Raw Energy Hotline

RAW ENERGY HOTLINE
MAY, 2003
(212) 343-1152
www.rawfoodinfo.com

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock,
the stream always wins - not through strength but by
perseverance.

H. Jackson Brown

1) Rhio's response to someone who thinks that campaigning against genetically engineered food is the wrong battle to fight

2) Some notes on our trip South

1) Subj: Campaign against real problems
Date: 4/8/2003
From: fleetoperations@hotmail.com
To: GMCoffey@aol.com

Hello,

I must say that for right now I believe you have picked the wrong battle to fight. GE food products are not something that is terrible for the world. If it can save billions of lives and be safe in the process why fight it. Most campaigns against GE foods come down to them being unsafe and freak foods. Well I have to assume that when they are tested by 3 different systems including the FDA they are safe. Until someone hands me a complete test of what happens to my body when eating GE foods I will consider them safe.

I for one will say that I do not go hungry everyday. I love growing food in my garden to eat, but I cannot stop other starving people around the world to go hungry because I believe GE foods are dangerous. Basing that on no actual evidence other than they created it so it has to have side effects. I am not sure how you can cause young children to starve to death everyday simply because YOU do not like what THEY will be eating. I do not believe it is your choice to keep a starving boy or girl from eating GE food that can save their lives. That should be their choice. You have the same choice, but do not assume that you can keep food from other countries. Other people just because you would rather everyone eat organic food. Is eating moldy or rotten bread good for them? Definitely not but they are still forced to eat those foods because they have no other choice.

My intent was not to anger anyone with this message. Just to see if we can let everyone decide for him or herself what THEY should be eating.

Sincerely,

Chad
Denver, CO

April 20, 2003

Dear Chad,

Your letter regarding GE foods was forwarded to me for a response. I am an opponent of GE foods and lecture on the subject.

I wanted to respectfully answer each of your points because I believe that you are unaware of the very real and uncertain implications that the proliferation of GE foods has for human health and for the environment. You are not aware of facts showing the damage that results from growing these foods. You wrote, "My intent was not to anger anyone with this message. Just to see if we can let everyone decide for him or herself what THEY should be eating."

I'll start with your closing remark. The trouble is, everyone is NOT able to decide for him or herself what THEY should be eating, because GE foods are not labeled in the USA. Without labeling of GE products, this choice has been taken away from us. (That is, unless we purchase organically grown foods. And even with organic foods, there is a risk of GE contamination - see further below).

You also wrote that GE foods are tested by three different systems, including the FDA. The FDA does not test GE foods for safety or anything else. No US government agency tests the safety of genetically altered foods. This is a fact. They rely on industry tests, but even these tests are not mandatory. It's like the honor system. They are relying on the industry to monitor itself. When it concerns our food safety, I do not believe that industry should monitor itself. It didn't work in the tobacco industry, it doesn't work in the chemical industry and I know it's not working in the food industry.

Our government classifies GE food as "substantially equivalent" to non-GE food. However there were no tests of any kind performed to establish this designation. In 1991, during the first Bush administration, a post was created in the FDA called, I think, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy. Michael Taylor, a lawyer working for Monsanto on policy issues, was revolved (appointed) into the FDA to be the Deputy Commissioner and to write the policy for GE food. He wrote the pro-GE policy, despite the vigorous objection of the FDA's own scientists, whose opinions he overruled. After Michael Taylor wrote this policy, he was revolved back out of the FDA to the private sector again - a job at Monsanto awaited him. You've heard of the "revolving door policy" in our government? This shameful history only serves private industry and not the people (consumers) who are supposed to be protected by the FDA.

Some prominent researchers, lawyers and writers opposed to GE include David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva, Mae-Wan Ho, Steve Druker, Brian Tokar, Andrew Kimbrell, Joe Cummins, and Arpad Pusztai. Put any of these names into a search engine for more information.

Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a genetic scientist working at the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland was originally very pro GE. In 1998, he set up a 3 year, $1.6 million study, to test the effects of genetically altered foods on rats. His study included rats feeding on three different types of potatoes as follows:

1) regular non-GE potatoes

2) Genetically engineered potatoes (the potatoes were spliced with a snowdrop lectin - the lectin was believed to make the plant toxic to insects).

3) Regular potatoes mixed with the same lectin - but not genetically engineered lectin.

Out of the three groups of rats, only the group feeding on GE potatoes suffered ill effects. In ten days all their organs decreased in weight, signaling a compromised immune system. They also suffered from viral infections of the stomach lining.

Prior to his own research, Dr. Pusztai was a proponent of GE and he fully expected his research to give GE a clean bill of health. After evaluating the results of only ten days of the much longer study, he went on a TV show and told of his research findings. Within 48 hours, Dr. Pusztai was relieved of his long-standing post at the Rowett Research Institute, denied access to his research and put under a gag order. You may well ask: "What could keep him from talking - why was he successfully gagged? It was because the Institute also threatened to fire his entire research team. Now, of course, the doctor has retrieved his research documents and is talking through lectures all over the world. This is only one of too few "independent research" studies conducted that suggest that GE food is dangerous to human health. It is very difficult to get the truth out when the very institution authorizing research tries to suppress it, because it does not like the results.

One of the facts of life in our times is that many Institutions which are supposed to conduct "independent research" are really beholden to the private industries which fund them. This is often the case with our land-grant universities, as these universities generally have contract partners in private industry. How can we assure that research data is made public, when and if the results of that research may go against what the private industry partners are promoting? Honesty, integrity and transparency seem to get lost in these kinds of arrangements.

You can read more about Arpad Pusztai by putting his name into a Google search. There is also more information on my website: www.rawfoodinfo.com - both in the Articles section under Biotechnology and in the Links section under Genetic Engineering.

In 1989, a genetically engineered batch of the food supplement, L-tryptophan,* sold in the US by a Japanese company, Showa Denko, caused the death of dozens of people, and the permanent disability of 1500 more. Five thousand people, in all, were affected adversely. This only occurred with the genetically modified version, yet ALL L-tryptophan was taken off the market. The genetic engineering of L-tryptophan produced a toxin - an unexpected occurrence. Had testing been done prior to this occurrence, these deaths and disabilities could have been avoided.

* L-tryptophan is a naturally occurring amino acid.

A very strong thread throughout your letter is the conviction that, if GE is not allowed to proceed, somehow people all over the world will starve. Quite the opposite, available research shows that yields DECREASED in GE plants. A 2-year study out of the University of Nebraska on Round Up Ready soybeans, showed conclusively that yield was reduced. High yielding conventional soybeans produced 57.7 bushels per acre, while GE soybeans produced 52 bushels per acre, a substantial reduction. At the same time, growing the GE soybeans involved the use of more herbicide. Genetically engineered Round Up Ready soybeans are engineered to resist herbicide; specifically, the Round Up Ready Herbicide, which is also sold by Monsanto, the same company which sells the GE seed. When these herbicides are applied, all surrounding plant life (weeds), and the attendant life that lives and feeds on these plants, is killed. Only the target plant is allowed to live. In this sense, GE is a culture of death and destruction. True organic agriculture understands and works with surrounding plant life (weeds). Weeds in cohabitation with target plants assist them in many beneficial ways; breaking up hardpans with their stronger root systems, bringing moisture up to the surface, and recycling nutrients and reducing water needs when applied as mulch.

Researchers report that yields are reduced in GE agriculture because the alteration of the genome in a plant or organism causes a destabilization of the entire structure. The plant is not functioning at its optimum level and yield is reduced. This same destabilization also reduces the nutrients contained in GE food.

So far, all independent research has substantiated these reductions in both yields and nutrients. The biotechnology industry has launched a $250 million-dollar advertising campaign to convince the American people of the {dubious} benefits of GE. Your belief that we need these foods to feed the starving people of the world was probably garnered from such PR. Not all the money is spent on ads - some of it is spent in strategically placed propaganda, masquerading as science.

One thing that you can be sure of is that, within the legitimate scientific community, there is no agreement or consensus as to the safety of GE foods.

Two more points I will mention, before I end. For those who choose to be a vegetarian, how can their choice be respected if we allow the splicing of animal and insect genes into plants and then do not tell them about it through labeling?

And lastly, in Nature's wondrous system, pollen goes forth through wind, insects and bees to fertilize and even spontaneously hybridize new plants with a plant's close relatives in the world of weeds. This has been a form of natural evolution for plants. But in all the eons of our earth, Nature never, ever crossed a fish gene with a tomato or placed a rat gene into a broccolini plant because Nature has barriers, natural constraints, that do not allow such things to happen. Now, all of a sudden, in what is surely an affront to the integrity of Nature, we are allowing the crossing of all kinds of organisms.

You finished your letter with the question of choice. You said that we have the same choice as the farmers who plant GE.

I choose to be an organic farmer. If my neighbor plants GE seeds across the way from me, and our plants come to flower at the same time, my organic plants will be contaminated with his GE organisms. How does that give me the choice that I need to be organic? This has happened already and many organic farmers in the Midwest can no longer call themselves organic, through no fault of their own. GE technology is a form of trespass onto another person's property and essentially denies them the right to harvest the plant of their choice. In the upside down world that we live in, farmers are being sued because there are GE plants growing on their land (that they never planted) because of this pollen contamination process. Monsanto and other biotech corporations are suing farmers because they claim that the farmers stole their patented technology. In reality, the biotech corporation, with its GE technology, has been the trespasser and has stolen the farmer's use of his land, and denied him the right to grow plants of his own choice on his own land. An unhappy state of affairs.

I note that you are a gardener, so hope that you understand the unfairness of this situation.

GE plants, if they are to be grown at all, should be grown in contained environments - biospheres and such - so that their pollen cannot contaminate the entire countryside.

I hope that I have been able to give you at least some food for further thought and deliberation.

Respectfully,

Rhio
Rhio's Raw Energy
www.rawfoodinfo.com

2) Notes on our trip South

Recently I went on a speaking tour to Florida and Georgia. There was very bad weather in New York and so I felt very fortunate to be out of town and down south. After the first two lectures, Leigh and I had a break of ten days which we spent mostly on the beach in the town of Hollywood, Fl. It was really great just soaking up the sun and water and we learned a new word: Snowbirds. That's what they call people who escape the freezing weather of the North and go South. I think that Leigh and I will be Snowbirds from now on.

The raw food diet and lifestyle is gaining momentum everywhere in the country, judging by the email and other feedback that I get. On the trip, we could appreciate its acceleration in the South. There are so many people awakening to the joy and wonderful benefits to be gained by making a transition back into the bosom of Nature.

In Ft. Myers we met Donald Jansen and Lynn Quayle who provide their neighboring community with the most beautiful and nourishing wheatgrass that they fertilize with sea water. Donald has had his wheatgrass tested for minerals and other nutrients and the results are awesome. Donald is hoping to build a dome structure in which to grow his wheatgrass and other greens. Now he is using two very long trailers. Dome structures, according to Donald, maintain a temperature of approx. 70 degrees F year round. They are warm in Winter and cool in Summer. Why aren't we living in these energy conserving domes, instead of constantly being dependent on oil or gas fuels? This year we were going to build a greenhouse on the farm but Don's dome information convinced us that we should build a dome to use as a greenhouse instead. Regular greenhouses have to be heated in Winter. The dome wouldn't need heat. We'll soon find out!!

Donald also told me some amazing stories about the healing powers of H202, food grade Hydrogen Peroxide, 35%. It reawakened my interest in the product and I ordered a few books to read up on it.

In Homestead, Florida, there is a place called The Fruit and Spice Park. If you ever visit Florida, try to get down there. They have guided tours and there is always some fruit ripening at any time of the year. On a tour, we learned about dozens of fruits and spices that are little known or sold in the marketplace. One of them was called eggfruit. It had the texture of and tasted like a slightly sweet boiled egg yolk, but of course, it was raw. It was also bright yellow. Fresh annatto seeds from a shrubby tree stained the skin a beautiful shade of red or orange gold. I think there is a possibility there for really natural lipstick. We learned that bananas always give birth to another banana tree before dying after producing just one stalk of bananas. Bananas are also a year round crop. Jackfruit, one of the largest fruits, is never seen in American supermarkets. The Jackfruit we saw was not ripe yet in March, but fortunately I knew what it tasted like from sampling some on a trip to Jamaica. It has it's own unique flavor.

On a Gulfcoast Island, we had a fun day with friends picking Green and Yellow Water Coconuts near the beach. People passing by asked what we were going to do with them and we told them about the wonderful nourishing water inside of coconuts. We also learned that the parks department is injecting the coconut trees in that area with some kind of antibiotics every three or six months. They say that the trees are sick and need this. I say that what the trees need is some compost and rock dust. Isn't it funny how our allopathic medical methods even extend to meddling with the natural world? The Island where we were harvesting the coconuts is a kind of ritzy neighborhood in Florida with many expensive homes. A policeman came by and gave us the information about the antibiotics. We think that someone called him to come and discourage us from picking the cocos. We didn't believe him at first, but some calls made the next day confirmed the information as correct. In the Picture Gallery of my website I am building a page about our day picking coconuts with more details and lots of pictures and information on green and yellow water coconuts. Look for it to be posted sometime in late June.

In Atlanta, Georgia, we did a lecture at the beautiful Sprout Café of Jackie and Gideon Graff. Jackie is a masterful raw food chef who has developed numerous delicious recipes. The following weekend we went to a Black Vegetarian Festival at Morehouse College where Jackie was speaking and we learned that the Black community of Georgia is awakening to the Raw Truth. There are several raw chefs who provide take out food to the community. And there is also an Institute which teaches all facets of the raw lifestyle.

In both Florida and Georgia there are many raw food gatherings taking place on a regular basis. In Clearwater, FL we even met someone who will be supplying the food (raw menu) for the Meals on Wheels program in that area. It is very, very encouraging to witness the evolution of the raw food movement into more mainstream outlets and venues.

Our trip was very fruitful until the night of March 19 - that was the evening the war began - and our signal to head home when less than a handful of people showed up. I don't blame people for not wanting to go out. We canceled our final lecture when the hostess reported only a few people had signed up. What a sad finale to an otherwise outstandingly beautiful trip.

For raw food contacts in Florida and Georgia, as well as in the rest of the country, check the Directories Section of my website.

Until next time,

With Blessings and Peace,

Rhio

FEEDBACK

Hi Rhio,

Best of greetings to you!

Well, I just wanted to add my own comments to your wonderful update. (this is only regarding the first half of it)

I think this person's (Chad's) letter and your response to it are BOTH excellent. I think that it captures the essence of the GE problem, in clear, concise, easy to understand form.

Really, this is wonderful that you took the time to write that person back so nicely, and then (due to the wonder of RAW) you have the insight also to see how this communication between you both is the dialog we all need to have within ourselves about the situation.

You always pass out many papers before your lectures, but honestly, only a very few can really get into that level of detail about this subject. I think the masses need something like these two letters.

My two cents, I just wanted to send you a HIGH-FIVE over the airwaves. You are one of my heros in this world, thank you for your selflessness!

Much Love, Doris

btw, I also enjoyed reading the rest of the update, it's just that the real jewel of it is in the first part.

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