GMO debate: Scientific Evidence versus Common Sense

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• ibn abudu @ Canadasheabutter (GhUWR) 11 years ago

  Major Study REPUBLISHED: Monsanto GMO Corn Can Cause Damage to Liver and Kidneys, and Severe Hormonal Disruption
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  A scientific study that identified serious health impacts on rats ...
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  Major Study REPUBLISHED: Monsanto GMO Corn Can Cause Damage to Liver and Kidneys, and Severe Hormonal Disruption
  Leave a reply
  shutterstock_140654830-edited
  A scientific study that identified serious health impacts on rats fed on ‘Roundup ready’ GMO maize has been republished following its controversial retraction under strong commercial pressure. Now regulators must respond and review GMO and agro-chemical licenses, and licensing procedure
  
  A highly controversial paper by Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini and colleagues has been republished after a stringent peer review process. Read more…
  
  Monsanto’s Herbicide Linked to Fatal Kidney Disease Epidemic: Could It Topple the Company? Truthout Friday 11th July 2014
  
  Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup has been linked to a mysterious fatal kidney disease epidemic that has appeared in Central America, Sri Lanka and India.
  
  For years, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of a chronic kidney disease epidemic that has hit Central America, India and Sri Lanka. The disease occurs in poor peasant farmers who do hard physical work in hot climes. In each instance, the farmers have been exposed to herbicides and to heavy metals. The disease is known as CKDu, for Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown etiology. The “u” differentiates this illness from other chronic kidney diseases where the cause is known. Very few Western medical practitioners are even aware of CKDu, despite the terrible toll it has taken on poor farmers from El Salvador to South Asia.Read more…
  
  Bananas-1
  
  Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer: Big Agri Peddles “GMO Gruel” to the Impoverished
  
  Clearly the solution to solving destitution that leads to malnutrition and starvation is addressing the socioeconomic disparity that created it in the first place, but the monopolies that benefit from this disparity the most are in no way about to do so. Instead, their proposal is to feed the third world with genetically modified gruel to make up for the fact that poor populations cannot access a normal, balanced diet. This “GMO gruel” not only allows big-agricultural monopolies to expand their markets under the guise of “charity,” but allows them to monopolize a greater portion of the world’s food supply. By hooking the third world on “GMO gruel” that will be patented, centrally controlled, and beyond the means of local populations to reproduce independently, the very perpetrators of global disparity will only tighten their grip on humanity tighter still.

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• Sammy Odoi ( NDC guru in disgazed) 11 years ago

  We do not need GMO this would kill us for ever. this would make us more dependant on these foriegners, buy more from them every year.

  We do not need GMO this would kill us for ever. this would make us more dependant on these foriegners, buy more from them every year.

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• Ibn Abudu @adams1financial@yahoo.ca 11 years ago

  GMO SEEDS CANNOT BEPLANTED YEAR AFTER YEAR COMPARED TO LOCAL BREED

  GMO SEEDS CANNOT BEPLANTED YEAR AFTER YEAR COMPARED TO LOCAL BREED

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• Alex London 11 years ago

  Listening or reading about these so called researchers, scientists and experts makes me laugh. Who paid for them to attend the conference. They are all in the pockets of the multinationals. Major cause of lack of food securit ...
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  Listening or reading about these so called researchers, scientists and experts makes me laugh. Who paid for them to attend the conference. They are all in the pockets of the multinationals. Major cause of lack of food security in Africa is wars and conflicts which have prevented farmers to stay on the land and produce food and not the absence of biotechnology

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• OKOE 11 years ago

  CURRENTLY, ANYBODY OR ANY FARMER CAN BUY HIS/HER SEEDS FROM ANYWHERE. IF OWNERS OF GM CROPS BECOME THE DOMINANT PROVIDERS OF SEEDS AND MOST OF THESE SEEDS ARE IN THE HANDS OF MONOPOLIST ENTITIES, THEN WHAT. DO YOU FORSEE WHER ...
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  CURRENTLY, ANYBODY OR ANY FARMER CAN BUY HIS/HER SEEDS FROM ANYWHERE. IF OWNERS OF GM CROPS BECOME THE DOMINANT PROVIDERS OF SEEDS AND MOST OF THESE SEEDS ARE IN THE HANDS OF MONOPOLIST ENTITIES, THEN WHAT. DO YOU FORSEE WHERE WE WILL END UP? IS THERE A PLAN IN PLACE WHEN THE PATENTS OF THESE GM SEEDS WILL END? THE CANADIAN CASE IN WHICH TWO FARMERS HAVE THEIR FARMS IN CLOSE VICINITY. DURING THE GROWING SEASON ONE FARMER PLANTED GM SEEDS WHILE THE PLANTED NON GM SEEDS. CROPS GROW SOMETIMES BY PROPAGATION AND IT SO HAPPENED THAT THE WIND SENT SOME GM SEEDS ONTO THE FARM OF THE FARMER WITH NATURAL OR NON GM SEEDS. THE COMPANY THAT OWNS THE PATENT OF THE SEEDS IN QUESTION SUED THE OTHER FARMER IN COURT FOR STEALING THEIR SEEDS FOR PLANTING. THIS IS MONOPOLY IN PLAY. COCOA WILL BE MODIFIED AND THE PATENT WILL BE OWNED BY A MONOPOLIST. DO WE KNOW THE IMPLICATION FOR THE FUTURE? I AM NOT SAYING ALL SCIENTISTS ARE CORRUPT BUT THESE COMPANIES ARE CAPABLE OF BUYING THEM TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK FOR THEM BY PROMOTING GM FOODS. OUR PROBLEM IS NOT SHORTAGE BUT THE MEANS OF PRESERVING AND DISTRIBUTING EFFECTIVELY WHAT WE GROW NATURALLY. WE ARE TREADING WHERE WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE IT WILL TAKE US.

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• Sammy Odoi ( NDC guru in disgazed) 11 years ago

  Good job. Please wite more to help Ghanaians understand the dangerous of GMO. God bless u all for your contributions

  Good job. Please wite more to help Ghanaians understand the dangerous of GMO. God bless u all for your contributions

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• Elijah 11 years ago

  It is clear where this agenda is heading isn't it? May I ask professor Bosompem to elaborate on how he intends to ensure any GMO foods that enter Ghana undergo rigorous testing? With all the tools available today no country i ...
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  It is clear where this agenda is heading isn't it? May I ask professor Bosompem to elaborate on how he intends to ensure any GMO foods that enter Ghana undergo rigorous testing? With all the tools available today no country in the world has successfully dealt with the menace of counterfeit medicine and you want us to believe that Ghana, with its scanty resources, lawlessness and people's eagerness to accept bribes will successfully curb any unsafe GMO products from reaching the ordinary consumer? How preposterous! Besides all of you are quoting tests and research carried out by the biotech companies who, obviously claim GMOs to be safe. None of you has even shown the slightest interest in various independent studies that pick up numerous, similar problems around the world. Do you think is is by pure coincidence that various independent laboratories and universities come to the same conclusions that:
  1. GMOs actually lead to more use (not less) of pesticides to levels that have become harmful to humans and laboratory animals.
  2. More studies are needed before GMOs can be declared safe for human consumption.
  3. Given the choice animals always choose non-GMO feeds over their GMO versions?
  4. Unsafe levels of pesticides used in GMO farming have been found in foetuses of pregnant women who NEVER consumed the products but only happen to live near the test sites.
  5. GMO-related agrochemicals are linked with wholesale death of bees in the industrialised world.
  6. A test-introduction of GMO soy beans in the UK led to a significant increase in severe allergies?
  7. Our enzymes do not recognise, and so, are unable to digest a wide variety of GMO foods, leading to increasing levels of so-called leaking gut syndrome? (we will soon require sanitary pads for men as well).
  8. Consumption of GMO foods have led to increased miscarriages and sterility of farm animals.
  9. Consumption of GMO foods have led to an increase in cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.
  10. GMO farming has led to the development of genetically modified superweeds that are extremely difficult to control.
  Does professor Bosompem still think GMO foods are not harzardous? If so why not do what early scientists used to do? Would you be kind enough to avail yourself as a human guinea pig so we can feed you with GMO food for 10 years in order to study the long term consequences on your good self? And indeed why not get all GMO proponents, especially those so-called scientists who claim GMOs are safe, to be part of the same study? Then we will no conclusively in 10 years time whether Ghana can afford to go down that route or not.
  Isn't it also interesting that all of you have completely ignored the call by many concerned citizens to not jump on the GMO band wagon hurriedly but instead consider using existing, less expensive, proven farming methods that are currently feeding Europe with vast excesses? Just simply invest whatever money would go into GMO farming to mechanise existing farming, irrigate farms so we can harvest 2-3 times a year, upgrade and improve our food processing and storage facilities (did you notice you would be creating many jobs here?) and see if Ghana does not become a net exporter of proven safe foods in a matter of months.
  Your forum may have been an attempt to educate people, which is a good thing, but to educate people properly give them balanced information; tell them the pros and the cons in equal measure and allow them to decide for the themselves. Humans are at the top end of the human food chain (unless you decide to make yourself a living example of E=MC squared by throwing yourself in front of a hungry lion)and so if the lower members of our food chain reject something it would make sense for us to reject it too. Nature has equipped all of us with senses that are intended to aid our survivability and it would make sense that we preserve them. I wouldn't use science to convince a horse to eat GMO corn if their natural senses tell them to avoid it. Instead I would endeavour to produce more of the foods the horse naturally wants to eat using advanced scientific techniques available to us now. That way we will be working with nature, not against nature. Have you heard of natural selection? There are valid reasons why plant and animal species mate with related kinds to propagate themselves. Genes of food crops were not intended to be mixed with those of spiders, earth worms or viruses. Otherwise animal lovers may as well start marrying and mating with their pets. Sometimes we do not understand why there are certain natural barriers among the wonderful creatures of God and I would be careful in transcending some of those barriers in the name of science.
  Also existing evidence would suggest there is currently enough food to feed the world's population three times over. Therefore it wouldn't be out of place to suggest these kinds of technologies are driven by excessive greed. The biotech companies behind these technologies are already among some of the wealthiest companies on the planet yet they will stop at nothing to line the pockets of their CEOs and shareholders with more gold at the expense of peasant farmers'livelihoods and the potential creation of superbugs that could spell the end of humanity. We are already seeing the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to all available antibiotics. How can we be so sure that the dangerous practices of GMO food production do not play a part in the emergence of such bacteria? If GMO farming has already created superweeds that are becoming ever more resistant to herbicides then could that not be linked to anything that potentially feeds on the "twisted" genes of such weeds? We are what we eat after all.
  I agree with Dr Bosu that more research and more dialogue are needed. However such research and dialogue should not be aimed at just dispelling perceived myths and fears of the unknown. They should be aimed at uncovering the truths, be they good or bad about GMOs. If the overwhelming majority of research evidence suggests GMOs are safe beyond all reasonable doubts I would be the first to recommend their use as foods. Until then we must all thread carefully and not attempt to jump the gun.

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• Pelicles 11 years ago

  Look, all those doctors on the panel have been bought by Monsanto to do their dirty work for them. When in our history did a company control the seed that our farmers have to plant? Do these so called "doctors" have commonse ...
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  Look, all those doctors on the panel have been bought by Monsanto to do their dirty work for them. When in our history did a company control the seed that our farmers have to plant? Do these so called "doctors" have commonsense? Mr Yaw Opoku thank you for your unyielding stance against GMO. We don't need GMO and we are please with our traditional way of planting our food.
  
  Does it make sense to go to someone and buy seeds before planting and what are some of the future stockades that we have to surmount before getting the seed? In warfare, if your opponent tries to control your food supply, the intention is one and that is death on the horizon.

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• koffio 11 years ago

  While GMO seeds are not dangerous, the danger lies with its devastating effect of the seeds on the indigenous breeds. What GMO does is that, when it is introduced into an area, cross pollination enables it to dwarf and kill a ...
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  While GMO seeds are not dangerous, the danger lies with its devastating effect of the seeds on the indigenous breeds. What GMO does is that, when it is introduced into an area, cross pollination enables it to dwarf and kill all other variety around. Ghana will soon have to be buying seeds and that is how they (companies) make money. It is worth noting that tho the seeds have higher yield per plant, their seeds cannot be replanted.

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• Paa Dee 11 years ago

  Monsanto is the major company that hold the rights to the GM seeds. They wants to control the crop of the whole earth making it possible for the anti-christ to control everyone. The long term problem of planting GM is that it ...
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  Monsanto is the major company that hold the rights to the GM seeds. They wants to control the crop of the whole earth making it possible for the anti-christ to control everyone. The long term problem of planting GM is that it comes to the day when their seeds are the only seeds available and when that happens they control the price and who gets it. Today they are promising the small scale farmers are exempted but thats just a big lie. These unscrupulous westerners dont care about Africa feeding herself if they do why would they ban our government from subsidizing agriculture whilst they themselves subsidize theirs. People, wake up. Let us stop food sovereignty Ghana

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• Sankofa 11 years ago

  We do not need GMO to feed ourselves.
  
  Even if it is safe, why bring it here? It is purely for the commercial interests of powerful multinationals like Monsanto.
  
  We must resist the introduction of this technology.

  We do not need GMO to feed ourselves.
  
  Even if it is safe, why bring it here? It is purely for the commercial interests of powerful multinationals like Monsanto.
  
  We must resist the introduction of this technology.

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