I remember reading, a couple of years ago, when I was just getting interested in GM food issues, that there had been problems with babies in the Philippines from canned baby food containing GM product. I remember staying up most of one night trying to get to the bottom of the story, to find out that it was a ‘Greenpeace hypothesis’.
A couple of days ago I asked The Australian newspaper if they were interested in an opinion piece from me covering Dr Charles Benbrook’s claims that GM technology is failing in the US with record herbicide usage and out-of-control weeds, read my blog piece by clicking here.
Anyway, they published the piece by me today, click here to read it.
Journalist Rick Wallace phoned after I had sent off the piece interested in my claim that Victorian dairy farmers were feeding their cows GM soy. I suggested he get the full story from David Tribe.
It seems he also phoned Jeremy Tager from Greenpeace – fair enough – except that Jeremy seems to mostly just make it up as he goes along. Cop this for a claim from Jeremy in today’s The Australian:
Greenpeace genetic engineering campaigner Jeremy Tager said the only five independent studies of the effect of GM foods on stock had found immune deficiencies, failure to gain weight and damage to certain organs.
“We are absolutely opposed to GM stock feeds,” he said. “The question of how cattle digest GM feeds is something that needs serious study.”
How could about 370,000 tonnes of GM soy be imported into Australia last year, for animal and human consumption, if there was a problem with it? Why would the Europeans import GM soy worth $858 million last year if there was a problem with it? Foods have to pass standards – even if Greenpeace don’t.
But hey, if there really is a study that has been done somewhere that provides some evidence to support Jeremy’s claim that GM soy damages organs, affects the immune system, stock fed it don’t put on weight, or anything else, let me know. I will publish the information at this blog.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.