[cg] GM potatoes shrink vital organs in rats

**b*@ix.netcom.com**

So, you like to eat potato chips? french fries?...
Your fate it on your plate, my friends. The choice is yours.

This article appeared in "Organic Farms, Folks and Foods," March/April 1999, a publication of Northeast Organic Farming Association's 
New York chapter (with U.K. magazine "Guardian" 2/12/99 as a source).

"Decreased organ size and Lower Immune Function Found in Rats Fed Genetically Modified (GM) Potatoes - U.K. Researcher 
Dismissed in Apparent Cover-Up"

Recently, twenty-two prominent scientists signed a public statement in support of suspended
food scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai, who lost his job last year for warning the Britis public of possible risks associated with bio-technology 
companies' introduction of genetically modified food that had not been tested with long-term feeding trials.

Pusztai, a senior research scientist at the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland, was awarded a 1.6 million dollar grant in 1995 to 
study the effects of GM crops on animal nutrition and the environment. The preliminary results showed unexpected, worrisome 
changes in the size and weight of rats' bodily organs. Pusztai's team also found that liver and heart sizes were decreasing, and worse 
still, the rats' brains were getting smaller. There were also indication of a decrease in immune system function.

Based on these results, Pusztai requested additional public funding for longer-term studies, and was denied. He then appeared on 
television, telling viewers that he would not eat GM food, and that people should not be used as unwitting guinea pigs. Two days later 
he was suspended from the Rowett Institute, forced to retire, and denied access to his research data. The Institute's subsequent audit 
of the research concluded there was no link between GM potatoes and health risks.

The treatment of Dr. Pusztai and the virtual disbanding of his research team lead an international group of 20 scientists to go public, 
concerned with the attack on scientific freedom. The scientists from 13 countries state that their independent examination of all the 
published data shows that Dr. Pusztai was right to be concerned and should never have been attacked or suspended. As Dr. Vyvyan 
Howard, fetal and infant toxico-pathologist from the University of Liver pool said, "An objective review of the data from these 
experiments leads to the conclusion that the consumption of GNA-GM potatoes in rats has led to significant differences in organ weight 
and lymphocyte responsiveness. Further work should be undertaken to elucidate the meaning of these findings." Dr. Howard has 
called for a moratorium on GM foods.

For more information, contact Richard Wolfson, Ph.D., Consumer Right to Know Campaign for Mandatory Labeling and Long-term 
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods, 500 Wilbrod St., Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1N 6N2, tel. 613-565-8517 fax. 613-565-1596  
email: rwolfson@concentric.net

Their web site, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html contains more information on genetic engineering as well as previous 
genetic engineering news items.

Happy Gardening,

John Edward Verin
Senior Apprentice
Ecosystem Farm
Accokeek, MD

BTW, if you don't know how to grow your own food you don't really have any clout, Y2K or not, so... LEARN!
How many millions of Americans live in poorly made, over-priced houses built on farm land, race twice daily at deadly speeds to and from a toxic city to do a job they don't really like in a plastic office so they can get money to give to someone else in order to eat food?

Food is power... are you in control of yours?

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