Page 14 - Spring2013

Caustic Commentary

migraine headaches, and vaccinated children were about U.S. pay about $100 more per acre for GM seed. Many have
eight times more likely to develop respiratory problems like begun questioning "whether they will continue to see benefits
asthma and chronic bronchitis. They were three times more from using GMs," according to Farmers Weekly. Countries
likely to develop hyperactivity, four times more likely to de- around the world that do not use GM seed are outperforming
velop hayfever and a shocking seventeen times more likely U.S. farmers. The largest crop yields last year were in Asia,
to develop thyroid disease. Most importantly, only four of the particularly China, where farmers don't plant GM seed (www.
eight thousand unvaccinated children had severe autism (.05 fwi.co.uk, February 6, 2013).
percent), while the rate among vaccinated children is about
one percent, or twenty times higher. In a similar but unrelated VITAMIN A FOR THYROID FUNCTION
survey conducted in the 1990s, researchers found that the We often report on vitamin A in these pages, because it has so
death rate among vaccinated children from diphtheria, tetanus many roles in human biochemistry, and because it is the most
and whooping cough was twice as high neglected and maligned
as that of unvaccinated children (http:// vitamin in the popular
journal.livingfood.us). literature. New research
corroborates the fact that
NANO-FLAVORINGS vitamin A is needed for
From a foodsafetynews.com report thyroid function. In a
we learn about a June conference of four-month trial, fifty-six
the Institute of Food Technologists in obese thyroid patients
New Orleans. Hundreds of Chinese were randomly allocated
vendors working in small clusters to receive either 25,000
beneath bright red banners offered for IU vitamin A per day or
sale “almost any spice, food-processing a placebo. In addition,
substance or additives a food processor twenty-eight non-obese
might want and promises of concoct- thyroid patients received
ing anything else they could dream the vitamin. Vitamin A
of—all FDA approved.” According caused a significant re-
to the report, “One salesman quickly duction in blood thyroid
jerked back his business card when a stimulating hormone
reporter pulled out a tape recorder to (TSH) concentrations in
capture the man’s promises offering a Cartoon by Richard Morris both obese and non-obese
‘nanoparticle sweetener for honey that cannot be detected. patients along with an increase in T3. The researchers con-
.'” (www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/08/honey-laundering/#. cluded: vitamin A supplementation might reduce the risk of
URHooKW9f95). subclinical hypothyroidism in premenopausal women. How
about suggesting the consumption of vitamin A-rich food
ABANDONING GMOS? instead? Let’s reduce the risk of thyroid problems in everyone
While consumers fight for labeling, and activists publicize by encouraging the consumption of foods like liver, cod liver
the adverse health effects of consuming genetically engi- oil and grass-fed butter.
neered food, it looks like the genetically engineered seed
industry may be taken down by the most powerful force of SPORE-FORMING BACTERIA
all: economics. Some U.S. farmers are considering returning Researchers at Cornell's College of Agriculture, a bastion
to conventional seed after increased pest resistance and crop of industrial agriculture, have identified spore-forming
failures resulted in smaller yields globally for GMO crops bacteria that not only survive milk pasteurization, but are
compared to their non-GMO counterparts. Farmers in the able to germinate as a result of the heat. Certain bacteria
14 Wise Traditions SPRING 2013 SPRING 2013 Wise Traditions