Seeds of Deception and the Beautiful Cow Government Should Stop Policy Myths
(Image source/http://www.flickr.com/photos/miran/6799877486/sizes/m/in/photostream/)
Jeffrey Smith, author of the important book on genetic modification "Seeds of Deception," came to Taiwan. On the 10th, News&Market invited Wu Tung-chieh, CEO of the Green Front, and senior journalist Wang Wen-hao to conduct a dialogue and interview. For the first half of the interview, please see the article Starting with Parents: Promoting the GMO-free Campus Movement.
In addition to once again emphasizing safety concerns about GMOs, Smith pointed out that there are major flaws in the decision-making operations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): "The Taiwan government believes the FDA, the FDA believes Monsanto, yet Monsanto's own scientists do not believe Monsanto." He laid out the myth in policy judgment on the part of both the Taiwan and U.S. governments, and said he considers this a kind of "psychological illness"; whether government or people, everyone should immediately stop this mindset.
In addition, Wang Wen-hao presented a WikiLeaks document explaining that Taiwan has important symbolic significance in the U.S. trade opening policy, and that this is also the reason the United States is eager to loosen Taiwan's food safety regulations. Wu Tung-chieh stated that the GMO issue has many similarities with the issue of ractopamine in American beef, and that both should have stricter legal regulations and restrictions. He hoped Smith's visit could help the discussion and improvement of Taiwan's food management laws.
(Photo/Wang Wen-hao)
The following is a transcript of the interview:
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News&Market reporterWang Wen-hao said:
The U.S. FDA issued a 14-page warning to Elanco Animal Health, the pharmaceutical company that produces ractopamine, criticizing Elanco for providing incomplete ractopamine animal experiment data to the FDA, involving concealment (see details: Big Reveal! Paylean Is Not Honest, U.S. FDA Warning Offers Clues https://www.newsmarket.com.tw/Article_Single.aspx?ID=1019). It also pointed out that the reason ractopamine could go from being a banned drug for human use to an animal feed that can be used safely was the result of Elanco's political lobbying of the U.S. FDA.
Elanco is the animal drug company under the U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. In addition to Paylean, Elanco also purchased recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) from Monsanto. Like ractopamine, the use of rBGH has triggered controversy over food safety and animal welfare and has also been banned by many countries.
Just as Monsanto influences the U.S. and Canadian governments, media and scientists through pressure and lobbying, emphasizing that GMOs or rBGH are safe, the recently hottest issue in Taiwan regarding leanness-enhancing agents, ractopamine, has a similar process behind it. He said many Taiwan government officials or scientists repeatedly claim that with the U.S. FDA as gatekeeper, ractopamine is safe and the public need not worry.
In response, Smith said:
Since 1960, FDA officials have been involved in countless scandals such as taking bribes, violating the principle of "conflict of interest avoidance," corruption and extortion. On the other hand, the safety problems of GM foods have also been exposed because of some lawsuits. Therefore, the FDA's entire evaluation system actually has serious problems and cannot be fully trusted.
Michael Taylor, FDA Chief and Monsanto Legal Counsel
The operational problems of the FDA are also closely related to those who run it. Michael Taylor once served successively as a vice president of Monsanto and a senior adviser to the FDA. Because of his control, science was no longer the basis for FDA decision-making. Although scientists inside the FDA raised a large number of warnings, arguing that more in-depth research should be done on GMOs, none of it was adopted. The FDA did not truly consider the public's food safety concerns. In fact, in the United States, food has never undergone any careful testing, nor is there clear labeling telling consumers whether what they are eating is GM food.
The problems with products made by Monsanto have also emerged in past legal proceedings. In Monsanto's own internal documents, there are records restricting what employees may say and requiring them not to disclose the true content of the research. A scientist who once worked at Monsanto pointed out that in experiments they found that mice that ate GM corn developed lesions, but this material was later removed. Another scientist, after conducting experiments on rBGH, never drank commercially sold milk again.
In addition, Eli Lilly, which produces ractopamine and rBGH, paid tens of millions in lawsuits because of illegal marketing and exposing consumers to health risks. These lawsuits arose from a product made by Eli Lilly whose side effects caused many people who took it to develop diabetes. Because the lawsuit penalties were too high, Eli Lilly spent 62 million USD on out-of-court settlements. They also paid 1.4-2 billion USD to the U.S. government to smooth over possible obstacles. On the other hand, Eli Lilly also produces another product used to treat diabetes. Overall, the amount Eli Lilly spent on settlements and smoothing things over was merely a drop in the bucket compared with the profits from their products.
The Taiwan government should stop believing the FDA and establish its own independent testing mechanism
Senior WHO officials, as well as other important independent organizations, believe that GM foods have major problems. A senior scientist in India pointed out that among the 70 kinds of GM foods in that country, only 10% had actually been tested, but even that 10% of testing was done by the sellers of these products. As for what impact GMOs will have on people and the environment, based on existing evidence it is still unknown.
Back to our government. So far, no national government has ever correctly assessed the impact of GMOs on humans. The Taiwan government believes the FDA's assessment, and the FDA believes Monsanto's assessment. However, Monsanto's own scientists do not believe Monsanto.
This mindset of relying on and believing others' judgments, I think, is a psychological illness, and this illness is contagious. We should immediately stop this myth.
The Taiwan government should have its own independent testing mechanism in order to fully control food safety. Consumers must also take the initiative to understand relevant information in order to ensure their own health and that of the next generation.
WikiLeaks document reveals Taiwan's key position; Smith calls for upholding trade thresholds
After the dialogue came to a pause, News&Market reporter Wang Wen-hao shared a message obtained from WikiLeaks, which said:
"Taiwan is the sixth-largest market for U.S. agricultural and livestock exports. Although the Taiwan market is not the largest for the United States, it is highly symbolic, because on the issue of food safety, if Taiwan's legal restrictions can be loosened, the U.S. government can then require other Southeast Asian countries to use Taiwan as a model to loosen regulations and open markets." Therefore, Smith's choice of Taiwan for this speaking tour advocating opposition to GMOs carries considerable significance.
After reading this document, Smith said:
This document clearly shows that the U.S. government extremely hopes to open the Taiwan market and thereby influence other countries in Asia. The WikiLeaks archive conveys the benefits of GM foods, but it does not take into account people's safety and health. The U.S. government even used WikiLeaks to demand that the European Union open up its ban on GMOs.
Through these actions, the U.S. government hopes to obtain a pioneering position in the field of genetic modification and to gain huge economic benefits through these products.
However, in Taiwan, the government can be said to firmly believe in the FDA's judgments. At the same time, the U.S. government also provides a subsidy of 3,000 USD per person to accept Taiwanese going to U.S. biotech companies for the same set of training. This is a very dangerous thing. I think Taiwan should break free from the control of the U.S. government and the media it dominates.
The "Institute for Responsible Technology," where I work, is very willing to assist organizations interested in the GMO issue. There are many materials on our website for reference; we also welcome them to share their own observations and evidence from their regions for mutual exchange.
Deceptive GMOs, deceptive leanness-enhancing agents; hope that laws will protect people's food safety
In response, Wu Tung-chieh, CEO of the Green Front, said:
The GMO issue has many similarities with the issue of ractopamine in American beef. Whether it is the controversy over food safety, public demands for ingredient labeling, or the United States treating Taiwan as a beachhead and demanding market opening in the hope of using this to ask other countries to relax restrictions, they are exactly the same.
At present, Taiwan's regulation of GMO labeling is still only an administrative order and does not have the force of law. We hope to amend the "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation" to include regulations on GMO labeling, forcing manufacturers to label GMOs so that consumers are protected.
Smith's visit to Taiwan this time will also include arrangements for him to meet with legislators. We hope that at least the matters just mentioned can be conveyed to the legislators, so they know that the FDA data and testing everyone believes in actually come from biotech companies such as Monsanto. We hope that in the future these matters can be discussed more clearly and the "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation" can be further improved.
References
- Eli Lilly and Elanco
- WikiLeaks document link
- Institute for Responsible Technology IRT
- IRT promotes GMO-free schools
Further reading