Scary Food

1
Scary Food

• Many packaged food products are recalled from the
  American market due to the presence of
  all-natural contaminants
• insect parts
• toxic molds from fungi (mycotoxins)
• Bacteria
• viruses

2
Ergot Poisoning

• Europe 800s-1800s
• epidemics caused by the contamination of rye with
  ergot (a poisonous fungus)
• Ergot toxin is ergotamine

• consumption induces hallucinations, bizarre
  behavior, violent muscle twitching

3
1691-92 Salem witch trials

• Three young girls
• violent convulsions, incomprehensible speech
• trance-like states, odd skin sensations,
• delirious visions

• Villagers feared the girls were under a spell
  cast by demons subsequent panic led to the
  execution of 20 innocent people.

• rye was a major staple of their diet
• rainy and humid rye harvest that year

• When the supply of Ergot- infected rye ran out,
  the delusions and persecution disappeared.

4
Fumonisin Poisoning

• a deadly mycotoxin produced by the mold Fusarium
• sometimes found in unprocessed corn
• Can cause liver and esophageal cancer, birth
  defects

when insects attack corn, they open wounds in the
plant that provide a perfect breeding ground for
Fusarium.
5

• 1990s Hispanic women in the Rio Grande Valley of
  Texas
• 6 times the national average of babies with
  crippling and lethal neural tube defects (NTDS)
• spina bifida, Hydrocephalus, anencephaly
• NTDS linked to consumption of unprocessed corn

• These women reported much higher dietary
  consumption of homemade corn tortillas containing
  2-3 x more fumonisin than normal

6
Know your Organic Food

• 2003 - Food Safety Agency tested six organic
  cornmeal products and twenty conventional corn
  meal products for fumonisin contamination.

• All six organic corn meals had 9 to 40 times
  greater fumonisin than the recommended levels for
  human health (they were voluntarily withdrawn
  from grocery stores.)

7
Genetically Modified (GM) Foods

• 99 of GM foods in food supply are
• Round-up Ready soybeans
• Bt corn

8
Round-up Ready Soybeans/cotton

• Round-up (an herbicide) kills weeds
• It degrades in the environment when used properly
  (sunny and dry weather).

• Crops can engineered to be tolerant to
  Round-up, so it can be used rather than more
  toxic herbicides

9

• Bt corn contains a gene from the bacterium
  Bacillus thuringiensis.

The "Bt" gene expresses a protein that is toxic
to corn-boring insects but is harmless to birds,
fish, and mammals (including humans).
Bt corn fends off insect pests Also reduces the
levels of the mold Fusarium
10
Are GM foods SAFE?

• Round-up Ready corn/soybeans and Bt corn consumed
  in United States, Argentina and Canada Since 1995
  
• not a single case of adverse health impacts has
  been documented

• Bt is considered safe to eat because it is
  digested in minutes and is not absorbed as a
  whole protein by the body.

11
BEWARE of Public Skepticism
12
Golden Rice

• two daffodil genes and a bacterial gene spliced
  into the rice genome. barely produced enough
  b-carotene
• Now golden rice contains a corn gene that
  provides enough b-carotene
• Still not available due to regulations

13
Outdated Propaganda against Golden Rice
A normal size serving would be sufficient with
the newer golden rice
14

• 1999 Gerber foods company succumbed to activist
  pressure baby food products no longer contain
  any gene-spliced ingredients

• Gerber promised a shift to organic ingredients
  that are grown without synthetic pesticides or
  fertilizers

• Gerber has actually increased the health risk
  for its baby consumers.

• If a mother some day discovers that her "Gerber
  baby" has developed liver or esophageal cancer,
  she might have a legal case against Gerber

15
Benefits of GE crops

• reduced use of chemical pesticides
• less runoff of chemicals into waterways
• greater use of farming practices that prevent
  soil erosion
• higher profits for farmers
• less fungal contamination
• More nutritious foods

16
GE crops and Worker Safety

• Production of Bt cotton has led to enormous
  reductions in insecticide use (equivalent to 25
  percent of all of the insecticide sprayed before
  the adoption of Bt cotton).
• Reduced exposure of farm workers to
  broad-spectrum pesticides
• the positive effects on farm workers and the
  environment should be considered when deciding on
  the merits of Bt crops

17
GM Concern

• Pests will evolve to become resistant to Bt (This
  also normally occurs if a pesticide is heavily
  used)

• Many varieties of Bt toxin can be genetically
  engineered to keep one step ahead of the insects.

18
GE crops can coexist with other farming systems

• the papaya industry in Hawaii was virtually
  decimated by the presence of a single viral
  disease caused by the papaya ringspot virus
• 1998 genetically engineered papaya lead to a
  20-fold increase in yield.
• Hawaiian organic papaya can be grown disease free
  if it is produced near GE trees. This is because
  the GE fruit has eliminated the spread of the
  virus.

19
Food Labeling

• a GMO-free label does not provide meaningful
  information.
• Example GE papaya is immunized with trace
  amounts ringspot viral DNA
• organic papaya is likely to be virally infected
  and would therefore carry much higher levels of
  viral RNA as well as viral protein.