Upcoming Events

National | Environment

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Dec 25, 2024 00:32 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Starmer Doesn?t Have a Feel for Politics and His Team Lacks the Skills to Run the Country, Says Vete... Tue Dec 24, 2024 19:00 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer "doesn?t have a feel" for the Labour Party or politics in general and his team lacks the skills to run the country, veteran Labour MP?Diane Abbott?has said.
The post Starmer Doesn’t Have a Feel for Politics and His Team Lacks the Skills to Run the Country, Says Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to ?Avoid Unnecessary Offence? Tue Dec 24, 2024 18:00 | Will Jones
The Church of England has told clergy in Birmingham to watch out for "problematic words" in Christmas carols that imply Jesus is the "true Messiah" or other religions aren't valid. And they wonder why the pews are empty.
The post Church of England Tells Clergy to Edit Christmas Carols to “Avoid Unnecessary Offence” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 Tue Dec 24, 2024 15:42 | Will Jones
Some of Britain?s best-selling hybrid cars will be banned from sale after 2030 under a?Net Zero crackdown?proposed by Ministers, including the mild hybrid versions of the Ford Puma, Range Rover Evoque and VW Golf.
The post Best-Selling Hybrids Face Net Zero Ban From 2030 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
The post Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming “a Fifth of Those Infected Have No Symptoms But Can Spread It” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Animal Feeds In Ireland Are Contaminated With GMOs

category national | environment | feature author Tuesday December 07, 2004 23:39author by Christine Raab-Heine - CLEAN(Cavan Leitrim Environmental Awareness Network)Ltdauthor email chheine at iolfree dot ie Report this post to the editors

GM Regulations for Labelling of Animal Feed are a Farce

Are you aware that all compound feeds commonly fed to farm animals contain GM maize and other GM meal? Given the state of information and discussion in this country on GMOs, many a farmer won't know this. But worse: it is virtually impossible for conventional farmers, especially small farmers, to get GM free compound feeds from their local suppliers. We are pretty sure that the presence of GMOs in animal feedstuffs is well known to the Department of Agriculture and other officials, but did they properly inform small farmers and consumers? Farmers and consumers: please check the small print on feed bags and food labels.


  • We (Cavan Leitrim Environmental Awareness Network) urgently call on all farmers to demand GM free feeds.
  • We urgently call on consumers to demand GM free meat, eggs and milk.
  • We urgently call on the government to take action that GM free feeds are available and GM feeds banned.
  • We urgently request that labelling of GM meat, milk and eggs i.e. from animals fed on GM feeds be labelled as such.
  • We urgently call on the government to keep Ireland GM free. This is the only way to avoid any more problems for farmers and consumers.
  • We urgently call on the government, the EU, and on our Irish representatives there, to work towards a GM free European Union, whilst noting that all the directives, regulations and labelling within the EU make no sense, if the countries of origin of imports cannot guarantee that their products are GM free.

Related Links:
Will Bertie give us a GMO time bomb for Christmas? A GM-Free Network press release.
Round up of UK Anti-GM protests via Indymedia UK.
Save Our Seeds.


Feed mills freely label their feeds as containing GM! They say that the countries of origin cannot give guarantees that their exports are not contaminated with GM, and so they don’t even bother to examine the GM content, or attempt to keep the content below 0.9%, which would mean that the feed would not have to be labelled as containing GM. We are further not told about the actual percentage of GM content. This is one of many flaws in the EU regulations on GMOs. Another flaw is the fact that meat from animals fed on GMOs does not have to be labelled as such. If consumers would have the opportunity to insist on GM free meat, it would not be so easy to infect our farm animals and products with GMOs, and the actual farce of labelling feeds we have at the moment would become an instrument helping to keep GMOs out of the country.

If basically all Irish meat, apart from qualified organic meat, is GM meat, i.e. meat from animals fed on GMOs, this might have, apart from the unforeseeable dangers to animal and human health, serious effects on the Irish farm, food, gastronomic and tourism sectors. Conversely keeping Irish feedstuffs and meat GM free could be a boost to these sectors. Immediate action is needed here as it is now that the bulk of feeding compounds starts. Let us have GM free lambs next year.

Ireland is, like other EU countries, required by the EU Commission to develop a national strategy and best practices to ensure the coexistence of genetically modified crops with conventional and organic farming. One might think this is to protect conventional and organic farmers. It isn’t. It is to facilitate GM farming:

“1. No form of agriculture, be it conventional, organic or agriculture using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), should be excluded in the European Union.“ (Commission Recommendation)

The labels show that conventional livestock farming is already excluded by the non availability of GM free compound feeds.

Why is this important?

  • Because we do not want to eat produce created with GMO’s,
  • Because we do not want to support the creation of GMO crops or the design of GM-creatures!

Why do we not want this to happen?
Because as GM technology is an invasive technology, there is no co-existence between GMO and "normal" organisms possible. This has the unavoidable and ultimate consequence that if we allow GMO technology now, we will have no other organisms than genetically modified ones living on this planet in the future! We will never have a choice again!

As this is the simple and dreary truth, this technology is undemocratic, because it determines the ultimate future of the whole planet and all living things on it, potentially including the human race, without any need or justification!

In common with other new technologies, the development of genetic engineering is largely controlled by a few powerful corporations. These corporations exert unprecedented influence over governments and academia, who are both failing in their obligation to adequately monitor and control the development and use of this technology and to safeguard public health and the environment.

It is clear that there is too much uncertainty about GMOs, and consequently we cannot accept them!

And so:
  1. We urgently call on all farmers to demand GM free feeds.
  2. We urgently call on consumers to demand GM free meat, eggs and milk.
  3. We urgently call on the government to take action that GM free feeds are available and GM feeds banned.
  4. We urgently request that labelling of GM meat, milk and eggs i.e. from animals fed on GM feeds be labelled as such.
  5. We urgently call on the government to keep Ireland GM free. This is the only way to avoid any more problems for farmers and consumers.
  6. We urgently call on the government, the EU, and on our Irish representatives there, to work towards a GM free European Union, whilst noting that all the directives, regulations and labelling within the EU make no sense, if the countries of origin of imports cannot guarantee that their products are GM free.

Further notes:
Let us, as citizens, maintain this:
In life absolute certainty does not exist. Therefore any risk analysis, also for GMOs, is based on reasoned assumptions. Our assumptions are based on the best available data and knowledge. In case we conclude that there is too much uncertainty about the product with respect to possible adverse effects for human health and the environment, a product will not be accepted.

Only some weeks ago a vCJD case was diagnosed in Ireland, which only developed after an incubation period of many years, and which is thought to have been caused from eating meat from cattle fed on meat and bone meal. We all know that it was only disclosed after years that this caused BSE. Feeding meat and bone meal to herbivores was unnatural. Feeding GMOs to animals is also unnatural, as is the production of them in the first instance, which is unfortunately developed globally by big corporations. We take an enormous risk by eating meat or drinking milk from animals fed on GMOs!

Only recently the IFA showed concern in respect of a case of contamination of feeds with bones in imported feed ingredients. The ongoing GM contamination, however, was not mentioned in this context!

Without going into details regarding all issues of concern with respect to GMOs, we wish to stress, that one of the key findings of a new report by Freese and Schubert on “Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Modified Foods” (available on www.foe.org ) was
“The failure of companies to test for most possible unintended effects of the unpredictable genetic engineering process; in particular, there is a lack of long-term animal feeding studies”.
The kind of safety we are promised by scientific risk assessments in the EU becomes clear in a recent assessment report for GM cotton:

“A comment was made by Miep Bos in respect of the notification report: The GMO should not be admitted because the notification states too often, that the product is “highly unlikely to have any adverse effect”. There are no hard facts but only assumptions that the product will not be harmful. That is not sufficient.”

The answer from Netherlands CA was: “Within science absolute certainty does not exist. Therefore any scientific risk analysis, also for GMOs, is based on reasoned assumptions. These assumptions are based on the best available scientific data and knowledge. In case it is concluded that there is too much uncertainty about the product with respect to possible adverse effects for human health and the environment, a product will not be admitted.”

Science was and is often helpful in explaining what has happened, albeit it has so far failed in explaining with certainty causes and origins of Aids, BSE and vCJD, for example. Science might be successful to develop new technologies, but science has not shown so far to be in a position to predict, determine or evaluate with certainty possible outcomes of such inventions.
As econexus puts it: “The application of new technologies has historically been problematic. Though they are often proposed as a solution to a current problem they themselves may create new ones which were not predicted in time and others that were predicted only by specialists who were ignored. Additionally, the hope of a simple technical solution to a complex problem may distract attention and divert resources from essential political and social responses to the initial or underlying problem. (../www.econexus.info)

One of the findings of Freese/Schubert and also of Wilson, Latham, Steinbrecher: Genome Scrambling – Myth or Reality? (available on the econexus website) was that their is a huge lack of independent “available” tests for long term effects of GMOs.

At the same time when the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2004 has passed a moratorium on the further release of genetically modified organisms until such time that they can be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, to be safe for biodiversity, human health and animal health, the US plans to allow contamination of food crops with GM experimental crops. As two thirds of US experimental GM crops contain genes classified as confidential, there are no possibilities to detect them. (www.foe.co.uk)

According to the ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications), the US was growing 42.8 million hectares of the global transgenic crop area (63% of global total) in 2003. (Global Status of Commercialized Transgenic Crops:2003)

author by pcpublication date Mon Dec 06, 2004 20:35author address author phone Report this post to the editors

In 2001, Sainsbury's promised to "phase out the use of GM feed to the animals which produce their meat and dairy products" They have still not given a deadline by which this will happen and do not label their dairy products as coming from GM-fed animals.

Endless Stories on actions in the UK

Related Link: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/294268.html
author by Michael O'Callaghan - GM-free Ireland Networkpublication date Tue Dec 07, 2004 02:06author email mail at gmfreeireland dot orgauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Please join the GM-free Ireland Network (free of charge) and sign our petition asking the government to keep Ireland free of GM animal feed, seeds, crops, livestock and food. We have 20,000 members so far and need your support. Visit us at http://www.gmfreeireland.org

Related Link: http://www.gmfreeireland.org
author by Kavanagh - Planning Matterspublication date Tue Dec 07, 2004 18:49author email annamkav at eircom dot netauthor address mostrim longfordauthor phone 04375193Report this post to the editors

I wish to respond to Christina Heine's article on GM animal food.I think it is a national disgrace that David Byrne and the Irish gov. have sold the Irish people out re gm crops.

author by duine beag glaspublication date Wed Dec 08, 2004 00:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Corrib lake is going to be dead in a matter of a couple of months too. Its a SAM as the fingers would put it. Time for the little green men plan we talked about on the evening of s26 to kick into high gear.

author by John Robinson - Robinson Farmspublication date Wed Dec 08, 2004 23:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I fed gm crops to fat cattle in US. and even eaten my owned meat that I raised. Plus I sell to people in town.
No one has died or gotten sick. So what is the problem? Where is the residue in the meats.

author by Raypublication date Thu Dec 09, 2004 09:58author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I don't have a problem with eating GM foods - I don't think they contain any 'unsafe residue'. I have a problem with the growing of GM crops, because of the possibility of gene crossing, and because of the way GM companies are trying to prevent farmers from keeping their own seeds.

author by ared dreadpublication date Thu Dec 09, 2004 21:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This story is running on/at the usual suspect sites - BBC/CNN - so it must be true.

Related Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4076525.stm
author by Raymond McInerneypublication date Fri Dec 10, 2004 21:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid sold as an over-the-counter food supplement used for treating insomnia and depression. During 1989 in the USA a new disease appeared called EMS, whose main chacteristics were raised numbers of a type of white blood cell and sever muscle pain. In November that year the US FDA issued a nation-wide warning, advising consumers to discontinue use of the tryptophan food supplements. By then so many people had been affected by EMS that it caused over 36 deaths and thousands of disabilities, some estimates placing this as high as 10,000. The problem was linked to a contaminated batch of tryptophan coming from the Japanese company Showa Denko, which had been using a newly modified strain of genetically engineered bacteria; the new modification being intended to boost the concentrations of an intermediate chemical, and ultimately the output, in tryptophan synthesis. It is unclear as to whether the genetic engineering or change to the post-production filtration process was responsible for the damaging contaminants getting into the marketed tryptophan. Although a casual agent (or agents) for the medical problems has not been identified, as one review commented: "all the analytical studies revealed the contaminants’ low concentration in L-tryptophan and this means that the casual contaminate(s) must be very potent indeed". Because there was such a low concentration of the contaminant, L-trytophan could be said to have remained "substantially equivalent" after the production process was modified, yet it clearly was more deadly.

author by arthurpublication date Sat Dec 11, 2004 21:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

All this stuff about Gm&CJD and asking farmers not to use it wont have any effect as most other people are served by their immediate needs ie profit.The gm that is coming into the country and stored in the
border regions for distribution is to service the fat cats need for profit above all else.
Prof Feymann the great physist remarked that the weekend expert had arrived&simply hadnt done the work nescessary to know something.someone else will have to pick up the consequences, that is if there is anyone around to do so.Some of the responses mention VCJD and we all have a right to be concerned .the Fore tribe in New Guinea had a similair disease almost a century ago ,caused by eating their enemies & chiefs.The moral of all this was not recognised by the learned scientists who then along with others passed the buck to farmers.They who must be obeyed still say humans can get this disease from eating infected meat yet the amount of clinical cases suggest otherwise .my own view is that yes ,under certain circumstances ie if you had say a tooth pulled and infected meat was to "direct"injection to blood stream then almost certainally be at risk.What is not publicised is that almost certainly infected material that was used to culture vaccines that may pose a more serious risk but is lobbied out of the public domain by the pharmacutical industry interests.
Its the same old story with GM crops,The only reason GM IS possible is that there are genetic links with the past going back millions of years.Natures software has taken us where we are today by balancing the trillions of combinations possible to all living matter that has taken us to the present day.Gm circumvents millions of years of balancing and we simply do not know if there are runnaway affects that could not be checked in a catastrophical situation.
What we do know is that GM is not required as there is plenty of food for the forseeable future.
All you people must be congratulated on your efforts and i commend you for trying to protect the future,especially the Irish agriculture scene.

author by too lazy for anarchypublication date Tue Dec 14, 2004 01:06author address alternative munsterauthor phone Report this post to the editors

i saw data whilst working in a piggery in my mid teens which said 1 kilo of pig weight was being produced for every 8 kilos of meal. my father who worked in piggerys for over thirty years as a manager was satisfied he doing a good job at this. this led to serious doubt on my part about the validity of my work and eating practices ultimately leading to my rejecting both of them. ps a local piggery has taken to employing an east european staff in recent years

author by Brian O'Mahony - Municipal Institue for Medical Investigation, Barcelonapublication date Wed Dec 15, 2004 15:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I am for choice. The choice to use or the choice not to use GM food. And I am oppsed to the fact that it seems that farmers do not have a choice. I also oppose GM foods but for a different reason. My reasons are against those that say that diseases hamper food production and food prices are high and peolpe go hungry for this reason. This argument is ridiculous - people go hungry because of the inequalities that exist in our world. GM foods exist because the few (companies) want to make profit from the many (farmers, producers).

But I disagree with the argument that GM foods present a risk to health. My reasoning is the following:
1. Genes are natural products and digested naturally in the body.
2. Science is never certain. But statistically confident yes.
The genes that get inserted into plants code for proteins which give resistance to pesticides. These proteins get digested as all other proteins do. The pesticides that get sprayed well thats another argument but demand for pesticide free products and not GMO free. Other GMO may be resitant to disease but this doesn't matter the proteins will not harm you. What happens on an ecological stand point is another argument and for this reason I oppose GM.
Scientific research is always based on confidence not certainty. It can be logically argued that just because the sun rose today it doesn't mean that, with certainty, it will rise tomorrow. But you are 99% confident that it will. Most scientific studies work on a 95% confidence that something exists. I would would say that as a scientist from the evidence and from the knowledge I have of GM that I am more than 95% sure that GM is safe to eat. But that is a personal opinion. Studies must be done. Again scientists carry out studies when they have a hypothesis. What is the hypothesis that GM foods are bad for you? How are they bad for you? How do I test this? You cannot prove that something doesn't exist i.e. that something is NOT bad for you.
I believe that we must debate logically and not reactionary to this situation.

Related Link: http://www.imim.es
author by eeekkkpublication date Thu Dec 16, 2004 19:52author address author phone Report this post to the editors

5/7 live today

author by Pissed off Customerpublication date Wed Jan 19, 2005 23:56author address author phone Report this post to the editors

LIFEFORCE, a chain of products like packed nuts and dried fruit, states their food is for a healthy life style, yet some of its products also state, at the back, in tiny lettering: "genetically modified"!!!!
Check it the next time you do your shopping! It's amazing what you find out when you start reading everything in the packaging.

author by Ray McInerneypublication date Thu May 26, 2005 18:05author address author phone Report this post to the editors

25/05/2005 - Published details of a Monsanto report are at the center of a new storm over whether genetically modified (GM) food could be harmful to human health, writes Anthony Fletcher.

Details of the report, published by the Independent on Sunday in the UK, are alleged to show that rats fed the genetically modified (GM) corn MON 863 developed internal abnormalities, while these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.

Related Link: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/news-ng.asp?n=60214-leaked-monsanto-gm
Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy