OPED NEWS; The Future of Our Food has only just begun with Biotechnoly, by Sandi Trend

Special: “The Future of Food” by Mark Hertsgaard - Airdates of "THE FUTURE OF FOOD"

Saturday, March 28th 03:00 pm
Sunday, March 29th 05:00 am
Sunday, March 29th 03:30 pm
Monday, March 30th 01:00 am
Monday, March 30th 11:00 pm
Tuesday, March 31st 09:00 am
Wednesday, April 1st 02:00 am

This Link TV special, hosted by celebrated environmental journalist Mark Hertsgaard, investigates the corporate dominance of our world's food systems. We are joined in the studio by the filmmaker of The Future of Food, Deborah Koons Garcia, as well as University of California biologist Ignacio Chapela, founder of The Mycological Facility in Oaxaca, Mexico, a facility dealing with questions of natural resources and indigenous rights. Koons Garcia's documentary The Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

Several questions were asked of me about this article:

WHAT COMPELLED YOU TO WRITE, “THE FUTURE OF OUR FOOD HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN WITH BIOTECHNOLOGY”?

TREND
I’m concerned about the safety of our food, especially when I know that live fungus and bacteria products are being put on our food and used for insect control. I have been following the outbreaks of salmonella and e-coli and to be honest with you it makes me cringe because I know that the company my son worked for, Agraquest has bio-control products on the market that are registered for use on the same crops that people have gotten sick and some have died. All of them; spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, alfalfa and now PISTACHIOS have had biopesticides, biofungicides, and/or bioinsecticides products used on them.

I’m not saying Agraquest is to blame for the salmonella and e-coli outbreaks, there are a lot of biotechnology companies who have the same type of products on the market. I’m just saying it certainly is worth looking into if ANY biotechnology company’s bio-control products could be to blame. I don’t feel very comfortable knowing that Agraquest has a manufacturing plant in Mexico where most of their biological products are manufactured when this country is so concerned about bio-terrorist and homeland security.

ORGANIC BIO-CONTROL PRODUCTS
Some of Agraquest’s products are considered organic. What Agraquest says about one of these products, Serenade Garden’ 24 oz Ready to Use, “New category - first certified organic in Wal-Mart.”.

When a product is submitted to the EPA for registration the EPA evaluates the product and tests it. Right on the EPA's, Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division preprinted Form; 8570-6 it says, “After fermentation and prior to further processing, each batch must be tested for the following microbial contaminants and have levels below those listed.”

Now, e-coli and salmonella are the very first pathogens that are listed! So you see, I don’t buy this nonsense that farm animals or humans contaminated the crops that salmonella and e-coli have tested positive. I guess I would’ve accepted that theory if I didn’t know what the EPA’s form said. Why should any of us have to worry about even the slimmest possibility of a human or animal disease producing bacteria or fungus being used on our food crops or for insect control?

Evidently the EPA is concerned about it because they have not only e-coli and salmonella, but other disease producing pathogens listed on the form that is sent to the bio-control product manufactures.

Agraquest has products on the market that are used to treat human diseases. Arabesque TM BioFumigant, a new fungal species was isolated from the bark of a cinnamon tree in Honduras. This is what Agraquest says about Arabesque, “controls fruit rot (and many other molds and bacteria, including human pathogens E-coli, Salmonella and others)”.

DO YOU TRUST AGRAQUEST?

TREND
Not at all. How can you trust a company that scours the world for “novel” microorganisms, brought them into a converted medical doctors office and dumped liquid in a concrete slab that dumps directly onto the ground in a residential neighborhood neighborhood?

This Agraquest location, 1105 Kennedy Place in Davis California, where my son got sick, wasn’t zoned for this type of business to the best of my knowledge.

When David got sick after working for Agraquest for only 5 months and 9 days I didn’t think we would all go through hell for the last 10 years like we have. I suspected his employment had something to do with his 1st major sinus surgery when he continued to have infections in his sinuses.

WHAT HAPPENED?

TREND
Well, he was sick prior to the day he had to leave work early, he was nauseous and was having pretty bad headaches. The day he left work early he had bloody pus draining from his nose and he went to Immediate Care Medical Clinic, where he was put on Zithromax and told to see an ENT immediately. By the time he got to the ENT the left side of his face and teeth were numb and it was only 7 days after he had first sought emergency medical care that the first major sinus surgery was scheduled.

David’s health has never been the same since he got sick from working at Agraquest. He’s had 4 major sinus surgeries, he stopped producing B-cells for an intact immune system and was hooked up to an IV infusion pump at the hospital every 28 days for 3 years receiving IMMUNOGLOBULIN infusions, he has been on countless antibiotics and anti fungals, and not only does he still have infections in his sinuses but his lungs,heart, liver, spleen and GI tract have been affected.

As of the end of 2005 David’s medical expenses were over $333,000 and I stopped counting.

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE THAT IT WAS WHAT DAVID HAD BEEN EXPOSED TO AT AGRAQUEST THAT HAD MADE HIM SO SICK?

TREND
David was told by his wife’s Dr., after he examined him, that he “needed to get away from this group of Doctors, something was wrong here”. So he scheduled David for a full work-up at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. David researched the Mayo Clinic library and found that one of Agraquest’s main products, which the active ingredient was the bacteria bacillus subtilis wasn’t as safe as he had been told when he worked with and around it at Agraquest. It had been known that this bacteria was an occupational hazard since 1969. Then we found out that histoplasma had been identified in David’s blood serum. That was a shock because histoplasma fungus isn’t endemic to this area.

I had a hard time connecting histoplasma to even being at Agraquest when David worked there, until I started searching on the internet using the Agraquest scientists names instead of Agraquest. What I found was that 3 months and 15 days after David began employment at AQ Pam Marrone filed an application (number 09/199,871)  for United States patent 6,004,774 which said the invention "may be used to treat human fungal diseases in which the disseminated disease is a condida, for example, Aspergillus sp, Histoplasma sp. and Tinea sp." . I also discovered that Pam Marrone was listed as “first named inventor” on this patent. 

It was also discovered that on 1/22/1999, four days after David first sought emergency medical care,  the four AQ scientists who are listed as inventors on this patent started signing away their interest rights on the patent to the company, Agritope in Beaverton, Oregon.