================= Begin forwarded message =================
From: creationsgarden@juno.com (unknown)
To: herb@MyList.net
Cc: docbones@sedona.net
Subject: Threat to biodiversity, wild herbs and heirloom crops
Date: Sat, 24 Oct
To herb@MyList.net from creationsgarden@juno.com:
The USDA is licensing internationally a technology that can put our herbs
at risk, reduce biodiversity and cause widespread famine or expensive
food crops. Montsanto's Delta and Pine Land subsidiary is applying to
license a genetically altered technology (developed with US tax monies!)
that will cause sterility in second generation seeds. Farmers would be
forced to purchase seeds from Montsanto every year instead of saving
seeds. National applications for this technology are moving forward - or
have issued - in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Africa, most
European countries, and
probably more jurisdictions.
Scientists warn that, under certain conditions, the trait for seed
sterility will flow, via pollen, from Terminator crops to surrounding
plants, making the seeds of neighboring plants sterile. This has two
implications. First, farmers who do not purchase Montsanto seeds may
find that their saved seeds are sterile, causing widespread famine and
die off of annual plants. Heirloom strains could die off, by picking up
the inability to reproduce through cross pollination. Secondly, weeds and
wild plants which are growing adjacent to Terminator crops may also pick
up the sterility characteristics.
Secondly, the seeds will have tetracycline residues, which can alter the
probiotic balance of our bodies, those of wild animals which feed upon
the crops and soil bacteria. Since it is unlikely that such crops will be
identified in grocery stores, people will harm their bodies
unsuspectingly.
Please visit the site at http://www.rafi.org/usda.html to stop
Montsanto's genetically altered seeds with "terminator " genes. You can
easily send off letters to:
The Honorable Dan Glickman
Secretary of Agriculture
200-A Whitten Bldg.
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington DC 20250
and
admars@ars.usda.gov
bob.smith@mail.house.gov
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov
Karen Vaughan
CreationsGarden@juno.com
****************************************
Email comments are educational, not diagnostic- seek appropriate medical
care.
Check http://www.rafi.org/usda.html to stop Montsanto's genetically
altered seeds with "terminator " genes.
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