Genetically Modified Foods must be clearly labelled. TAKE ACTION

Genetically Modified Foods: We are part of a Giant Experiment

Genetically modified foods are being eaten daily and they have never been tested on humans. Tests on animals reveal shocking results which are potential threats to our health:

•  Rats Fed GMO tomatoes got bleeding stomachs, several died
•  Mice Fed GM Bt Potatoes had intestinal damage:
•  Mice Fed Roundup Ready soy (prevalent in South Africa) had liver probs ,
•  Mice Fed Roundup Ready soy had problems with the pancrease and
•  Mice Fed Roundup Ready soy had unexplained changes in testicular cells;

We also know from animal testing that transgenes transfer into gut bacteria, internal organis or viruses. Many GM foods contain an anti-biotic resistant marker gene which could create anti-biotic resistant diseases. This also has enormous ramifications for nations struggling with diseases requiring anti-biotics.

So why does Government allow it? 
SAFeAGE asks the same question.  We still haven't come up with an answer. But we do know that the Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) have listened to our demands for labelling. Mandatory labelling and liability of genetically modified foods has now been declared under the new Consumer Protection Act.  But the Regulations for the Act have still to be written and it is here, in the details, that the battle will ultimately be won.  SAFeAGE is currently drawing up a set of recommendations for the Regulations, and we will be needing YOUR SUPPORT to demand that labelling is effective and specific. 
Is labelling enough?
In South Africa, any product containing maize (corn), soy or cotton has a high probability of containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

SAFeAGE invites you to take a tour through our website and SAY NO TO GMO!
Research in the field of Genetic Engineering (GE) has now reached a level where its applications are having enormous effects on a global scale. SAFeAGE is committed to ensuring that consumers are made aware of the dangers and threats of GMO's, which fall into three main categories:

Threats to human health - as mentioned above, numerous studies worldwide convince us that Industry claims of genetically modified foods being safe and healthy are at highly irresponsible.  An advertisement in several local magazines recently declared that consumers can use genetically modified food with confidence!  SAFeAGE thinks this is criminal.


Dangers to biodiversity - a cornerstone of food and natural system security is biodiversity. GM crops systematically undermine biodiversity, both by replacing hundreds of locally specialised species with a very few GM varieties, and by contaminating and thus destroying the remaining old variety seedstock nurtured for millennia by local farmers;

Threats to food security and local livelihoods - despite claims by GM lobbyists to be the answer to world hunger, their companies have so far proved to contribute to it. GM seeds provide a limited benefit to large-scale industrial farmers by allowing them to mechanise more and reduce labour costs (at the cost of systematically destroying their soil). For the vast majority of farmers on the planet, however, GM methods are more expensive, less productive and locally inappropriate to their sustainable small or medium-scale systems, and have removed thousands of stable farmers from the land to city penury or suicide.

Taken from: http://www.safeage.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:we-are-a-giant-experiment-&catid=43:homepage

Posted by: Sandy