Nestle bares its fangs.Plans to dump GE Food on India

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Nestle Bares its Fangs.Unleashes"Banned in Europe"GE Foods on India.
Refuses to meet Greenpeace http://bit.ly/Au2bF

Over 40,000 people joined the protest against Nestles plans to launch GE Foods in India through a movement headed by Greenpeace India and leading Indian Culinary Specialist Tarla Dalal. Despite the consumers return of Goods to Nestle it maintained
its position to supply the "banned by EU" GE Foods to India as per consumer needs.

This is the information on Genetically Modified Food available on Greenpeace Indias site is reproduced below. If you agree with whaty you read please go to site http://bit.ly/Au2bF and register your protest with Nestle.

What is Genetic Modification (GM)?
Genes are what give all organisms their traits or characteristics. Genetic Modification (GM) is a relatively new and poorly understood technology through which new organisms are created by using genes from other unrelated organisms. Using genetic engineering, scientists put characteristics of one organism into another, for e.g., genes from fish that can survive in very cold water have known to be inserted into strawberries’ to make them frost resistant.
Is it safe to eat?
Genetic Engineering may affect food safety in ways that we cannot predict. It may happen through gene disruption or instability leading to new toxins being produced; the new protein produced by the foreign gene may cause allergies or toxicity illness.
There have been sporadic studies conducted by independent scientists and the findings are rather disturbing.
(download a report of genetic accidents)
i. Rats subject to transgenic potatoes were observed to have had adverse effects in their vital organs including the kidney, thymus, and gastronomic muscle.
ii. Allergic reactions can be caused either by a protein known for its allergenic properties introduced into a transgenic plant or due to unknown structural
iii. After a decade of research, mice, which were being fed GE peas, were detected with lung inflammation.
iv. Food allergies occur in one to two per cent of adults and six to eight per cent of children; therefore, children would be most vulnerable to any allergens that may have gone undetected in GE food.
v. Also seen in the rats was stunted growth, impaired immune systems, potentially precancerous cell growth in the intestines, inflamed kidneys and lung tissue, less developed brain, enlarged livers, pancreases and intestines and higher blood sugar.
iv. Genes can cross from the food we eat to the bacteria in our stomachs. These may include antibiotic-resistant genes that are often used as marker genes in GM technology. In the long run this may make humans and animals resistant to anti-biotics.
v. Genes are also sometimes inserted from animals and plants that do not usually form part of the human diet. There has been much talk about inserting genes from venomous insects such as scorpions into rice. Other manipulations may sound less horrific but may be more dangerous.
No scientific consensus has been reached regarding the safety of GM food for human consumption. Some believe that GM food has been brought into the market too soon without proper long term safety tests.
What about other countries?
The European Union has a ban on growing GM crops in the country. As far as packaged food products are concerned, there are not allowed to be manufactured within the European Union, but if they are imported from outside, they required to be labeled as containing GM by law, so that a consumer buying these products can actually make a conscious choice. At present in our country, no such legislation exists. Therefore it is the onus of all of us as consumers to ask the food companies to give us that choice.
Consumers from many nations across the world have taken progressive steps to demand that they be informed about what goes into their food. In Europe, Japan, China, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and some African nations GM fruits and vegetables or processed food containing GM ingredients have to be labeled to let consumers make a well informed choice. Due to increasing consumer pressure food companies are selling GM free milk even in the USA, the mecca of GM crops.
What is my part as a consumer?
There are no laws in India today that require major food companies to have a policy on GMs. This means that the companies have varied positions on GMs and some of them do not even take a stand on the issue! Also, since there is no legislation either that requires GM products to be labeled differently; this means that we will not even know when GM products land up in our kitchens! As a consumer, you have every right to know what is inside your food and ask the companies to take an initiative to ensure safe food for all!
So what do you want me to do?
On August 2009, Greenpeace India wrote to about 20 major food companies in the country and asked them to declare their stand on GMs publicly. While some of them had a policy on GMs such as MTR, the others did not even reply to us! We have collated all this information for you and put it together in our safe food guide. You can find it at www.safefoodnow.org. It will give you a quick snapshot of the GE free food brands in this country. You can even download it from our site and print it to take it along with you the next time you go grocery shopping. You will also find detailed information and other resources on this site. You have every right as a consumer to ask all then companies to declare what they are putting in your food.
And what about Nestle?
Global food giant Nestle India, wrote back to Greenpeace saying that they are in favor of using GM technology in food! Greenpeace believes that GM food cannot be introduced until every stringent scientific test has established that they are 100% safe. Second, it should be completely the choice of the person who eats it to know what they are eating and to reject GE products if they want to. Therefore, we are running a campaign right now urging Nestle India to initiate, formulate and strictly enforce a GM free policy in this country.
You cannot become a lab rat for these experiments in food!