Monsanto's Aspartame [now another company's liability]

[Guest guest]

Dear Sheryl,

Re: " ...... The FDA does a great job protecting our health, doesn't it? " :

Aspartame is, or at least was when approved by the FDA, a product put

forward by the mega-giant TNC Monsanto - you may have noted from one of

Terry's posts over the weekend [pasted below with the comment I added when

forwarding it to the e-list of the Global Sisterhood Network] that Monsanto

is bulldozing its way past every imaginable barrier, and with the total

support of the super powers - Clinton personally lobbied Blair to OK the

introduction of genetically modified crops into the UK, there is an

enormous battle raging in Asia re Monsanto's secret trials of genetically

modified plants and their threat to global food security, and I can tell

you as fact that Monsanto is funding our schoools at primary and secondary

level, and also our universities with a very sinister agenda. And by ours,

I mean yours and mine!

Monsanto and the likes of Clinton and the FDA, Blair in the UK, and the BJP

in India are proof at this moment in time that power corrupts, and that

absolute power corrupts absolutely!!! Forget about and Co in

Australia - Monsanto has already taken the Australian Administration to the

cleaners - the Australian public hasn't a clue what we are eating, and

genetically modified crops are now so out of control that the government

regulators have surrendered! Ask around about the law suits between US

farmers and Monsanto? - ask who won? Monsanto every time - buy Monsanto

seeds, and break the very stringent contract, and Monsanto can and has a

water tight case to burn the crops, and to collect a heavy financial penalty.

But don't think anyone is now able to discredit Monsanto over the very

well-documented and serious downsides of aspartame - the aspartame patent

was sold about six months ago [buyer's name escapes me for the moment] -

aspartame is some other company's liability now.

My message is " Never understimate Monsanto " - with the help of friends like

Clinton and Blair, the US Department of Agriculture, the FDA, and the list

goes on, Monsanto does whatever satisfies the coroprate appetite/greed!!!

Hope that explains a little of the background, with best wishes etc., Lynette.

****************************************

Dear friends,

With special thanks to Terry from CJD Voice for alerting me to these

appalling revelations from the UK - more appalling in light of the Blair

Administration's total sell out of Third World farmers to Monsanto in the

previous week, and by Blair's anticipated vote in Brussels over the coming

week supporting the distribution of Monsanto's GM cotton to animal food

producers throughout Europe.

Compelling evidence that mindless, spineless, immoral [take your pick -

probably " all of the above " ] governance is subservient to corporate greed!!

La luta continua, Lynette.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/sindy/stories/A0702902.html

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, London, Modified crops 'out of control',

February 7,1999

Modified crops 'out of control'

By Marie Woolf, Political Correspondent

THE MINISTRY of Agriculture has privately admitted that it has no idea how

many genetically modified (GM) crops are being used in animal feed, despite

warnings from its own advisers that this could lead to the creation of

" superbugs " resistant to antibiotics.

A confidential briefing note from civil servants to Food Safety Minister,

Jeff Rooker,seen by the Independent on Sunday, says: " It is not possible to

know the extent to which GM material is being used in animal feed in the UK. "

On top of this, the Government also intends to give its approval for US

company Monsanto to sell GM cotton to animal food producers throughout

Europe, in a crucial Brussels vote this week, despite further warnings from

advisers.

A letter written last week by Dr Burrows, head of biotechnology

controls at the Department of the Environment, says: " [The UK] will be

content with these products [GM Cotton] in terms of safety to the UK

environment but will still have reservations about their use in animal feed

due to the antibiotic resistance marker genes. " Some GM crops which could

be in the feed have been manipulated by scientists to be resistant to

antibiotics. Scientists and environmental campaigners fear that the

antibiotic resistance could be passed to animals, then the humans who eat

them. Civil servants have warned it could create bacteria immune to

antibiotics.

It was fears of just such a superbug which led Brussels, with UK government

backing, to recently ban five antibiotics used to treat animals. Recent

random tests in Worcester showed that GM crops have been creeping into the

animal foods from America, where they are not grown separately from

ordinary plants. Food campaigners want nationwide tests to discover the

extent of the problem.

The revelations will shock farmers who have been seeking reassurances from

ministers about GM crops in animal food, following the BSE crisis. At

present, there is no legal requirement for animal feed which contains

genetically altered material to be labelled, so there is no way of knowing

how much of it is being fed to cows, pigs and chickens. Following the

outcry from farmers over BSE, the Ministry of Agriculture set up a

committee of experts on animal foodstuffs. Its remit has now been widened

to cover use of GM crops in animal food.

" This is the first time something like this has been proposed, " said Dr

Ricarda Steinbrecher, a geneticist conducting the research. " The

Government is making decisions in an almost improvisational manner. "