(NaturalNews) Genetically engineered wheat contains an enzyme suppressor that, when consumed by humans, could cause permanent liver failure (and death). That’s the warning issued today by molecular biologist Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury in Australia.

Heinemann has published an eye-opening report that details this warning and calls for rigorous scientific testing on animals before this crop is ever consumed by humans. The enzyme suppressor in the wheat, he says, might also attack a human enzyme that produces glycogen. Consumers who eat genetically modified wheat would end up contaminating their bodies with this enzyme-destroying wheat, causing their own livers to be unable to produce glycogen, a hormone molecule that helps the body regulate blood sugar metabolism. This, in turn, would lead to liver failure.

“What we found is that the molecules created in this wheat, intended to silence wheat genes, can match human genes, and through ingestion, these molecules can enter human beings and potentially silence our genes,” said Heinemann in a press conference on the threat of GM wheat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI7n_caiTvE).

“We found over 770 pages of potential matches between these two genes in wheat and the human genome,” he continued. “We found over a dozen matches that are extensive and identical, and sufficient to cause silencing in experimental systems. The findings are absolutely assured. There’s no doubt that these matches exist. …from this information, we know that it’s plausible there will be an adverse effect and therefore that’s why we’re calling for a particular battery of experiments to be done before humans eat this wheat.”

Professor Judy Carman, biochemist and director of the IHER, Flinders University, Adelaide, added: “If this silences the same sort of gene in us — as it silences in the wheat — then, well, children who are born with this enzyme not working tend to die by the age of about five. And adults with this problem, just kind of get more and more sick, and more and more tired, until they get very very ill indeed.”

She continues, “Before this comes near any human feeding studies, you need to undertake thorough animal safety assessments, where you actually look to see if the animals get sick. So you need to see if this genetic modification survives digestion and gets into the bodies of the animals. You need to see what effect it has on them. You need to do proper long-term toxicology studies… you need to check for cancer, you need to see if there are any reproductive problems, and you need to check for allergies…”

CLARIFICATION: This note was added after initial publication to help clarify the status of GM wheat. Currently, GM wheat is not commercialized. It’s not yet found in everyday foods. But the GMO industry is trying to commercialize it while skipping any real safety testing and buying off regulators to declare it safe. GM corn, of course, is already widely used in foods, as is GM soy. But GM wheat is not yet in the food supply. If we don’t resist the domination of the biotech industry, however, it soon will be.

GMO pushers want you and your children to be the guinea pigs

As you consider this information, keep in mind that GMO pushers want you and your children to eat GMOs that have never been safety tested on anyone! You are simply supposed to believe in the safety of GMOs, like a cult followers, without any scientific evidence proving it.

In today’s corporate-run quack science agricultural system, YOU are the human guinea pigs. There is no science behind the safety of GMOs, and in fact the real science shows that GMOs cause infertility, sickness and disease in the animal tests that have been done. GMOs are a threat to humanity, and those who promote them are junk science villains who have sold their souls to the criminal biotechnology industry.

The GMO industry is so evil that it doesn’t even want you to know you’re eating GMOs! That’s why industry giants are funneling tens of millions of dollars into a scheme to try to defeat Proposition 37 in California (www.CArighttoknow.org) which would legally mandate the labeling of GMOs on food products.

Even popular brands that “sound” natural are actually fighting against GMO labeling: Kashi, Larabar, Cascadian Farm, R.W. Knudsen, Silk and other brands have all betrayed consumers and are now the subject of a global Natural News boycott.

Click here to see the infographic.

Australian regulators sell out to Monsanto

In commenting on all this, Dr Brian John of GM-Free Cymru said:

“What we see here is yet another example of a GM wheat variety released into the environment without any proper assessment of health and safety issues. CSIRO and the Australian and New Zealand regulators have long had a strategy of promoting GM crops which nobody actually wants, with a degree of enthusiasm that verges on criminal negligence. We see a very similar scenario in the UK, where GM wheat is being grown at Rothamsted in spite of strong public opposition and in spite of zero market demand, just to satisfy the whims of politicians and multinational corporations. It is high time for this absurd and dangerous experiment with GM technology to be stopped in its tracks, since new evidence of harm to health and the environment now seems to be appearing on a weekly basis.” (http://gmwatch.org/latest-listing/51-2012/14181-gm-wheat-health-dange…)

See the background on CSIRO here:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/CSIRO

It shows that CSIRO has financial ties to Monsanto and other biotech companies.

Read the expert scientific opinion reports

(Thanks due to GMwatch.org for this list.)

Professor Jack Heinemann’s Expert Scientific Opinion

Professor Judy Carman’s Expert Scientific Opinion

Professor Michael Antoniou’s Expert Scientific Appraisal of Heinemann and Carman’s Work

Heinemann’s Expert Scientific Opinion: Appendix 1

Heinemann’s Expert Scientific Opinion: Appendix 2

Safe Food Foundation media release on the opinions

ABBREVIATIONS
CSIRO = Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
FSANZ = Food Standards Australia New Zealand
OGTR = Office of the Gene Technology Regulator

Background on Jack Heinemann

Source: http://safefoodfoundation.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/He…

I am a molecular biologist. I have been an academic at the University of Canterbury since 1994. Prior to that, I was employed by the US National Institutes of Health. My doctorate was conferred by the University of Oregon at Eugene (1989) and my Bachelor of Science (with honours) degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1985). I am involved in risk assessment research and participate in risk assessment through evaluation of assessments provided to regulatory bodies and through the development of international guidance documents for risk assessment. I have over 100 scholarly works published on the topic of molecular biology, genetics, risk assessment and other scientific matters within my expertise. I publish in leading international journals and my work has been recognised by prestigious professional organisations for its excellence.

Watch the Mike Adams video commentary on this breaking news story:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9v2aCmHVQM

Sources for this story include:
GM Watch
Safe Food Foundation

Watch the presentation of Jack Heinemann

A pesticide called Clothianidin is potentially killing bees and threatening our food supply. An EPA consultation on whether to suspend the use of these toxic pesticides closes on Tuesday. Let’s seize this opportunity to save the bees and flood the EPA with public support to stop these pesticides! Send an urgent message to the EPA now

TAKE ACTION »

Monsanto’s Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to produce a mutant version of the insecticide Bt, has been banned in Poland following protests by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing honeybees.

Poland is the first country to formally acknowledge the link between Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that’s been devastating bees around the world. Many analysts believe that Monsanto has known the danger their GMOs posed to bees all along. The biotech giant recently purchased a CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of the bees.

Now that it’s owned by Monsanto, it’s very unlikely that Beeologics will investigate the links, but genetically engineered crops have been implicated in CCD for years now.

Take action!

SIGN NOW »

In 2009, President Obama appointed the infamous Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer-lobbyist, as Food Safety Czar in the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), and Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s former Biotech Governor of the Year (an award from the industry organization representing Monsanto and the other genetic engineering companies), as Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture.

Sign Food Democracy Now’s Petition to Stop “Pink Slime”

What are some of the consequences of having Monsanto’s foxes guarding our food safety hen house? The following alerts are a couple of examples of Taylor & Vilsack’s worst crimes, followed by an action link to put pressure on President Obama to drop these guys before the 2012 election.

Pink Slime is the process of keeping these leftover trimmings, spinning them around to break up the meat from the fat, and then dousing the lean meat with ammonia to kill the E. Coli. This process also thins the beef, creating about 15% more meat. It has been estimated that almost 70% of the beef in America includes this ammonia treated filler. Read more: McDonald's No Longer Selling "Pink Slime" Beef Treated With Ammonia | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Read the rest of this entry »

Next week, the USDA will decide whether to allow Monsanto and Dow to introduce one half of the chemical mixture Agent Orange into our food supply. Widescale use of Roundup has led to a new generation of resistant weeds, and the next step in the pesticide arms race is 2,4-D — a chemical linked to cancer, Parkinson’s and reproductive problems.

Monsanto - bringing agent orange back from the dead.

Farmers that sign up to use genetically-engineered 2,4-D-resistant corn will be required to spray down their fields with both 2,4-D and Roundup, double-dosing our food, our soil and our waterways with the toxins. Some experts estimate this will increase the use of 2,4-D 50-fold, even though the EPA says the chemical is already our seventh-largest source of dioxins — nasty, highly toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate as they move up the food chain and cause cancer, developmental damage, and birth defects.

We can stop this. The use of 2,4-D is banned entirely in parts of Canada and Europe, and right now the US Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments on 2,4-D to decide whether or not to approve the widespread industrial use of the toxin.

Add your name to our letter to the USDA urging them to deny approval for Dow’s 2,4-D-resistant GMO corn.

This is part of a growing problem, an escalating herbicide war going on across America’s heartland. From 1996 to 2008, herbicide usage increased by 383 million pounds. Nearly half of this took place between 2007 and 2008 after the introduction of another strain of herbicide-resistant plant pushed by Dow. Like Roundup before it, 2,4-D is only a temporary solution that will require more and more tons of toxins and more and more potent chemicals leaching into our food supply.

2,4-D is nasty stuff and has been linked to a number of health problems, such as tripling the rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Nebraska farmworkers exposed to it and causing reproductive problems — birth defects and high rates of miscarriage — in both mice and men exposed to it in the lab and field.

Tell the USDA – we don’t want Monsanto’s toxic pesticide.

-Kaytee, Claiborne Taren and the rest of the team

January 16th is Martin Luther King’s Birthday – that means our annual benefit for the homeless! This the 23rd year of celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. Musicians have donated their time and talent. Life would be different if Dr. King were still alive and an elder statesman among us. This is an attempt to honor his life, and belief in non-violent change in an era that only knows war and indifference. funds raised will go to a new house for the homeless in pittsburgh.
– vincent scotti eirene

During this evening we will have music and poetry, as well as speeches by Dr. King.
Lineup:
1. Bob Ziller
2. Renee Alberts
3. Mike and Laura, from Soft Money
4. Jonnyflower
5. Paul Labrise
6. Ben Hartlage
7. Chris Serra and friends
8. PhatManDee (and Miguel)
9. The Grifters
10. The Stillhouse Pickers
11. The BEATLESs
12. Dylan Rooke
$10 Admission (NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS)

Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Though the majority of Occupy Wall Street‘s demonstrators marched up from Liberty Plaza to Times Square yesterday, a smaller group of perhaps 40 environmentalists began at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Why? Because they’d be making a quick stop on first, just one block away, at the New York City headquarters of Bank of America — one of the biggest funders in the nation of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

As you get a glimpse of it in the photos, each protestor carried a small sign or death certificate, representing the myriad negative health and environmental effects of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Once at the Bank of America building, blocked off by police barricades and maybe a dozen police officers (who previously blocked traffic so marchers could make it across busy Sixth Avenue, it should be said), the protestors began coughing, wheezing, and, well, doing their best to imitate dying from the various ailments that both using and mining coal causes.

Mat McDermott/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

The group had previously decided that no one wanted to get arrested at this particular demonstration. So after a few minutes playing dead on the sidewalk — during which Bank of America’s support for MTR was read out to the small crowd which had assembled and the passersby — when a police supervisor asked everyone to stop blocking the sidewalk, the protestors complied and proceeded onward towards Times Square.

For those not up to speed on what the big deal is with mountaintop removal coal mining, and why it’s so bad for human health and the environment, TreeHugger has covered it extensively.

Check out some of these links:
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Significantly Increases Birth Defects
“See 25 Years of Mountaintop Removal Mining Destruction in 10 Seconds
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Stream Damage Could Take 1,000 Years To Fix
EPA Data Shows Streams Near Mountaintop Removal Coal Mines Toxic”
Climatologist James Hansen Urges Obama to Ban Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining