-so-well how contamination
spreads and spreads and spreads.

Now
get this:   Through their political influence, these
Corporations have
been able to acquire the obscene, sacrilegious, and indeed revolutionary 
PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS.

Before
these revolutionary Patents on Life,  a farmer could have sued
--
successfully without any doubt -- the Biotechnology corporation for
having contaminated, poisoned his crops.

However, given these Patents on Life (here, on the seeds), the
Corporation can -- and DOES, successfully -- sue the
victimised farmer for (Hold your nose) "infringement of patent".

[Our tainted, corrupted
political systems allow this monstrosity.]

Thus the formula the reader might keep in mind:
GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms  equals Corporate
Ownership Rights in the crops of victimised farmers.

This formula spells the
serfdom and ruin of all small family farmers on this planet. 
(They are the majority of the population in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America).

The
Chemical-Drug-Biotechnology syndicate and its Enforcers (corrupted
governments in the West and Third World, corporation-dominated
organisations like the WTO, World Bank, IMF) have started a WORLDWIDE
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.

They want to destroy small family farming, and have only gigantic
Corporate GM Plantations with farmers working as serfs.
 
[This
process is underway, especially in South America where the U.S.
Military has begun to intervene on behalf of GM Plantations to crush
farmer opposition.]

Already, according to the Research Foundation for Science, Technology
and Ecology (RFSTE) in New Delhi,  40,000
farmers in India have committed suicide
primarily as a result of the Corporate Enforcers' so-called "free
trade" policies --- dumping heavily-subsidised Western farm produce
onto glutted Indian markets, pushing GM crops, insisting that Patents
on Life-Forms be accepted so farmers must sign contracts with GM
Corporations and can no longer save seeds, etc.

The Greatest
Racket in History --- GM Contamination + Patents on Life-Forms equals
Corporate Proprietary Rights in the crops of victimised farmers, and
spells the serdom and ruin of small family farmers everywhere on this
planet.

We
MUST OUTLAW GM and PATENTS on LIFE-FORMS -- or else !! 

(e.g. No more organic, healthy food --- you and your children will only
be able to eat unsafe GM) 

See the Action Plan in Part III designed to OUTLAW GM and PATENTS on
LIFE-FORMS. 
But beforehand, read the next in our series of "GMO Disease
Epidemics". 

- - - - - - - - - - - -


II.  Genetically-Engineered (??)
Mad Cow Disease


Question:   Was Mad
Cow Disease in important part caused by Genetically-Engineered Animal
Feed, especially animal
parts from American cows injected with the genetically-engineered
Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH, rBST)?


It
is generally believed that animal -- cow and also sheep -- parts given
as cheap protein feed to cattle were principally responsible for the
catastrophic Mad Cow Disease.

It was rather shocking to find that the disease could jump
species, to human beings, and kill.

Reflect for a moment that Genetic Engineering is designed to jump species.

And now read about rBGH,
recombinant (genetically engineered) Bovine Growth Hormone. 


I ask:   Was
this genetically-engineered bovine growth hormone,  having
caused
serious diseases in cows whose carcasses were then chopped into feed, the
principal cause of Mad Cow Disease?


The GM cattle growth
hormone, rBGH (or rBST), for which Monsanto received
Food and Drug Administration approval despite the opposition
of FDA scientists, poses serious risks of breast cancer,
colon cancer, and prostate cancer.
       
[The chief authority here is the research of Dr. Samuel Epstein,
medical doctor and professor of environmental and occupational medicine
at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health.]


 
This growth hormone has
been widely employed in the U.S. and infested
American dairy supplies nearly
a decade before
it was formally approved by the FDA, and this approval was given, it
bears repeating, in spite of FDA scientists disapproving the hormone.

  
In
practice, according to scientific evidence,  rBGH has been
shown to
cause numerous serious detrimental effects on the cow, and to
be
potentially carcinogenic. These
effects include mastitis, lesions in the thorax, speeding up of
circulation, reduced weight, proliferation of cells in the gut which
may lead to tumors, etc.
 
The animal suffering caused by this unnecessary
hormone is simply inexcusable.
  
Prof. Epstein has written:    "GE milk is entirely different
from natural milk: nutritionally, biochemically, pharmacologically and
immunologically.  It is also contaminated
with pus and antibiotics used to treat
mastitis, high levels of the GE hormone, and high levels of the
naturally occurring growth factor IGF-1. 

"Elevated
levels of IGH-1 in GE milk have been strongly associated with high
risks of colon, breast and prostate cancers, besides promoting their
invasiveness. 
(emphasis added)
 
"However,
in spite of such well-documented scientific evidence, the FDA still
authorized the sale and marketing of GE milk in 1984, while blocking
any labeling. 

"In
contrast, both Canada and Europe have banned the sale of GE
milk.  The
USA is now isolated in the reckless and unscientific insistence on the
safety of GE milk."
 
[Find extensive coverage of
the rBGH issue, including the blatant 'irregularities' , malfeasances
and non-feasances involving industry, government, and media in the fine
book, Seeds of
Deception: Exposing Corporate and Government Lies about the Safety of
Genetically Engineered Food by Jeffrey M.
Smith.

 
{For instance,  "The Ottawa Citizen [October
23, 1998] reported the scene this way: 'The senators sat dumbfounded as
Dr. Margaret Haydon told of being in a meeting when officials from
Monsanto, Inc., the drug's manufacturer, made an offer of between $1
and $2 million to the scientists from Health Canada --- an offer
that she told the senators could only have been interpreted as a bribe.'"
(Smith, p. 75)
 
{"But
not all the data made its way into the hands of the FDA. 
According to
Burroughs [veterinarian Richard Burroughs, "who had a lead role in the
review process of rBGH], cows
that developed infections of the udder, for example, were often dropped
from the study, skewing the studies' conclusions.

{While the FDA and
Monsanto said that they saw only a handful of cows develop udder
infections, documents obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act revealed that
9,500 cows from 500 farms were infected.  In addition to
omissions of
data,  dubious statistics were applied that further masked the
drug's
effects." (Smith, p. 78)}
 
The European Union has placed a ban on rBGH, so closely
associated is it with "human breast cancer cell growth" (
European Journal of Cancer, vol. 29A, no. 16, 1993,
pp. 2273-2279;  and the Lancet,  vol.
351,, no., 9113, 1998, pp.1393-1396), "prostate
cancer risk" (Science, vol. 279,  January
23, 1998).




Well?  What
about Mad Cow Disease? Could
the unfortunate cows, being fed rBGH-diseased parts of cattle
carcasses, have developed Mad Cow Disease as a result?

Don't ask for a
government-designated 'independent inquiry'.  The 
proverbial cows will come home before you get one. 
Independent scientists and researchers, how about doing some testing
and thinking?

- - - - - - - - - - -


III.  Conclusion
and What To Do

Human beings and Nature, as we have known them, cannot
survive in a GMO-Frankenstein world.  

The nightmare technology of Genetic Engineering Biotechnology, and its
incestuous Patents on Life-Forms, must be OUTLAWED.


How To Do It?

There is only one way to overcome this extremely powerful, 
ruthless Corporation-Government-corporate Mass Media axis.

It
is to conduct grassroots Public Education Campaigns to educate and
politically activate the General Public, university / college students
in particular.

The General
Public
!!   Stop forever talking to the Converted. 
To get around the
corporate media's suppression and distortion of truth,  one
must talk
to people and go
door-to-door with leaflets and vocal messages. 
And major efforts must be made to inform and activate university students.

Important Hints: 

(1)   Concentrate on  university students. 


 And  senior
citizens.
   
I
speak to you now, elder citizens like
myself.    Put moral purpose into
your lives and help rescue this planet and your grandchildren.

(2)   AVOID
NGOs and all established organisations, especially large ones. 
They are not what they seem.

Their hierarchies and decision-making are corporation-influenced if not
outright purchased.

Never ever join
them.  Never ever give them Money.  


  [see George Monbiot's very important article in The Guardian,  4
September 2001, "Sleeping
with the Enemy:  Consumer and Environmental Groups are Getting
into Bed with Big Corporations]

[Note: In
developing countries there are some exceptions, but very very very few
in the West. If by a miracle one of them ever conducts a genuine and
sensible public education campaign, then you can help out. 
But NEVER
join or give money to them.]

The environmental field especially is riddled with wealthy, prestigious, deceptive
organisations adept at dilutng and derailing environmental
causes,  GM in particular. 

[I am thinking at this moment of one such organisation I have observed
over a long period of time, in my view a very slick and dangerous FOE
of environmentalism, originally created by polluting Corporations to
deal with the growing environmental movement.
Don't go anywhere
near this one.]

When they talk about being 'practical' and seeking 'Coexistence'
with GM,  let a red
flag go up.

Nothing short of OUTLAWING GENETIC ENGINEERING and PATENTS ON
LIFE-FORMS will save us and our planet.

Do your educational work
as individuals or in small groups of people you know.

In a little of your
SPARETIME (perhaps 3 or 4 hours a week, but regularly, as part of an
ethical life-style):

Educate and activate
the Public by writing and telephoning and just talking to your family
members, friends and acquantances; 

Write letters and make telephone calls to local, regional and national
media; 

Write, call and especially visit your legislative representatives and
other government personnel,  and

Take appropriate Direct
Action.