Category: Uncategorized

US VS EU GMO REGULATION. "From the 1960s through the mid 1980s, the regulation of health, safety and environmental risks was generally stricter in the United States than in Europe. Since the mid 1980s, the obverse has often been the case: a wide array of European consumer and environmental regulations, including those governing GMOs, are now more restrictive than in the United States." http://lnkd.in/dksQZJa View in LinkedIn

TRADE TALKS ON FOOD simply have heightened this perfect storm of the GMO debate. GMOs have been added to the long list of contentious issues on food regulation that hamper the free trade talks, and are poster children for very different philosophical approaches to food. View in LinkedIn

A PERFECT STORM has brewed, where the public distrust (warranted or not), of GMOs meets the willful introduction of antibiotic marker genes in GMOs into an environment where bacteria are known to promiscuously exchange genes through horizontal transfer. Add to this the issue of corporate bullying and issues of transparency in food labeling. This acute confluence skews an otherwise possibly rational discussion. Now all bets are off View in LinkedIn

WASHING OFF ANTIBIOTICS. "For highly processed plants such as corn, the drugs would most likely be removed ... But many food crops such as spinach and lettuce are not processed, only washed, allowing antibiotics to remain. One finding that particularly worries food scientists is the accumulation of antibiotics within potato tubers." (In the US). http://lnkd.in/duVnACR View in LinkedIn

TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT. "Vegetables such as corn, potatoes and lettuce absorb antibiotics when grown in soil fertilized with livestock manure, according to tests conducted at the University of Minnesota. People have long been exposed to antibiotics in meat and milk. Now, the new research shows that they also may be ingesting them from vegetables, perhaps even ones grown on organic farms." http://lnkd.in/dtwQkMM View in LinkedIn

ANTIBIOTIC MANURE USED AS FERTILIZER IN US. "Around 90 percent of these drugs that are administered to animals end up being excreted either as urine or manure. A vast majority of that manure is then used as an important input for 9.2 million hectares of (U.S.) agricultural land." http://lnkd.in/dtwQkMM View in LinkedIn

NOT QUITE A CONSENSUS VIEW. "Our gut already contains ... bacteria carrying resistances to kanamycin and ampicillin ... (The) antibiotic marker genes in GM crops. There is a huge reservoir of ampicillin resistance genes in soil and these can be readily transmitted to gut bacteria. Current medical opinion is that the antibiotic markers used in ... crops do not pose any infectious disease risk." http://lnkd.in/dQZFyGp View in LinkedIn

US CONSUMERS UNAWARE OF ANTIBIOTICS ON FRUIT. "An online survey of nearly 1,000 people conducted by The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that more than 80 percent of the respondents said they either didn’t think (68 percent) or didn’t know (17 percent) that antibiotics are used to treat disease in apple and pear trees." http://lnkd.in/dfYfG9y View in LinkedIn

IS A LOW RISK ENOUGH? "We conclude that, although fragments of DNA large enough to contain an antibiotic-resistance gene may survive in the environment, the barriers to transfer, incorporation, and transmission are so substantial that any contribution to antibiotic resistance made by GM plants must be overwhelmed by the contribution made by antibiotic prescription in clinical practice." http://lnkd.in/dPz5wQq View in LinkedIn

ORGANIC CAN MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS. "Europeans and Canadians Enjoy Antibiotic-Free Organic Apples and Pears, So Why Can’t We?" Once again, standards for even the best food differ in both sides of the Atlantic. http://www.anh-usa.org/antibiotics-organic-apple-pear/ View in LinkedIn