News | May '07 | Babies, Drugs and politics
... what do they have in common?
Nearly every time you open a newspaper, you will find an article whose implications ring a GM alarm bell.
A dramatic increase in the number of difficult births, attributed to increasing age and obesity in the modern mum, is straining the workload of midwife services to breaking-point (Metro 22.05.07). If hormone-disrupting toxins associated with GM foods begin to exacerbate this problem, the suffering for mothers and babies would be huge, and the costs in medical care enormous. Disguised as it is in a rising tide of age- and obesity-related health problems, we are never likely to realise its significance, nor solve the problem.
Depression in pregnancy, which causes a surge in stress hormones, is a major, but hidden, cause of premature birth, infant death and severe childhood illness (Metro 4.04.07). Any stress during pregnancy can clearly be devastating for the unborn child. The stress of chronic toxicity from GM foods, while tolerated by most of the population, could be catastrophic to expectant mums and the next generation.
The mainstay of our modern 'health' care lies in drugs. These are single, pure chemicals which can be generated in the laboratory in an infinite variety of forms. Despite this apparent wealth of opportunity, drug companies are faced with declining sales and a shortage of products in the pipeline (Guardian 21.05.07). The current cost of developing a new drug is estimated at $1.2 billion and rising, and the time involved is measured in decades. The biotech industry is pinning its hopes on 'pharmed' crops to slash their final production costs due to the shear scale of operations possible in fields. GM plants as living drug factories are the health care of the future. But, if pure chemicals can't be made to do what we want, what hope for materials subject to the normal variation and evolution of the life-processes?
Repeated assurances by the biotech industry and regulators that GM foods have been tested for safety would be more convincing were it not for reports that 90% of drugs, which should be much more straightforward to test than whole plants, are not tested on patients at all, if the patient happens to be a baby (Guardian 2.02.06). The effects of chemicals, or GM foods, on a developing physiology are potentially much greater than on an adult.
If all the political tricks abounding elsewhere are being applied to GM development (and why shouldn't they be?), we have plenty to worry about:
- The Bush administration ran a systematic campaign to play down the dangers of climate change, demanding hundreds of politically motivated changes to scientific reports and muzzling a pre-eminent expert (Guardian 20.03.07)
- President Bush has repeatedly stated he would support efforts to combat global warming. Which sounds good until he adds the afterthought: but not at the expense of the US economy (Metro 15.05.07)
- Prime Minister Tony Blair is using global warming as an excuse to plan new nuclear power stations all over the UK . As one cartoonist quipped, he's forgetting about coal, wind, and Litvinenko's handkerchief (Herald 27.05.07)
- Westminster has apparently sabotaged a multi-million pound green energy project planned for Scotland by repeated delays in reaching a decision (Metro 24.05.07 and 25.05.07); it doesn't seem to suit London's agenda to let Scotland be a leader in the currently sensitive issue of alternative sources of energy.
These translate very smoothly into a systematic public sedation exercise on the dangers of GM food, a refusal to see GM crops in terms of anything but $$$ and £££, manipulating other crises such as food and land shortages and carbon emissions as an excuse to push GM, and avoiding implementation or even consideration of the alternatives. (Have a look at BIOFUELS, A SUSTAINABLE SHAM – News, May 2007)
OUR COMMENT
If you are feeling bored, have some fun with a Daily or two: see how many GM alarm bells you can find in the articles there. Don't forget to tell the Editor what you have found.
OTHER SOURCES
- Institute of Science in Society Report February 2007
- www.i-sis.org.uk/DeskTopDrugDiscovery.php