The Political Beginnings
excerpted from the book
Seeds of Destruction
The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, 2007
pxiv
[An] emerging American elite, who proclaimed proudly at war's
end [WWII} the dawn of their American Century, were masterful
in their use of the rhetoric of altruism and world-benefaction
to advance their goals. Their American Century paraded as a softer
empire, a "kinder, gentler" one in which, under the
banner of colonial liberation, freedom, democracy, and economic
development, those elite circles built a network of power the
likes of which the world had not seen since the time of Alexander
the Great some three centuries before Christ--a global empire
unified under the military control of a sole superpower, able
to decide on a whim, the fate of entire nations.
pxiv
The man who served the interests of the postwar [WWII] American-based
elite during the 1970's, and came to symbolize its raw realpolitik,
was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger... [He] allegedly declared
his blueprint for world domination: "Control the oil and
you control nations. Control the food, and you control the people."
pxv
In the several decades before and immediately following World
War II, one family [the Rockefeller family] came to symbolize
the hubris and arrogance of the emerging American Century more
than any other. And the vast fortune of that family had been built
on the blood of many wars, and on their control of a new "black
gold' oil.
What was unusual about this family was
that early on in the building of their fortune, the patriarchs
and advisors they cultivated to safeguard their wealth decided
to expand their influence over many very different fields. They
sought control not merely over oil, the emerging new energy source
for world economic advance. They also expanded their influence
over the education of youth, medicine and psychology, foreign
policy of the United States, and, significant for our story, over
the very science of life itself, biology, and its applications
in the world of plants and agriculture.
For the most part, their work passed unnoticed
by the larger population, especially in the United States. Few
Americans were aware how their lives were being subtly, and sometimes
not so subtly, influenced by one or another project financed by
the immense wealth of this family.
pxv
The history of GMO [genetically modified organisms] was inseparable
from the political history of the Rockefeller family, and the
four brothers--David, Nelson, Laurance and John D. III--who, in
the three decades following American victory in World War II,
the dawn of the much-heralded American Century, shaped the evolution
of power George Kennan referred to in 1948.
In actual fact, the story of GMO is that
of the evolution of power in the hands of an elite, determined
at all costs to bring the entire world under their sway.
Three decades ago, that power was based
around the Rockefeller family. Today, three of the four brothers
are long-since deceased, several under peculiar circumstances.
However, as was their will, their project of global domination--"full
spectrum dominance" as the Pentagon later called it--had
spread, often through a rhetoric of "democracy' and was aided
from time to time by the raw military power of that empire when
deemed necessary. Their project evolved to the point where one
small power group, nominally headquartered in Washington in the
early years of the new century, stood determined to control future
and present life on this planet to a degree never before dreamed
of.
The story of the genetic engineering and
patenting of plants and other living organisms cannot be understood
without looking at the history of the global spread of American
power in the decades following World War II. George Kennan, Henry
Luce, Averell Harriman and, above all, the four Rockefeller brothers,
created the very concept of multinational "agribusiness'
They financed the "Green Revolution" in the agriculture
sector of developing countries in order, among other things, to
create new markets for petro-chemical fertilizers and petroleum
products, as well as to expand dependency on energy products.
Their actions are an inseparable part of the story of genetically
modified crops today.
By the early years of the new century,
it was clear that no more than four giant chemical multinational
companies had emerged as global players in the game to control
patents on the very basic food products that most people in the
world depend on for their daily nutrition-corn, soybeans, rice,
wheat, even vegetables and fruits and cotton-as well as new strains
of disease-resistant poultry, genetically-modified to allegedly
resist the deadly H5N1 Bird Flu virus, or even gene altered pigs
and cattle. Three of the four private companies had decades-long
ties to Pentagon chemical warfare research. The fourth, nominally
Swiss, was in reality Anglo-dominated. As with oil, so was GMO
agribusiness very much an Anglo-American global project.
In May 2003, before the dust from the
relentless US bombing and destruction of Baghdad had cleared,
the President of the United States chose to make GMO a strategic
issue, a priority in his postwar US foreign policy. The stubborn
resistance of the world's second largest agricultural producer,
the European Union, stood as a formidable barrier to the global
success of the GMO Project. As long as Germany, France, Austria,
Greece and other countries of the European Union steadfastly refused
to permit GMO planting for health and scientific reasons, the
rest of the world's nations would remain skeptical and hesitant.
By early 2006, the World Trade Organization (WTO) had forced open
the door of the European Union to the mass proliferation of GMO.
It appeared that global success was near at hand for the GMO Project.
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Powerful private families decide who controls the Federal Reserve,
the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and even the European Central
Bank. Money is in their hands to destroy or create. Their aim
is the ultimate control over future life on this planet, a supremacy
earlier dictators and despots only ever dreamt of. Left unchecked,
the present group behind the GMO Project is between one and two
decades away from total dominance of the planet's food capacities.
p17
The genetic revolution had been a Rockefeller Foundation project
from the very beginning. Not only ... had the Rockefeller Foundation
spent more than $100 million for the advance of the GMO revolution.
That project was part of a global strategy that had been in development
for decades.
p18
Terminator seeds had been designed to prevent the germination
of harvested grains as seeds... This technology would block farmers
in developing countries from saving their own seed for re-sowing.
p21
As GM seeds were being commercially introduced into Argentine
and North American farming, an event of enormous significance
for the future of the GMO project occurred in faraway Scotland.
There, in Aberdeen, in a state-supported laboratory, the Rowett
Research Institute, an experienced scientist was making studies
in a carefully controlled manner. His mandate was to conduct long-term
research on the possible effects of a GMO food diet on animals.
The scientist, Dr. Arpad Pusztai was
no novice in genetic research. He had worked in the specialized
field of biotechnology for more than 35 years, published a wealth
of recognized scientific papers, and was considered the world's
leading expert on lectins and the genetic modification of plants.
In 1995, just prior to Monsanto's mass
commercial sales of GM soybean seeds to American and Argentine
farmers, Scotland's Office of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries
contracted the Rowett Research Institute to undertake a three-year
comprehensive study under the direction of Dr. Pusztai. With a
budget of $1.5 million, it was no small undertaking.'
The Scottish Agriculture Office wanted
Rowett to establish guidelines for a scientific testing methodology
to be used by Government regulatory authorities to conduct future
risk assessments of GMO crops. As the spread of GMO crops was
in its earliest stages, mostly in test or field trials, it was
a logical next step to prepare such sound regulatory controls.
No better person could have been imagined
to establish scientific credibility, and a sound methodology than
Dr. Pusztai.
... The only other study of GM food effects
at the time was the one sponsored by Monsanto, wherein conclusions
not surprisingly claimed that genetically-engineered food was
completely healthy to consume.
... The Scottish government, Rowett and
Dr. Pusztai believed they were about to verify a significant breakthrough
in plant science which could be of huge benefit to food production
by eliminating need for added pesticides in potato planting. By
late 1997, Pusztai was beginning to have doubts.
The rats fed for more than 110 days on
a diet of GM potatoes had marked changes to their development.
They were significantly smaller in size and body weight than ordinary
potato-fed control rats in the same experiment ... the GMO rats
showed markedly smaller liver and heart sizes and demonstrated
weaker immune systems. The most alarming finding was the markedly
smaller brain size of GMO-fed rats compared with normal potato-fed
rats. This later finding so alarmed Pusztai that he chose to leave
it out when he was asked to present his findings on a UK Independent
Television show in 1998. He said later he feared unleashing panic
among the population.
What Dr. Arpad Pusztai did say when he
was invited to talk briefly about his results on the popular ITV
"World in Action" broadcast in August 1998, was alarming
enough. Pusztai told the world, "We are assured that this
is absolutely safe. We can eat it all the time. We must eat it
all the time. There is no conceivable harm which can come to us."
He then went on to issue the following caveat to his millions
of viewers. He stated, "But, as a scientist looking at it,
actively working in the field, I find that it is very, very unfair
to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs. We have to find guinea
pigs in the laboratory."
... Pusztai stated simply that, "the
effect (of a diet of GM potatoes) was slight growth retardation
and an effect on the immune system. One of the genetically modified
potatoes, after 110 days, made the rats less responsive to immune
effects." Pusztai added a personal note: "If I had the
choice, I would certainly not eat it until I see at least comparable
scientific evidence which we are producing for our genetically
modified potatoes".
... Within 48 hours, the 68-year-old researcher
was told his contract would not be renewed. He was effectively
fired, along with his wife, who had herself been a respected Rowett
researcher for more than 13 years. Moreover, under the threat
of losing his pension, Pusztai was told not to ever speak to the
press about his research. His papers were seized and placed under
lock. He was forbidden to talk to members of his research team
under threat of legal action. The team was dispersed. His phone
calls and e-mails were diverted.
That was to be only the beginning of a
defamation campaign worthy of Third Reich Germany or Stalinist
Russia.
... The Blair Government [of Britain]
had set up a secret Biotechnology Presentation Group to launch
a propaganda campaign to counter the anti-GMO media, at that point
a dominant voice in the UK. The Pusztai debate threatened the
very future of a hugely profitable GMO agribusiness for UK companies.
...It took five years and several heart
attacks, before the near-ruined Pusztai was able to piece together
the details of what had taken place in those 48 hours following
his first TV appearance in 1998. His findings revealed the dark
truth about of the politics of GMO crops.
Several former colleagues at Rowett, who
had retired and were thus protected from possibly losing their
jobs, privately confirmed to Pusztai that Rowett's director, Prof.
Philip James, had received two direct phone calls from Prime Minister
Tony Blair. Blair had made clear in no uncertain terms that Pusztai
had to be silenced.
... The Clinton Administration was in
the midst of spending billions to promote GMO crops as the technology
of a future biotech revolution. A Clinton White House senior staff
member stated at the time that their goal was to make the 1990's,
"the decade of the successful commercialization of agricultural
biotechnology products." By the late 1990's, the stocks of
biotech GM companies were soaring on the Wall Street stock exchange.
Clinton was not about to have some scientist in Scotland sabotage
his project, nor clearly was Clinton's good friend Blair.
... The initial phone call behind his
dismissal came from Monsanto.
Monsanto had spoken with Clinton, who
in turn had directly spoken to Blair about the "Pusztai problem."
Blair then spoke to Rowett's director, Philip James. Twenty four
hours later, Dr. Arpad Pusztai was out on the street, banned from
speaking about his research and talking to his former colleagues.
... The private corporation, through a
simple phone call, had been able to mobilize the President of
the United States and the Prime Minister of Great Britain on behalf
of its private interests. A simple phone call by Monsanto could
destroy the credibility of one of the world's leading independent
scientists.
p30
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, senior academic scientist at the Open University
and later Director of the Institute of Science in Society, warned
in 2003, that genetic modification was entirely unlike normal
plant or animal breeding
Contrary to what you are told by the pro-GM
scientists, the process is not at all precise. It is uncontrollable
and unreliable, and typically ends up damaging and scrambling
the host genome, with entirely unpredictable consequences.
p30
Dr. Brian John article in British journal, GM Science Review "On
the Corruption of GM Science", 2003
There is no balance in the GM research
field or in the peer-review process or in the publication process.
For this we have to thank corporate ownership of science, or at
least this branch of it... Scientific integrity is one loser,
and the public interest is another.
Inconvenient research simply never sees
the light of day... The prevention of academic fraud is one matter;
the suppression of uncomfortable research results is another.
p32
Henry Kissinger ... had introduced the idea of using "food
as a weapon" into United States foreign policy.
Seeds
Of Destruction
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