GMO Blog: Food Wars

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Scientist calls GMO Food RoundUp fungus an “emergency”

You may have read in our previous “Food Wars” postings about the USDA’s recent questionable decision to allow unrestricted plantings of certain GMO (genetically modified) crops. Here’s something else we’ve discovered: The USDA’s Secretary, Tom Vilsack, was warned back in January by a highly credentialed pathogen researcher that a microscopic fungus associated with GMOs is causing widespread infertility and spontaneous abortions in cows.

The person raising the red flag was retired Col. Don M. Huber, a former emeritus professor at Purdue University and a well-known pathogen researcher. He coordinated the America Phytopathological Society (which studies pathogens and plant diseases). In other words, he is a renowned expert on this stuff.

He wrote to Vilsack on January 17 warning of dire consequences of allowing more GMO planting before we understood this pathogen. The microscopic fungus, he said, is previously unknown and is being found in high concentrations in RoundUp Ready soybean meal and corn, distillers meal, and more. RoundUp is the weed killer used on Monsanto’s GMO crops that kill everything but the genetically altered plant, such as alfalfa, sugar beets and corn.

How serious is this? Col. Huber warned in his letter: “I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high-risk status. In layman’s terms, it should be treated as an emergency.” [italics ours] Why?

• Because 45% of the cows exposed to it spontaneously aborted

• Because other cows became infertile

• Because it “could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies,” Huber said

We don’t like to promote fear here at WellWise, but informed people can make a difference. Huber felt strongly enough about this that he asked for an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of these GMO crops until they could determine the relationship between Monsanto’s RoundUp and the pathogen, and whether it was, as it appeared to be, a real threat to crop and animal production, as well as human health.

Tom Vilsack and the USDA approved it anyway.

If this concerns you, as it does us, email your comments and concerns to Vilsack at agsec@usda.gov, and contact the White House.

You can read more of James Townsend's health blogs here.

James Townsend is editor in chief of WellWise.org, a nonprofit organization for the dissemination of science-based information about supplements, nutrients and strategies for health.