- ISIS Press Release
- Scientists For A GM Free Europe Final Announcement
-
- Scientists from six countries join forces with MEPs to
call for a Europe wide and worldwide ban on growing GM crops.
-
- The event coincides with key scientific publications
[1,2] on how national and international regulators have been ignoring damning
evidence against the safety of GM food and feed while colluding with industry
to manipulate scientific research to promote GM crops. The scientific papers
will be presented to the European Parliament together with a comprehensive
dossier containing more than 160 fully referenced articles from the Science
in Society archives documenting the serious hazards ignored, the scientific
fraud, the regulatory sham and violation of farmers' rights [3]
-
- Time:10:00-13:15 Date: 12 June 2007 Venue: Room P5B001,
Paul Henri Spaak Building, European Parliament, Brussels
-
- Notes 1. Seralini G-E, Cellier D and de Vendomois JS.
New Analysis of a Rat Feeding Study with a Genetically modified maize reveals
signs of hepatorenal toxicity. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 2007, 52, 596-602.
2. Ho MW, Cummins J
- and Saunders PT. GM food nightmare unfolding in the regulatory
sham. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 2007,published online 7 June
2007, DOI: 10.1080/08910600701 343781 3. GM Science Exposed: Hazards Ignored,
Fraud, Regulatory Sham, and Violation of Farmers' Rights, Science in Society
Spring 2003-Summer 2007, ISIS CD Book, 2007.
- ( http://www.i-sis.org.uk/pdf/Papers_on_GM_Hazards.pdf)
-
- For further details please contact: Sam Burcher or Andy
Watton, tel: 44-(0)20-8452-2729, e-mail: <mailto:sam@I-sis.org.uk>sam@I-sis.org.uk,
<mailto:andy@I-sis.org.uk>andy@I-sis.org.uk
-
- Agenda
- ------
-
- 10:00 Welcoming Remarks Prof. Peter Saunders,
- Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), UK
-
- 10:05 Opening and Chairman's Remarks Mr. Janusz
- Wojciechowski MEP,Vice Chairman of the European Parliament
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
-
- 10:10 Special Address Ms. Jill Evans MEP
-
- 10:15 Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Director of ISIS, UK No to GMOs,
No
- to GM Science
-
- 10:30 Dr. Irina Ermakova, Russian Academy
- of Sciences, Moscow Experimental Evidence of GMO Hazards
-
- 10:45 Dr. Christian Velot, University of Caen, France
and
- CriiGen (Committee for Research and Independent Information
on Genetic Engineering, France) WhyCriiGen?
-
- 11:00 Dr. Caroline Lucas, Green MEP Why Europe has to
be
- GM Free
-
- 11:15 Coffee/Tea break
-
- 11:30 Dr. Eva Novotny, Scientists for Global
- Responsibility, UK Transgene Contamination Is Inevitable
-
- 11:45 Prof. Joe Cummins, ISIS, Canada GM Crops and Colony
- Collapse of Honeybees
-
- 12:00 Dr. Zbigniew Halat, Association for Protection
of
- Consumer Health, Poland Resistance to GMOs in Poland,
Its Roots and Fruits
-
- 12:15 Dr. Pietro Perrino, Institute of Plant Genetics,
CNR, Bari, Italy The Genebanks Robbers
-
- 12:30 Mr. Jeffrey Smith, IRT, USA Documented Health
- Risks of GM Food and Feed
-
- 12:45 General discussion
-
- 13:10 Closing remarks Prof. Peter Saunders
-
- Quotes from Speakers
-
- Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski, MEP, Vice-Chairman of the Committee
on Agriculture and Rural Development: "For me it is obvious that decisions
on GMOs must be based on public opinion, and I do my best in that regard
as one of the decision makers in the EU, to safeguard the health of citizens
above all."
-
- Dr. Joe Cummins, Emeritus Professor of Genetics, University
of Western Ontario, Canada: "The collapse of honeybees worldwide is
almost certainly a combination of different factors including mobile phone
transmitters, new systemic neonicotinoid pesticides used in seed dressings
and sprays in both conventional and GM crops, and GM crops containing Bt
toxins, a biopesticide. Bt biopesticides reduce the honeybee's immunity
to infection by parasitic fungi that are also widely used as biocontrol
agents, so it is a case of casualty from friendly fire. The honeybee is
a major pollinator of our food crops, and its demise is a dire warning
that the extinction of the
- human species is not far behind"
-
- Dr. Irina Ermakova of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
"So many things went wrong for rats fed genetically modified soybeans.
They became more anxious and aggressive, there was a high mortality of
rat pups born to the females in the first generation, disturbances of reproductive
function,s and
- pathological changes in the internal organs of males
and females."
-
- Dr. Zbigniew Halat, President of the Association for
Protection of Consumers Health: "The problems created by genetic engineering
are global, it is the proliferation of a kind of biological weapon of mass
destruction worldwide."
-
- Dr. Eva Novotny of SGR: "There can be no co-existence
of GM and non-GM crops, as the latest research shows that GM pollen can
be transported downwind tens of kilometres. It is clear that we have to
make our choice right now."
-
- Mr. Jeffrey Smith worked with more than 30 scientists
over the past two years, compiling the health risks of GM foods for his
new book, Genetic Roulette: "There is now irrefutable evidence that
GM foods are unsafe.Animal trials show damage to virtually every system
studied, reports describe thousands of sick, sterile and dead livestock,
large numbers of people link toxic or allergic symptoms to GM products,
and most of the fundamental assumptions about the technology, used as the
basis for safety
- claims, have been overturned."
-
- Dr. Pietro Perrino, Director of Research, Institute of
Plant Genetics, (formerly Institute of Germplasm) Bari, Italy: "We
urgently need to protect the gene banks as they may soon be the only source
of uncontaminated seed stocks in the world.
- This may be why the biotech industry and their supporters
are so keen to see them destroyed after they've sequenced the genomes and
patented the genes."
-
- Dr. Christian Velot of Criigen: "Practically all
the studies finding "no effect" of GM food and feed are done
by companies seeking market approval or funded by them. This research simply
does not stand up to independent scientific scrutiny, and regulators are
putting people at serious health risks by accepting such research results."
-
- Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Director of ISIS: "GMOs are not
only hazardous for health and bad for the environment, they will severely
damage our chances of surviving global warming. GM crops need more fossil
fuels and water to grow, both of which are fast diminishing. Europe cannot
afford to waste any more
- time and resources on GMOs, we must start investing in
sustainable food and energy systems now."
-
- Brief Biographies
- *****************
- Dr. Joe Cummins, Professor Emeritus of Genetics, University
of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, is one of the earliest critics
of genetic engineering. He obtained BS Horticulture, Washington State University
1955 and PhD Cellular Biology, University of Wisconsin 1962. Carried out
- postdoctoral research at Edinburgh, Palermo, Stockholm (Karolinska)
and the Macardle Laboratory for Cancer Research University of Wisconsin.
Taught genetics at Rutgers and the University of Washington, Seattle before
joining University of Western Ontario in 1972. Became involved in environmental
issues from 1968 including mercury, asbestos, PCB and pesticide pollution
along with waste sites and incinerators. His critiques of genetic
modification began in 1988 when he encountered the power of multinational
corporations over the Canadian federal government, and their refusal to
face serious risk evaluations. He has published over 200 scientific and
popular articles, and is an associate editor and regular
- contributor to Science in Society.
-
- Jill Evans MEP, member of the Green/European Free Alliance
Group, Vice President of Plaid Cymru and party spokesperson for European
and International issues and chair of CND Cymru, member of the Committee
on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety with special interest
in food safety and GMOs, member of the Delegation for relations with the
Palestinian Authorities, and deputises on the Committee for Regional
Development and Committee for Women's Rights and Gender Equality; attended
University in Aberystwyth and gained her M.Phil. at the former Polytechnic
of Wales; worked for the National Federation of Women's Institutes in Wales
for six years before becoming Wales Regional Organiser for CHILD,
the National Infertility Support Network; Councillor for seven years on
the former Rhondda Borough and Mid Glamorgan County Councils and then Rhondda
Cynon Taff County Borough Council; elected Plaid Cymru's Alternate Member
of the Committee of the Regions in 1993, served for four years, and was
also the party's representative on the European Free Alliance, working
with Plaid Cymru's sister parties throughout the continent; Chair of Plaid
Cymru 1994-96, and elected first MEP in Plaid Cymru's history together
with fellow candidate Eurig Wyn in June 1999.
-
- Dr. Zbigniew Halat medical doctor, consultant epidemiologist;
CEO of Health Risk Management & Communication; Chairman of The John
Snow International Society for Common Sense in Public Health; President
of Association for Protection of Consumers Health; Founder of The Dr Halat
Water Institute; Former Deputy Minister of Health in first three non-communist
governments of post-war Poland; fought epidemic outbreaks of foodborne
and waterborn diseases in the 1970s; consultant epidemiologist in Central
Province of the Republic of Kenya in the 1980s, witnessed the birth of
a new epidemic, HIV/AIDS, which became an important target of his activity
under auspices of Polish Red Cross after he returned to Poland; as Deputy
Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Inspector. He introduced to post- communist
Poland the latest advances in public health: environmental health,
health promotion and peer education; his achievements were described by
a prestigious medical journal as follows: "the quixotic and controversial
deputy minister of health, government sanitary inspector, and chief environmental
health officer, Zbigniew Halat MD is engaged in a personal crusade to shake
the health service out of the spiritual atrophy induced by 45 years
of communism. Hard working, self reliant, aggressive, and abrasively masculine,
this man of Promethean energies put me in mind of a nineteenth century
northern mill owner" (Karin Chopin, Letters from Poland, British Medical
Journal, 30 May, 6 June, and 13 June 1992). He later developed a new branch
of medicine, consumer medicine, focusing on diagnostic, preventive and
legal aspects of health risks linked to consumer goods, from tap water
to genetically engineered products. Since 1999 Dr.Halat became an icon
of anti-GMO movemwnt in Poland; he is editor-in-chief of a health protection
movement periodical Health Risks in Poland, columnist of a monthly Consumer's
World linked to European and US consumer opinion magazines, and collaborator
of influential radio and tv broadcasting stations.
-
- Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, B.Sc. Biol (First Class) and Ph.D . Biochemistry.
Hong Kong University; co-founder and Director of the Institute of Science
in Society, a not-for-profit organisation promoting social responsibility
and holistic, ecological approaches in science, Editor and Art Director
of the magazine Science in Society ; Science Advisor to the Third World
Network and on the Roster of Experts for the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety.
She has a long and distinguished career in research and teaching at universities
in the United States and the UK in several disciplines; numerous publications
including 151 scientific papers and 14 books; best known for pioneering
a 'physics of organisms', and as major critic of neo-Darwinism and genetic
engineering.
-
- Dr Caroline Lucas (to come)
-
- Dr. Eva Novotny, retired astrophysicist, read physics
for an A.B. degree from Barnard College, Columbia University, New York
and obtained a Ph.D. in astronomy from Columbia University; worked at several
universities in Great Britain, lastly at the Institute of Astronomy of
the University of Cambridge; Co-ordinator for GM Issues at Scientists for
Global Responsibility for several years and continues occasionally to write
for that web site; also an Associate of ISIS.
-
- Dr. Pietro Perrino, Research Director of CNR at the Plant
Genetic Institute in Bari, Italy, formerly Director of the Germplasm Institute
of CNR (Gene Bank) (Bari, Italy, 1983- 2002), FAO expert for gene banks
in the Midle East (1978), Professor of Systematic Botany and Ecology (1992-1996).
He is author of more than 300 scientific papers on safeguarding plant genetic
resources.
-
- Mr. Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the Institute
for Responsible Technology; author of Seeds of Deception, the world's best
selling book on the health risks of GMOs, credited with motivating changes
in legislation and consumer buying habits. His new book Genetic Roulette:
The Documented
- Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, highlights
65 adverse reactions and theoretical dangers of GM foods, shows why government
assessments are not competent to identify most of the health dangers, and
reveals how industry-funded research is often meticulously designed to
avoid finding problems. He has lectured in 25 countries and has been quoted
by government leaders and hundreds of media outlets across the globe including,
The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC World Service, Nature, The Independent,
Daily Telegraph, New Scientist, The Times, and Time Magazine. In 2007,
he united leaders to support The Campaign for Healthier Eating in
- America, a revolutionary industry and consumer movement
to remove GMOs from the natural food industry.
-
- Dr. Christian Velot (to come)
-
- Dr. Ermakova Irina Vladimirovna, B.Sc. and Ph.D. Biology,
Moscow Univeristy, Chief Scientist at The Institute of Higher Nervous Activity
and Neurophysiology Russian Academy of Science, has 123 publications and
participated in numerous international conferences, and has performed joint
- investigations with scientists in Czechoslovakia, UK,
USA and Sweden.
-
- Mr Janusz Wojciechowski, MEP,Vice Chairman of Committee
on Agriculture and Rural Development; Member of the Union for Europe of
the Nations Group at the European Parliament; Master of Law at University
of L (1977); Member of Parliament of the Polish Republic (1993-1995; 2001-2004),
and President of the Polish Supreme Chamber of Control (1995-2001).
-
-
-
-
- ========================================================
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- ________________________________________________________________________
-
- Aspartame is also a GM product and should be banned.
More information on <http://www.wnho.net>www.wnho.net, <http://www.dorway.com>www.dorway.com
and <http://www.mpwhi.com>www.mpwhi.com
-
- Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder
- Mission Possible International
- 9270 River Club Parkway
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