Azienda Agricola La Torricella

London

French Study Finds Tumours in Rats Fed GM Corn

For connected articles and more info, please pay a visit to OCA’s Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto web page and our Health Concerns page.

Rats fed a lifetime diet regime of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn or exposed to its best-selling weedkiller Roundup suffered tumours and a number of organ harm, according to a French study published on Wednesday.

Even though the lead researcher’s past record as a critic of the sector could make other specialists wary of drawing hasty conclusions, the finding will stoke controversy about the safety of GM crops.

In an unusual move, the study group did not enable reporters to seek outdoors comment on their paper prior to its publication in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology and presentation at a news conference in London.

Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet regime containing NK603 – a seed variety produced tolerant to dousings of Roundup – or offered water containing Roundup at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a normal diet plan.

The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumours, as well as severe liver and kidney damage.

The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group.

Dear U.S. Government, Please Get Your Food Waste Act Together

For related articles and far more info, please pay a visit to OCA’s Organic Transition page and our Wellness Concerns web page.

This past January, the European Parliament adopted a resolution to minimize food waste by 50 percent by 2020 and designated 2014 as the “European year against food waste.”&nbsp Members of the European Parliament have called improving the efficiency of our food technique and minimizing food wastage “a matter of urgency,” stating that:

The most crucial issue in the future will be to tackle elevated demand for food, as it will outstrip provide. We can no longer afford to stand idly by whilst perfectly edible food is becoming wasted. This is an ethical but also an financial and social dilemma, with large implications for the atmosphere.

Additionally, the United Kingdom government has helped conduct a public awareness campaign known as Adore Food Hate Waste that plastered London with fancy billboards encouraging people to waste much less food.

And what has the U.S. government done to tackle food waste? Close to absolutely nothing.

Okay, that’s not
completely accurate.&nbsp For the duration of Planet War II, the U.S. government had a enormous campaign, with posters that nonetheless make for very good kitchen decorations, to discourage wasted food in order to save food for the army.&nbsp One particular of my favorites is “When you take far more than you can consume, you cheat your buddies in the fleet.”

But considering that then, there hasn’t been a complete lot of action.&nbsp The EPA runs a laudable-for-its-meager-budget Food Recovery Challenge that supplies recognition and shares ideal practices for organizations preventing and recovering food waste.&nbsp There’s also one team at USDA who, as only portion of their responsibilities, collects some info about food losses at the retail and consumer levels of the supply chain.&nbsp Other than that, the government’s involvement is quite barren.

Our neighbors across the pond show us we’ve got a lot of catching up to do in terms of prioritizing food waste reduction at a national level. It is due time for the U.S. government to act on the food waste crisis with actual urgency and leadership as nicely.