- In 1999, when South Africa became one of the first countries
in the world to publicly introduce large-scale farming of genetically-
manipulated food crops, the country's 'Safe Food Coalition' spokesman
Angus Durran raised major concerns over the health issues surrounding
genetically engineered food - then a brand-new, untested technology. For
several years before that, South Africa was one of the testing-grounds
for these Monsanto crops and set up its own brand, SAGENE to market the
GM-seeds in the rest of Africa.
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- "The types of genes and proteins introduced into
high tech food crops could have dangerous side-effects, as has been shown
in a well-documented case where a food allergen from Brazil nuts was
transferred to soybeans through gene splicing," he said.
- "There were concerns that bacteria in the human
gut may become resistant to antibiotics from marker genes in such plants."
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- His concerns were ignored and indeed laughed at by South
African government officals. Today, South Africa is listed sixth as the
world's major producers of genetically-manipulated crops - from huge
plantings of corn, wheat and soybeans to cotton -- yet the country still
displays very few warnings to this effect on its labelling of these products
- which are also exported extensively to the rest of southern Africa.
-
- See recent article about the South African GM-crop programme:
- http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=19012&
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- Today, South African scientists also published a paper
in which they directly accused the World Health Organisation of "manufacturing"
the uniquely-South African killer strain of Extensively drug-resistant
Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) -- which is now killing many thousands of people
in SA in a seemingly unstoppable epidemic spreading rapidly throughout
southern Africa. For the past decade, these scientists had been tracking
the South African TB- strain's increasing drug-resistance and say that
this is due because of the WHO's distribution of new anti-TB drugs to
SA without their first being tested for drug resistance.
-
- see:
- http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/idso-xti101907.php
-
- My question is this: 'Is it a coincidence that the world's
biggest and deadliest epidemic of XDR-TB also occurs in the very same
country to first grow Monsanto's genetically-manipulated food crops and
cottons on a large scale since 1999?
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