Can We Offer Krsna GMO Rice ??? : "rice with human genes & tomatoes with fish genes!"

[krsna]

by Hare Krsna dasi

 

Posted April 20, 2005

 

I read an Associated Press article today (Apr 13) which says that Anheuser-Busch, the largest US beer company, has told the state of Missouri it will not purchase any rice from that state if Missouri allows genetically modified (GMO) drug-making rice crops to be grown there -- due to the proven danger of wind carrying contaminated pollen over long distances.

 

The article mentioned that the GMO producer, Ventria Biosciences plans to grow rice which is genetically enhanced with human genes to produce special medical proteins. Since the pollen from crops like GMO canola seed and cotton has been proven to spread over wide territories, what would happen if this GMO pollen spread to rice that is purchased for food? Would rice that contains human genes be offerable to the Deities? Is it still considered to be vegetarian? The same question for tomatoes which contain fish genes -- are they considered vegetarian? Are they offerable?

 

Here's an article which tells about the spread of GMO contaminated pollen in Canada.

 

 

 

http://www.percyschmeiser.com/conflict.htm

 

 

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[Kulapavana]

is that tomato part of an actual fish as a living being? of course not. was anyone hurt when you slice it up?

 

humans carry genes introduced into our bodies naturally by bacteria. does it make us less human?

 

I'm not a fan of GMO food, but this - is it even vegetarian? - approach seems too much. I would suspect it is just a propaganda tactic of the anti-GMO activists.

[Guest guest]

i don 't know who makes up this rubbish but there are strict laws against the use of human genes in other species.

[Gauracandra]

Genetically modified foods do concern me. Firstly because we don't know what could happen. For instance, Mad Cow disease is a created protein that occurs only during a certain process (when a cow eats another cow). What was happening is cows were slaughtered, ground up and fed to other cows. In the process of digestion a new protein apparently was created (I think its called a prion). No one would have forseen this. Now they start monkeying around with our food, we'll all eat it, and who knows what may result from it. I don't think we can say because it doesn't kill instantley that it is safe. Perhaps it will take 50 years before symptoms appear.

 

My big concern is the so called "terminator seed". Basically these genetics companies, in all their wisdom, have created new forms of plants that result in large harvests. Unfortunately they grow once but produce no fertile seeds. Coincidence? I don't think so. They are designed that way.

 

The concern is these companies have offered 3rd world countries these seeds. Imagine the west sells some African country, or South American country corn seeds that grow extremely well. Once you harvest it, you need to purchase more seeds from the company (because you can't plant any new ones because they don't create fertile seeds). Eventually your entire food base is dependent on purchasing these seeds from Genentech, or some similar company. One year Genentech or ConAgra decides to raise prices, you either starve or pay up. You don't go along with some foreign policy decision, the powers that be yank your food. Or if certain policy makers want to depopulate the world because of "Malthusian" concerns, they just pull the seeds off the market. It only takes a few weeks without food to die. Countries that become dependent could not switch back quick enough.

 

I think its pretty frightening.

[theist]

It all comes back to most basic fundementals. Water, fertile land and SEEDS. This is where real wealth lies, not in our trinket obsessed cultures idea of wealth.

 

"Can't eat nuts and bolts"

 

And just see the mentality. krsna says "I am the seed giving Father..."

 

But now Genentech and ConAgra etc. want to take that position. They want to control the seed power. They could have easily produced seeds that produced plants that produced seeds. In fact it was probably more work to take that quality out of the plants genetic make up then it would have been to leave it in.

[Kulapavana]

Source: http://www.commondreams.org

Published on Sunday, April 24, 2005 by the Independent/UK

GM Industry Puts Human Gene into Rice

by Geoffrey Lean

 

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights.

 

Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles, have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by creating unnatural combinations of living things.

 

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.

 

But supporters say that the controversial new departure presents no ethical problems and could bring environmental benefits.

 

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

 

Present GM crops are modified with genes from bacteria to make them tolerate herbicides, so that they are not harmed when fields are sprayed to kill weeds. But most of them are only able to deal with a single herbicide, which means that it has to be used over and over again, allowing weeds to build up resistance to it.

 

But the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human touch gave the rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that weeds could be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

 

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat pollution.

 

Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana, who has worked with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants modified with it could "clean up toxins" from contaminated land. They might even destroy them so effectively that crops grown on the polluted soil could be fit to eat.

 

[krsna]

 

The Independent, London

 

LONDON, ENGLAND, April 24, 2005: Scientists have begun putting genes

from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic

modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among

critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is

creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it

to new heights. Even before this development, many people, including

Prince Charles, have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is

playing God by creating unnatural combinations of living things.

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially

human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism. But supporters

say that the controversial new departure presents no ethical problems

and could bring environmental benefits.

 

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have

inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest

pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme,

code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful

chemicals in the body. Present GM crops are modified with genes from

bacteria to make them tolerate herbicides, so that they are not harmed

when fields are sprayed to kill weeds. But most of them are only able

to deal with a single herbicide, which means that it has to be used

over and over again, allowing weeds to build up resistance to it. But

the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in

Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human touch gave

the rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that

weeds could be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

 

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat

pollution. Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana,

who has worked with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants

modified with it could "clean up toxins" from contaminated land. They

might even destroy them so effectively that crops grown on the polluted

soil could be fit to eat. But he and other scientists caution that if

the gene were to escape to wild relatives of the rice it could create

particularly vicious superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of

herbicides.

 

[theist]

another new low