ANNEXURE 1

Monsanto to drop 'GM is safe' claim until it can prove it
Cape Times, June 21, 2007 Edition 2

Biotech crops giant Monsanto has been ordered to withdraw an advertising claim that no negative reactions to genetically modified foods have been reported.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling follows a consumer complaint about a Monsanto SA press advertisement referring to OM grain products. ASA said, however, it would reconsider if Monsanto produced substantiation for its claim.

The advert, in February's You magazine, showed a picture of a woman and two children in a kitchen looking at a cake and carried the heading "Is your food safe?" Below the subheading, "Biotechnology - the true facts", it said: "This is one of the most extensively tested and controlled types of food, and no negative reactions have been reported."

The ASA said the complainant, a Mark Lewis, had cited a scientific study on "the dangerous effects of these products". Monsanto had said in response that all biotech crops approved for
commercialisation worldwide had been assessed according to global guidelines and found to be as wholesome, nutritious and safe as conventional crops.

ASA said the onus was on Monsanto to provide independent verification of its claim. It had provided numerous studies contradicting claims that OM foods were unsafe, but its response had not referred to the "no negative reactions" claim. – Sapa

LETTER TO ASA FROM MARK WELLS:
Attached is an advert from Monsanto which untruthfully claims that "GM food is controlled and that there have been no negative reactions reported".

GM food is not effectively controlled as demonstrated by on a number of occasions where the GM regulators, seed producers and farmers were unable to contain unwanted GM products entering the food 'chain. The most serious of this has been the Starlink corn incident in the US which led to numerous product recalls.1 More recently the contamination of Syngentas BU1 with the una proved Bt 10 variety that contains unapproved antibiotic resistant genes. Furthermore, U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice were inadvertently contaminated with a genetically engineered variety from Bayer CropScience that was not approved for human consumption leading to an embargo on rice imports from the US.

Secondly, GM crops are approved for consumption based on food safety studies provided by the biotech industry. This is an issue as Monsanto has been found guilty of suppression of truth in an Alabama court of Law in the US and has been fined by the US administration for bribing government officials.

In fact Monsanto have actively suppressed studies showing the negative health effects of GM food such as their feeding study which showed statistically significant negative health effects on animals fed with the GM maize. This study and the subsequent peer review by Dr Arpad Pusztai was subject to a gagging order imposed by Monsanto but were later obtained in 2005 after a Court action in Germany.

A new independent peer reviewed study entitled "New analysis of a rat feeding study with a genetically modified corn reveals signs of hepatorenal toxicity" by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, Dominique Cellier, and Joel Spiroux de Vendomois published online at www.springerlink.com/content/1432-0703 by the American journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology reveals how Monsanto GM maize caused serious damage to the liver and kidneys of rats which consumed it during feeding trials and how GM maize authorized for human consumption shows signs of hepatorenal toxicity. The study was published at the recent March 13, 2007 press conference in Paris where Dr Brian John said: "Now we know why Monsanto wanted so desperately to keep this animal feeding study out of the public domain. There is scientific fraud here, and this must now be apparent to all of us, including the regulatory bodies. Goodness knows how many other studies showing real harm to animals fed on GM crops and foods have simply been hidden away from independent scrutiny. There can now be no further doubt that GM crops and foods are damaging to health". Professor Seralini called for a "an urgent moratorium on other approved GMOs while the efficacy of current health testing methods is reassessed."

Furthermore, some 70% of GM crops produced by Monsanto are designed to be resistant to Monsanto's patented roundup herbicide. In other words farmers planting these crops are encouraged to sproay prolific amounts of roundup on the crop which will kill all other plants and weeds. This herbicide is shown to be persistant in the soil for up to two years in the soil and is absorbed by plants. The World Health Organisation (WHO) report (Mensink H. et a1.1994. Glyphosate. Environmental Health Criteria 159, WHO, Geneva) shows that roundup herbicide is systemically absorbed into the seeds and fruits of plants and thus will enter the human food chain and furthermore that no amount of washing and baking will reduce these levels in contaminated food.

Monsanto first marketed roundup as environmentally safe until a New York court of law forced the company to withdraw this spurious claim in the 1990s. Numerous peer reviewed studies have documented Roundup's chronic and endocrine toxicity at low level exposure, there are numerous independent peer reviewed studies that have been published. These studies are conveniently summarised with detailed references in the Glyphosate Factsheet online at http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Roundup-Glyphosate-Factsheet-Cox.htm .
More recently, the peer reviewed journal, 'Environmental Health Perspectives 113, 2005', published an in independent scientific study entitled "Differential Effects of Glyphosate and Roundup on Human Placental Cells and Aromatase" by Richard, Moslemi, Sipahutar, Benachour & Seralinia of the Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moleculaire, Universite de Caen, France, which shows that at concentrations of less than 100 times recommended for agricultural use, roundup is a disruptor of mammalian cytochrome P450 aromatase activity affecting human placental cells and aromatase gene expression. Further proof of the. endocrine disrupting effects of roundup's glyphosate and its toxic surfactants are presented in another independent peer reviewed study which shows that extremely low level exposures of roundup may result in 90% less production of the male sex hormones ('Roundup inhibits steroidogenesis by disrupting steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein expression', Welsh, L.P. et al. 2000, Environ. Health Persp. 108).

Endocrine system disruption is a relatively new science which does not follow traditional toxicological dose response curve as extremely small doses of these pesticides can permanently affect our sexual, cognitive and physical development, the functioning of our immune systems and lead to disease such as cancer and asthma.

Monsanto would rather not like consumers to know about this information as at least 70% soya that we eat and 20% of our maize is contaminated with GM crops that are likely to contain high concentrations of this roundup herbicide. The fact that the popular Nestle Nan baby feeding supplement is made from predominantly GM herbicide contaminated soya (in South Africa) is cause for alarm as babies are particularly at risk to permanent sexual, cognitive, physical and immune system developmental abnormalities when exposed to synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals.

I propose that the advert be allowed if it is given promininat space for the following warning: WARNING GM FOODS MAY LEAD TO KIDNEY AND LIVER FAILURE
GM FOODS MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF ROUNDUP HERBICIDE WHICH CAN LEAD TO REPRODUCTIVE ABNORMALITIES AND AFFECT GENE EXPRESSION

Regards
Mark Wells 0835006276