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19. How Aid is Used for Political Purposes require mandatory labelling for products made with According to its February 2010 report, Oxfam has GMOs. There is a growing call for more comprehensive, found that billions of dollars in international aid, which independent research. could have transformed the lives of many people in However, the official position of the US Food and Drug some of the world's poorest countries, was spent on Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture unsustainable, expensive and dangerous aid projects (USDA) is that there is no difference between GMOs and which international donor governments used to support non-GMOs. These agencies have proposed to the Codex heir own short-term foreign policy and security Alimentarius Committee that no country should be able objectives. This type of aid often bypasses the poorest —_ to require mandatory GMO labelling of food items. The people and dangerously distorts the line between FDA and USDA say that mandatory labelling is "false, civilian and military activity. misleading, and deceptive" because it implies that there The Oxfam report also showed that even though aid __ is a difference between GMO and non-GMO ingredients. lows were raised while they met wealthy donors’ Ultimately, the FDA and USDA want to do away with international aid commitments product labelling standards overall, between 2001 and 2008, more than 40 trusting corporations to keep to the per cent of this aid increase was spent necessary health standards. in just two countries, Afghanistan and raq, with ihe remainder shared The FDA and trideric Disease: An Emerging among other poor countries. The report stated that, in 2010, 225 USDA say that The epidemic of Lyme disease is tidnapped. in violent. attacks mandatory controversial epidemics of our time: ' . +. 6 : compared to 85 in 2002. The labelling Is false, Lyme disease originates from a politicisation and militarisation of aid Q Q bacterium transmitted through the in some places has made it much misleading, and bite of a tick and can remain hidden, arder for aid agencies to provide help deceptive” mimicking diseases such as multiple th i d. Oa . l is, ALS, ADHD d oth “this is especially the case in because It implies °° neurological condi ions. New Somalia, where the US that there is a cases of Lyme disease occur each umanitarian assistance for the difference year at a rate 10 times higher han that of AIDS and the West ile virus combined. Current Lyme disease reatment guidelines were developed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America IDSA), a group associated with pharmaceutical, insurance and university interests that are profiting from the diagnostic country's desperate populations, previously the single largest source of aid, dropped eightfold in 2008-2010 due to the US government's listing some armed groups in control of most of central southern Somalia as "terrorist" under US law and ending funding if aid groups could not guarantee that no aid between GMO and non-GMO ingredients. would reach the proscribed criteria, vaccines and groups. recommended treatments for Lyme disease. These guidelines, endorsed by the National Institutes of 20. US to Outlaw GM Labelling Health and the Centers for Disease Control, define the There is increasing concern over the health impact o reatment of Lyme as a two-to-four-week course of growing and eating genetically modified organisms antibiotic therapy. (GMOs). The World Health Organization has identified Physicians who believe that Lyme disease is a more allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, gene transfer, chronic condition needing long-term treatment risk outcrossing, GM genes introduced into wild osing their medical licence for treating patients outside populations, gene stability, susceptibility of non-targe DSA guidelines. Insurance companies refuse to pay for organisms (insects) and loss of biodiversity as potentia onger treatments despite evidence that illustrates the issues in using GM seeds. chronic nature of the condition and the effectiveness of Currently, most health studies are done by G ong-term therapies. This leaves thousands of Lyme companies which have a natural conflict of interest tha disease patients suffering because a commercialised can lead to biased research or reporting. Many medical community won't acknowledge the chronic countries, such as Japan, Australia, China and the __ nature of their illness, and the public uneducated about a European Union, recognise the possible risks and growing epidemic. USDA say that mandatory labelling is “false, misleading, and deceptive” because it implies that there is a in difference disease ingredients. groups. 20. US to Outlaw GM Labelling There is increasing concern over the health impact o growing and eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The World Health Organization has identified allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, gene transfer, outcrossing, GM genes introduced into wild populations, gene stability, susceptibility of non-targe organisms (insects) and loss of biodiversity as potentia issues in using GM seeds. Currently, most health studies are done by G companies which have a natural conflict of interest tha can lead to biased research or reporting. Many countries, such as Japan, Australia, China and the European Union, recognise the possible risks and NEXUS ¢ 29 The FDA and between GMO and non-GMO DECEMBER 2011 - JANUARY 2012 www.nexusmagazine.com