an article from the independent.co.uk - I took this full version from commondreams.org:

Jesus. GM Corn causing symptoms in rats that suggest either immune system damage or tumors.. Monsanto is keeping the study secret (small wonder) and governments the world over refuse to label GM food what it is.

What ever happened to informing the consumers and letting the vaunted free market decide the fate of GM foods?

Is anyone else as worried about this kind of thing as I am? Am I going to have to pay through the nose to buy organic produce for the rest of my life because my government doesn't give a rat's ass about me?

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Boy, I used to have really cheesey signatures.

You posted this a week ago and not one response?

Jeesh.

The American people are sheep.

They do not care that bovine growth hormone should have never been approved, they do not care that we add poison to our water, do not care that the former president of the Canadian Dental Association is against adding fluoride to water, do not care about the revoloving door policy at the FDA and do not care about GM foods entering our market without adequate testing.

Pathetic.

OK, I feel sufficiently guilty for not having responded.
Particularly since I already knew that starving African nations have refused genetically modified corn for years.
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/737.cfm

When my daughter started menstruating at the age of 11, I was stunned. That is very early. A friend told me a story that sounded like a conspiracy theory about hormone inhanced beef being the cause of a generation of young girls starting menstruation at earlier ages. I don't know if there's anything to it but I buy organic whenever I can and we seldom eat beef anymore.

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"Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.” Jack Handy

I think in the UK more and more people are aware of GM foods and are buying organic.
Demand will bring the prices down. I am already seeing this in supermarkets and farmers markets. A few stores have banned GM foods eg. Iceland and the Co-op.
The government need to pressurised though and made to answer a few questions.
Farmers are given subsidies for growing GM foods.

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[IMG]http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sharon.smith60@btinternet.com/album?.dir=958f&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos[/IMG]

JHC,

Your friend was right about the conspiracy, but I can't say for sure bovine growth hormone is the cause of early menstruation, but I can say there was a conspiracy to approve rBGH and the media is complicit in this conspiracy.

////////

The scientists who wrote the report testified before an inquiry
board earlier this month that they have been pressured by
higher-ups to alter the content of their report, which has now
been published on the internet at www.nfu.ca/nfu/Gapsreport.html.

The purpose of the Canadian report was to identify data gaps, and
procedural gaps, in the handling of Monsanto's application to
market rBGH in Canada.

** Two of the report's authors, and four other Canadian government
scientists, testified that they have been threatened with
transfers to other jobs where "they would never be heard of
again" if they did not speed up approval of Monsanto's rBGH
product in Canada, despite the absence of long-term data showing
the product is safe for humans. Monsanto's application to market
rBGH in Canada has been pending since 1990. According to the
TORONTO STAR, "The scientists contend managers in Health Canada
[the Canadian equivalent of FDA] are more concerned about
pleasing the companies that submit the drug applications and are
paying for their approval than they are about protecting
health."[7] The Canadian scientists have been forbidden to speak
to the press about their concerns, but they testified last month
before a government board of inquiry.

** The same rat-feeding study that has raised such controversy in
the U.S. has also proven controversial in Canada. A Canadian
legislator, Mira Spivak, whose committee is investigating the
approval process for rBGH in Canada, says Canadian health
officials provided her staff with a copy of the Monsanto study in
which the information about the potentially troubling effects of
rBGH on rats was "blocked out."[8]

http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/rach621.htm

////////

Robert Cohen Rips Monsanto
Over RbGH On C-Span

The greatest controversy in FDA history was the approval process for
Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. We shouldn't
be here today! We should not be in this room and I shouldn't be here
because, in 1994, Congress HAD A BILL that was going to require
mandatory labeling of all foods that were influenced by genetic engineering.
I got my Congresswoman to co-sponsor that bill - 181 congresspeople
co-sponsored that bill, and you know what? I learned how Congress works
that year because in 6 months they stalled the bill - 12 members of the
Dairy Livestock & Poultry Committee - they stalled the bill until the 1994
session of Congress expired and the bill died.

I was so upset, I investigated these 12 men and found that collectively they
took $711,000 in PAC money from companies with dairy interests, and
four of the members of the committee took money directly from
Monsanto.

FDA published on August 24, 1990, the first time ever in a peer-reviewed
journal, in "Science". "Science" was started by Thomas Edison in the
1880's. They published a review of bovine somatotropin -bGH -the
genetically engineered cow hormone. And in that review, there were seven
tables of data. Five of those tables came from one study authored by
Richard, Odaglia and Deslex. This is the famous "90-Day Study." Guess
what? This was actually a study lasting for 180 days and when I first heard
about this in 1994, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for that
study - because I saw from the data that the average spleen of a lab animal
increased 46%.

I called FDA and spoke with Dick Teske. I said, "46%? You said there
were no biological effects!"

He said, "That's not statistically significant."

I said, "Well, let me see the raw data."

He said, "It's a trade secret."

I called Monsanto, they laughed at me. They said, "It's a trade secret and
you will never see it."

I'm smart, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request, but I didn't realize
you can't find out the study. I went to Federal Court, I said, "Your honor -
spleen increase of 46%, that's leukemia in 90 days!"

I met with FDA on April 21, 1995, and found out that this was actually a
180-day study.

In Canada, they had this study. I have a letter here [ROBERT COHEN
REACHES INTO HIS BRIEFCASE], an internal memorandum:

"This is to advise you that the copies of reports, letters, etc. for drug
submissions have been stolen from my files."

This was stolen from a scientist's file in Canada. They stole the second half
of the "90-Day Study."

http://www.rag.org.au/baa/monsantomilk.htm

///////

There is much more info on this, but I wanted to post a few tidbits in case anyone was interested.

Another classic example of censorship in our corportae press and nation.

Here's one fot ya:
An elderly uncle of mine was gaining weight so his wife had him switch to diet soda using nutrasweet.

He had a stroke about 6 months after a switch.

His doctor told him to give up the diet soda because of studies linking nutrasweet with strokes.

He did this and lived for another 5 years- sans strokes.

Oh yeah, this was in 1988, fyi..........................

One of the reasons I like discussion forums is because of personal accounts like this. Where else could I hear about this?

Many doctors are afraid to say what they really think, as they know what happens when you fight the monied interests.

tis sad so many people are afraid to say that the emporer wears no clothes.

I'll try to find some for ya.

There is an alternate theory floating around that the more than adequate nutrition supplemented by all the sexual imagery that young girls are subjected to is the cause of early starting of menstruation.

Don’t really believe the sexual imagery part but there is something to do with the abundance of food. Better food=healthier faster growing and maturing bodies= better chance for a pregnancy to succeed= the body is ready for puberty so it starts.

Usually if there is a competing theory that has some validity and common sense over a vast (left/right/Jewish world domination/neo-con/communist/Black power/ white supremacy/big business/whatever) conspiracy theory, I’ll go with the common sense one every time.

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I always find it strange that only reasonable people agree with me.

GM food caused the WTC collapse! It all makes sense now!

Matt

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