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African Culling Experiment Part Two

When I first arrived in South Africa in 1999 there was a rather dark joke circulating. The Toyota Hiace — used as an informal taxi was also known as the ‘High Impact African Culling Experiment’. It wasn’t funny, every day I would see these vehicles being driven by lunatics with no care for the safety of their terrified passengers or the people or road users around them.

The state of these ‘taxi’s’ was also a wonder to behold. I saw shifting spanners being used instead of steering wheels, exhaust systems held together with wire and gaffer tape and even yesterday I saw one of these old vehicles with crumpled sides making it’s way up the road in a smokey, lop sided haze.

Toyota eventually came to the party and equipped taxi fleets with new vehicles and even initiated driver training programs. Well that was over ten years ago and now little seems to have changed.

In fact it’s not just the ‘Taxi’s’ we have to worry about anymore, it’s the fact that South Africa is the only country in the world that has allowed its staple foods to be genetically modified (GM).

Now it’s almost impossible to buy the South African Staple — Mealie Meal (Maize meal — like Grits only finer) without seeing in very small writing ‘Maize is produced using Genetic Modification’.

I thought I had found the last commercially available untainted Maize Meal the other day — White Star, but after eating some with my friend Molly last week, I had another look and yet again in tiny tiny writing was the ‘disclaimer’.

So those days of merrily picking up your favourite brand, be it Iwisa, Ace, or indeed now White Star and not worrying about the long term consequences to your health are now over. Even my favourite breakfast indulgence — Maltabella is also now GMO tainted.

I’ve been on a mission for a week now, to find a mealie meal that is not GMO. Well guess what, the only place that stocked a healthy brand was Woolworth’s — South Africa’s premium Grocery and Clothing Store. That is the only brand I found that didn’t have that disclaimer on it…

Your average struggling African is not going to know about the health effects of eating Genetically Modified Corn or Wheat. And even if he or she did — would it occur to them to go into Woolworths and buy the more expensive maize meal there? Even just R5 for many people makes the difference between eating and not eating.

“GM foods are not consumed as a staple by millions of people every day except in South Africa,” said Zakiyya Ismail, Consumer Campaigner for the African Centre for Biosafety.

Most South Africans are eating GMO foods every day. Approximately 99% of Soya and 84% of Maize produced in SA are Genetically Modified. This generation of GMO crops have been designed to withstand herbicides that contain Glyphosate. In addition Glyphosate is found in every loaf of bread sold in supermarkets across the country. Glyphosate is a carcinogen.

“The majority of South Africans are not only eating GM maize without their knowledge and consent but have no choice or alternative whatsoever even if the products were correctly labelled. This is totally undemocratic and unacceptable. It smacks of outright food fascism” said Mariam Mayet, Director of the African Centre for Biosafety.

“We are outraged that South Africa — the only country in the world to permit the cultivation of genetically modified staple — continues to do so despite a large and growing body of scientific evidence pointing towards severe potential health risks of consuming GM crops, including maize,” she said.

In 1992 in the United States the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) claimed that they had no evidence that showed that Genetically Modified (GM) Foods were substantially different from conventionally grown foods. So they were safe to eat and no safety studies were required. The reality was that FDA Scientists had repeatedly issued warnings that GM foods could cause unpredictable, hard to detect side effects including allergies and nutritional problems. This of course fell on deaf ears. No doubt this was partly because Michael Taylor the former attorney for Monsanto (the largest biotech company producing GMOs) was the FDA Official in charge of creating that policy. Michael Taylor later became Vice President of Monsanto.

Several animal studies since 1992 have shown that GM foods cause immune problems, infant mortality, allergies to non GM foods (such as wild grown soya after a diet of GM Soya) faulty insulin regeneration, infertility, accelerated aging and changes in major organs and the Gastrointestinal System. It gets worse… the stomach lining of rats fed GM Potatoes showed excessive cell growth, a condition that could lead to cancer. Rats also had damaged organs and immune systems.

Many GM Plants also have decreased nutritional values — a study showed that a strain of GM Soybean produced lower levels of phytoestrogen compounds that are believed to protect against heart disease and cancer than traditional soybeans (Bakshi, 2003).

The scariest fact about GMOs that I have come across is that there is a strong chance that they are contributing to Antibiotic Resistance. Biotechnologists are using antibiotic resistance genes as genetic markers when inserting new genes into plants. This is because in the early stage of the process scientists do not know if the plant will assimilate the new gene. By attaching this new gene to an antibiotic resistance gene the new GM plant can be tested by growing it in a solution containing the relevant antibiotic.

So it’s possible, if not probable that gut bacteria could pick up an antibiotic resistance gene from a GM Plant before the DNA becomes completely digested….

It’s not just mealie meal being GM tainted that we have to worry about, it’s also in our bread and flour…

“By slipping it into our food without our knowledge, without any indication that there are genetically modified organisms in our food, we are now unwittingly part of a massive experiment.The FDA has said that genetically modified organisms are not much different from regular food, so they’ll be treated in the same way. The problem is this, geneticists follow the inheritance of genes, what biotechnology allows us to do is to take this organism, and move it horizontally into a totally unrelated species. Now David Suzuki doesn’t normally mate with a carrot and exchange genes, what biotechnology allows us to do is to switch genes from one to the other without regard to the biological constraints. It’s very very bad science, we assume that the principals governing the inheritance of genes vertically, applies when you move genes laterally or horizontally. There’s absolutely no reason to make that conclusion — Geneticist David Suzuki “

Despite Monsanto’s claims to the contrary Genetically Modified Foods do NOT contribute to food security. If you are a farmer who buys it’s Roundup Ready ( Glyphosate) seeds you have to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting. You are also not allowed to sell that seed to other farmers, you have to buy new seed every year. So obviously this results in higher food prices as well as the increased need for pesticides and herbicides required by GM crops….

So how do you reduce your consumption of GM Foods?

The reality is that Biotech Corporations are gambling with our health for profit. The real purpose of GMOs is for power and control over our food supply. We could easily feed the world through organic methods — there is absolutely no reason why we need Genetically Modified Foods around.

Call Claire — +27 82 399 0180 / +27 66 232 3676 (Whatsapp).

bluedesigns5@gmail.com

I am an Architectural Designer and I think it’s vital to talk about all aspects of Architecture — whether it be planning, construction, design or green building. I have written 3 E-Books & over 110 articles. Please feel free to let me know if you have any queries regarding architecture, planning & construction & I will assist you.

I am originally from the UK and moved to South Africa in 1999. I started Blue Designs in 2004 after working as a driver for Avalon Construction on a luxury home in the Featherbrook Estate.

Sources :-

And also take a look at :-

#monsanto #geneticallymodifiedfood #southafrica #fda #maize #corn #soya #gmo #poison #cancer #glycophosphate #bayer #food #infantmortality #miscarriage #infertile #infertility

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