Toxins In Our Food Chain: A Kiwi Squawks.

To: Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark

cc: Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair, London, England (via mail)
Dr Jonn Matsen, Canada (via fax)
Dr Samuel Epstein, USA
Mr Phillip Day, Credence Publications, Kent, England
Mr Peter Pavlovich, Stonemeal New Zealand, Auckland

Forward to: Various Newspapers

Dear Prime Minister Helen Clark,

I am a member of the public and a consumer, writing to express my very deep, deep concern regarding GM and other toxins in our food chain. Being a Commonwealth Citizen and residing in England, on occasions I also draw this matter to the attention of the Prime Minister of Britain.

However, the world is my home and every single person is important and needs to be aware of how this issue affects them and all the other animals and plants that are in co-habitation with us.

The public at large is not aware of the quantity of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth inhibitors for storage purposes and growth promoters for ripening, etc. that is sprayed onto our so-called healthy fruit and vegetables before they get to our mouths. We are also misguided into believing that a lot of highly processed foods are healthy for us. In short we are being poisoned and nutritionally starved at the same time.

In Australia, Dr Donahoe who talked about 'farm chemicals in our food' on the Today Tonight - Channel 7 News, was quite explicit about their harmful effects on humans.

Refer back to an article in the NZ Herald on 22 August 2003, entitled 'Test for low-spray onions brings 1500 submissions'. Some of the statements in this article follow:

· "Farmers use a battery of up to 15 different herbicides to control the weeds. Many are more toxic and longer lasting than glyphosate."

· "... the country could save about $2.25 million a year because growers would need to spray only about five litres of glyphosate a hectare, compared with the 16 litres of chemicals now sprayed a hectare every season."

· "...Twenty two million kilograms [a year] of chemical ingredients, herbicides and pesticides would be saved by these crops."

· "Greenpeace Spokesman Steve Abel said it was laughable to claim the herbicide resistant onion would reduce chemical use. The use of herbicide-resistant soybeans overseas had led to a growth in chemical use."

· "You get weed resistance and eventually the herbicide becomes useless so you have to go to the use of more toxic herbicides." - NZPA.

There was also a section next to this article headed "GM growth" as follows:

Quote "5000 ha of GM crops were grown throughout the world in 1996. This ballooned to 45 million hectares of herbicide-resistant crops last year. Source: Crop & Food Research" Unquote

Wow !! That is one big announcement of the quantity of poison being sprayed. Along with our food being poisoned, so is our land and down through into our water-ways. Ask Councils, they would be able to give you a better idea of problems associated with storm water drains, farm trenches, etc. leaching pollutants through into our environment.

Refer to the famous Canadian Doctor, Jonn Matsen, whose medical breakthroughs help prevent and cure formerly incurable diseases. In his book entitled 'Mysterious Causes & Cures of Illness - How to overcome every disease from constipation to cancer without any drugs or surgery' he explains in layman's terms the workings of the body and opens your eyes as to why we have such overloaded hospital waiting lists.

I quote excerpts from his book: "poor diet and faulty digestion can result in incomplete absorption of nutrients and a build-up of toxins in the blood, which can overload the liver and circulate throughout the body causing irritation. If the immune system gets overloaded, more serious problems can result."

"Disease begins with faulty digestion long before the first aches and pains, long before there are any symptoms." (Ref: Dr Jonn Matsen, 'Mysterious Causes & Cures of Illness')

Of course you would have to read his book to fully understand the reasons why we develop faulty digestive systems in the first place.

Dr Matsen quotes in his book the two rather interesting excerpts as follows:

1st Thomas Sydenham, the famous seventeenth century English physician, summed up disease with this statement:

"Disease is nothing else but an attempt on the part of the body to rid itself of morbific matter."

2nd In his book 'The Wheel of Health' Dr. G.T. Wrench wrote: "Diseases only attack those whose outer circumstances, particularly food, are faulty...The prevention and banishment of disease are primarily matters of food; secondarily, of suitable conditions of environment. Antiseptics, medicaments, inoculations, and extirpating operations evade the real problem. Disease is the censor pointing out the humans, animals and plants who are imperfectly nourished." (Ref: Dr Jonn Matsen, 'Mysterious Causes & Cures of Illness')

It was enlightening for me to meet and talk with Mr Peter Pavlovich the owner of Stonemeal New Zealand, who took time out to explain what happens in nature to replenish the soil with minerals which beneficial bacteria feed on and in turn whose excretions feed the plants so they become strong and hardy (due to proper natural nutrition) and resistant to bugs and very nutritious for animal and human consumption. His industry is a natural method of bringing back into order our food chain that has gone drastically wrong through human interference by our industrial revolution. He is currently supplying stonemeal to some farmers and if we are wise we will not interfere with nature by introducing more problems of pollution for her to deal with and in turn should look at eradicating poisons to assist her in cleaning up our environment.

If you look very carefully mother-nature is very intricate, and when we upset her balance she retaliates - one case we can see is with diseases. As far as bugs are concerned they are part of our food chain, you poison them, you poison us, and that is exactly what is happening.

Phillip Day, Health Researcher and Reporter for Credence Publications in Kent, England, refers to one of his books as follows: "In Health Wars, we examine key features of the body's metabolic requirements for food. These axiomatic truths have been confirmed through the outstanding nutrition and physical condition of certain peoples on Earth who, in their native state, do not suffer the same legacy of disease and ill-health currently plaguing industrialised societies. Put simply, as we become more technologically advanced, so increases our temptation to fiddle with our food, water and air in our efforts to bring 'science' to a new plane of understanding and profitability. That this tinkering is in fact one of the chief causes of disease and misery today is widely ignored or trivialised by the arrogance of industry and our (mostly unhealthy) scientific peers, who seem to ignore the fact that while our world changes constantly around us (and often not for the best), our bodies still crave the same nutrients they always did."

(Ref: Phillip Day, 'Food for Thought', Credence Publications). From an article called "Tampering with Creation" in the NZ Herald on 23-24 August 2003, where Science Reporter Simon Collins looks into the latest state of play on GM; I quote the following excerpt: "and to insert into crops a protein made by the soil bacteria Bucillus Thuringiensis, or Bt, which kills harmful insects that try to eat, the crop."

The first question I would be asking is - if it kills harmful insects and because of the unnatural way of impregnation into plants, would it kill the good flora or bugs / digestive enzymes in our bodies too?

However, under the heading 'Is it safe?' the article goes on to say "Michael Meacher, the British Environment Minister who was sacked in June for expressing fears about GM food, points to evidence that: Rats fed on GM potatoes by Dr Arpad Pusztai at Scotland's Rowett Research Institute sometimes developed changes in their gut structure and reduced immune responsiveness to harmful agents compared with rats fed on ordinary potatoes."

Further on in the article it says "Pusztai's research was not finished because he was sacked after voicing concern about testing procedures for GM foods. No one has ever repeated his study."

According to an article on 19 August 2003 in the NZ Herald, there are about 14 countries now growing GM crops on a commercial basis. We are a small country separated from the others by large masses of water; it would be prudent to use this to our advantage by:

• Keeping GM as far away as possible.
• Taking care of the soil by replenishing it naturally.
• Phasing out pesticides, herbicides, etc. and looking more to old methods of crop rotation and companion planting
• Big industries involved with chemicals or GM research can look at ways of improving NZ such as making natural organic sprays; they can turn their skills to ways of cleaning up the mess that has been created within our environment.

In other words, we could be the only clean, GM free country left in the world capable of turning things around, by providing other countries with natural seeds and plants, and organic produce. As a matter of interest I was told that our country already has a specialised breeding programme for rare species of animals from around the world; we even exported back to Australia their white-crested Wallabies when they were dying out.

Dr Jonn Matsen, Mr Phillip Day and Mr Peter Pavlovich, are all experts in their fields and humanitarians who could give valuable advice on how to get our world and health back on track.

It is my request and recommendation that before any decision is made on any type of GM, that Government seeks the advice / consultation with the experts mentioned above. Every single person's life depends on our food chain, therefore - careful, knowledgeable and wise consideration is necessary.

Dr Samuel Epstein, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, endorses my concerns with regard to GM and toxins.

Regards,

Lesley Fairthorne
8 October 2003