GMO and Morgellons Disease

GMO and Morgellons Disease

by Barbara H. Peterson

Global Research, March 27, 2008

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Since the Clinton administration made biotechnology “a strategic priority for U.S. government backing” (1), giant transnational agri-business concerns have aggressively taken over the global food chain by flooding it with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) without regard for the consequences to the earth or its inhabitants. This takeover not only has the potential for global economic devastation, but threatens the earth’s population with far-reaching health concerns as well. One health concern that seems to coincide with the GMO revolution is Morgellons disease. What if the advent of Morgellons disease has something to do with the ingestion of GMO foods?


Morgellons Disease – What is it?



Very little can be found regarding this disease. Originally, sufferers were told that their problem was imaginary. This was of little comfort to the people who were suffering.



Morgellons Disease sufferers report strange, fiber-like material sticking out of sores or wounds that erupt on the skin. This is accompanied by painful, intense itching, that has been described as “an ever present sensation as if something is crawling under the skin.” (2)



On May 18, 2006, KGW, a local news channel reporting out of the Oregon area published this story:



Strange sickness: Mystery disease horror story (excerpt)



[Dr. Drottar] The disabled family practice doctor felt like bugs were crawling under her skin.



"If I fully tell people what has gone on with me medically, they think they’re in the twilight zone,” said Drottar.



She woke up with the feeling that fluid was flowing just below her skin. Often black or blue hair like fibers protruded from her skin, she said.



“I thought I had been exposed to asbestos. I thought I was having asbestos fibers come out of my skin. I was pulling long, thin, small hair-like fibers that were extremely sharp that could literally pierce through my finger nails,” Drottar said.



In addition to the feeling of bugs and the fibers, Drottar also suffered from severe depression, chronic fatigue and a weakened immune system. As a result, she had to give up her family practice, Drottar said. (3)



Here are some pictures of Morgellons lesions included in the KGW report:







The Morgellons Research Foundation

Fibers embedded in skin removed from facial lesion of three year old boy, 60x.







morgellonsusa.com

Photo of the fibrous structures that were in the skin of a Morgellons sufferer.



Morgellons and GMO – the Link



Little information has been revealed concerning the long-term health effects of GMO crops on humans or animals, and even less information can be had regarding research correlating Morgellons with GMO foods. This is suspicious right off the bat, because it would seem that there would be a natural curiosity regarding a link between Genetically Modified Organisms that people ingest regularly and inorganic fibers that protrude from a person’s skin. This would be right up a geneticist’s alley, and quite worthy of intensive research. So, why aren’t there a ton of published studies? Why is it so difficult finding anything related to this? Could it be that companies such as Monsanto have enough clout to effectively squash these stories? If they have enough clout to ruin countries by deceiving impoverished farmers into purchasing patented GMO seeds, and then take it a step further and force these poor people to purchase seeds year after year instead of harvesting their own, then they have enough clout to ask our more than willing corporate government to manipulate the press...again.



According to Mike Stagman, PhD,



“Genetic Engineering is a nightmare technology that has already caused MANY disease epidemics -- documented but unpublicized.” (4)



Well Monsanto, you let at least one study slip through. With the help of a couple of search engines, the following article by Whitley Strieber published on October 12, 2007, titled “Skin Disease May Be Linked to GM Food” was found, which concludes that the fibers taken from a Morgellons sufferer contain the same substance that is "used commercially to produce genetically-modified plants." Here is the article:



Skin Disease May Be Linked to GM Food
12-Oct-2007



Many people—and most physicians—have written off Morgellons disease as either a hoax or hypochondria. But now there is evidence that this mysterious disease may be REAL and related to GENETICALLY MODIFIED food!

The skin of Morgellons victims oozes mysterious strands that have been identified as cellulose (which cannot be manufactured by the human body), and people have the sensation of things crawling beneath their skin. The first known case of Morgellons occurred in 2001, when Mary Leitao created a web site describing the disease, which had infected her young son. She named it Morgellons after a 17th century medical study in France that described the same symptoms.

In the Sept. 15-21 issue of New Scientist magazine, Daniel Elkan describes a patient he calls "Steve Jackson," who "for years" has "been finding tiny blue, red and black fibers growing in intensely itchy lesions on his skin." He quotes Jackson as saying, "The fibers are like pliable plastic and can be several millimeters long. Under the skin, some are folded in a zigzag pattern. These can be as fine as spider silk, yet strong enough to distend the skin when you pull them, as if you were pulling on a hair."

Doctors say that this type of disease could only be caused by a parasite, but anti-parasitic medications do not help. Psychologists insist that this is a new version of the well-known syndrome known as "delusional parasitosis." While this is a "real" disease, it is not a physically-caused one.

But now there is physical evidence that Morgellons is NOT just psychological. When pharmacologist Randy Wymore offered to study some of these fibers if people sent them to him, he discovered that "fibers from different people looked remarkably similar to each other and yet seem to match no common environmental fibers."

When they took them to a police forensic team, they said they were not from clothing, carpets or bedding. They have no idea what they are.

Researcher Ahmed Kilani says he was able to break down two fiber samples and extract their DNA. He found that they belonged to a fungus.

An even more provocative finding is that biochemist Vitaly Citovsky discovered that the fibers contain a substance called "Agrobacterium," which, according to New Scientist, is "used commercially to produce genetically-modified plants." Could GM plants be "causing a new human disease?" (5)
GMO – Not on My Watch!



The giant transnational corporations behind the GMO revolution are hitting us in our most vulnerable spot – our bellies. Most people have been brought up with an innate trust that what they purchase from the stores is safe to eat. This is no longer true, since most processed foods contain genetically engineered ingredients that can have disastrous effects on both animal and human health. What you purchase from the corner store might just change your DNA and create such frightening symptoms that the general public simply does not believe it. What is worse is that when you go to the doctor to get help, he/she tells you what you are experiencing is all in your head. This is rubbish! It is up to people who care to make the correlations between what we eat and what happens to our bodies. Remember the old saying – “you are what you eat?” Well, this author believes it is true.





Notes

1) Engdahl, F.W. (2007). Seeds of Destruction.

2) Stagman, M. Phd. (2006). GMO Disease Epidemics: Bt-cotton Fiber Disease. Retrieved from http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/344305.shtml

3) Porter, L. (2006). Strange sickness: Mystery disease horror story. Retrieved from http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_051806_news_sweeps_strange_sickness_morgellons.53b2569a.html

4) Stagman, M. Phd. (2006). GMO Disease Epidemics: Bt-cotton Fiber Disease. Retrieved from http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/344305.shtml

5) Strieber, W. (2007). Skin Disease Might be Linked to GM Food. Retrieved from
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=6486

Barbara H. Peterson is a Writer and Activist,
http://spktruth2power.wordpress.com

Global Research Articles by Barbara H. Peterson

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PM - GM canola opposers were muzzled, says expert committee

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2201165.htm]

PM - Thursday, 27 March , 2008 18:46:00
Reporter: Ashley Hall
MARK COLVIN: Two expert advisers to the New South Wales Government have accused the Government of gagging dissent in its rush to authorise the planting of genetically modified crops.

The State's Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald approved the commercial production of GM canola about two weeks ago on the recommendation of the Government's Expert Committee on Gene Technology.

But two of its members say the committee is stacked with proponents of GM crops who have downplayed and marginalised the dissenting members' concerns. And the pair say they could be risking a jail sentence by speaking out.

Ashley Hall reports.

ASHLEY HALL: When the State Government effectively lifted its moratorium on genetically modified crops, it convened an expert committee to assess applications from would-be growers.

The committee has now given the go-ahead for the planting of genetically modified canola.

But not everyone on the committee agrees with the decision. The environmental scientist Jo Immig is one such dissenting voice.

JO IMMIG: The representatives that are currently on the committee, I think, when you look into them and look into their background and their public positions on genetic engineering, are quite clearly very pro-GE people. And it's hard to imagine that the committee would come up with any other outcome other than to eventually approve, or suggest to the Minister that he approve the genetically modified canola.

ASHLEY HALL: Jo Immig says her views were sidelined throughout the committee process so they were never presented to the Minister.

JO IMMIG: It's a subtle process that often occurs, for anyone who's been on a committee, where you see that the sorts of concerns that you're raising somehow get watered down in between you raising them on the committee and the advice eventually finding itself to the minister.

And that's the sort of thing that I'm talking about - that key concerns that were raised on the committee by certain members who had concerns didn't necessarily, those concerns didn't necessarily get reflected in their entirety to the Minister.

ASHLEY HALL: The legislation that established the committee also imposed strict confidentially requirements on its members. Anyone found talking about the applications could be sent to jail.

JO IMMIG: So it essentially meant that anything in relation to this application to grow genetically modified canola, an issue which is of interest to the entire community and has been highly controversial and, indeed, the reason why we have a moratorium, effectively meant we couldn't talk to anyone about anything.

ASHLEY HALL: The secrecy rules are also a concern to Juliet McFarlane, another member of the committee. She's been growing canola for about 25 years at Young in south-east New South Wales.

JULIET MCFARLANE: People have no idea what is being discussed at committee level and who is saying what, and I think that's not a good outcome for growers, they, you know, farmers that are growing GM canola, or non-GM canola, they have no idea who's representing them and how that representation is happening.

IAN MACDONALD: I don't think that they've in any way not been able to get their views out.

ASHLEY HALL: Ian Macdonald is the New South Wales primary industries minister.

IAN MCDONALD: In fact the very fact I'm doing this interview indicates they're actually talking about the committee externally so I don't see the point of what they're saying.

ASHLEY HALL: Mr Macdonald rejects the allegation he's stacked the committee to get GM crops approved quickly.

IAN MACDONALD: Well, let's be very clear about it actually. This committee was appointed by Parliament. The legislation defined the committee and who would be on it, so the Parliament have approved this.

ASHLEY HALL: And he says over the years he's become very familiar with the dissenting views on the expert committee.

IAN MACDONALD: They had ample opportunity to put their views in relation to the matter. Their positions are well known, they haven't changed in years, and the committee hasn't essentially changed over that time. So I can't see the nature of their grievance.

The plain fact of the matter is New South Wales has made the decision by an overwhelming numbers in the Upper House in the State to proceed with a path to the production of GM food stuff in New South Wales.

MARK COLVIN: The New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald ending Ashley Hall's report.