Potato Spuds Registered as a Pesticide

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From: " Jim Lynn " <Jim@...>

EOOhealthegroups

Date: Wed, 17 May 2000

Subj: [EOOhealth] Essential Oils Online #034

ESSENTIAL OILS ONLINE

Mankind's First Medicine in the 21st Century

excerpt...

Health Watch:

Pass the Mashed Potatoes..Maybe Not

The nation's food safety authority, the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA), does not require genetically engineered

food crops to be labeled. Translation? None of us know whether

the food we eat is genetically engineered or not...or safe!

Potato Spuds Registered as a Pesticide:

Monsanto's " New Leaf " potato, which has been genetically

engineered to incorporate a pesticide, BACILLUS THURIENGENSIS

(Bt), into every cell in the potato, to kill potato beetles,

is required to be registered as a pesticide with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! This means if you buy

potatoes from the supermarket, you likely are consuming

an EPA registered pesticide. The problem is since neither the

EPA or FDA require labeling disclosing the fact, no one

can make an informed choice not to purchase such spuds.

The label on a bag of Monsanto's pesticidal potatoes in the

supermarket lists all of the nutrients and micronutrients in

the potato, but fails to mention that the potatoes have been

genetically engineered or that they are legally a pesticide.

Food labeling is ordinarily the responsibility of FDA.

EPA-approved pesticides normally carry an EPA-approved

warning label. For example, a bottle of Bt bears a label that

warns people to avoid inhaling Bt and to avoid getting Bt in

an open wound. However, in the case of Monsanto's pesticidal

potato, EPA says FDA has responsibility for requiring a label

because the potato is a food. But, the FDA only requires

genetically engineered foods to be labeled if they contain

allergens or have been " materially changed, " and the FDA

has determined that Monsanto did not " materially change "

the New Leaf potato by turning it into a pesticide.

Therefore no FDA label is required.

Furthermore, the law that empowers the FDA (the Food, Drug

and Cosmetic Act) forbids FDA from including any information

about pesticides on food labels. Pesticide labels are EPA's

responsibility. Wow, talk about the run around!

Just another example of our tax dollars at work, folks.

Whether or not you are comfortable eating food laced with

Bt is your decision. Everyone, however should have the right

to know what goes in the food they eat. Genetically engineered

or altered food changes thousands of years of what natural food

is or isn't.

No one knows the long term effects GE foods may have on

human health or the environment. To promote GE foods for the

sake of profits at the expense of health and environmental

concerns demonstrates the greed and selfishness that

rules our world. Editor - Essential Oils Online.

. . .

To learn more about GE foods and the pesticide laced potato.

visit: http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4

Scroll down and click #622 Seeds of Destruction

For related GE articles visit:

http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1

http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=2

Scroll down to #695 - Biotech in trouble - part I

Scroll down to #696 - Biotech in trouble - part II

LynnGroup Int'l

Publisher EOO

Email: EOOhealth-owneregroups

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