Pig Virus Contaminates Rotavirus Vaccines, But FDA Says No Problem

Rotavirus vaccines are commonly given to children, and this year's batch of vaccines made by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck are contaminated with a pig virus, the FDA recently discovered. So the FDA called a meeting to determine whether injecting a pig virus into the bodies of young children might be some sort of problem requiring a recall of the vaccines.

Can you guess what conclusion the agency reached? As reported by Reuters, the FDA concluded "...it was safe for doctors to resume giving patients Glaxo's Rotarix and continue using Merck's Rotateq. The agency said there was no evidence the contamination caused any harm..." '

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GM Flax Contamination Now Detected in 35 Countries

Last September, the Flax Council of Canada (FCC) announced that an unapproved variety of genetically modified flax was detected in food products in Europe. The GM flax variety was identified as FP967 or "Triffid," which had been developed in Canada, but was never commercialized and has been illegal to grow in Canada since 2001. Since the initial announcement last September, GM flax contamination has been reported in 35 countries.

The contamination has decimated Canada's flax exports to Europe, which buys 70% of Canada's flax exports worth an estimated $321 million (Canadian). The European Union has zero tolerance for unapproved GMOs.

More than six months later disturbing questions remain about the GM flax contamination.'

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Bayer Admits GMO Contamination Out of Control

Drug and chemical giant Bayer AG has admitted that there is no way to stop the uncontrolled spread of its genetically modified crops.

"Even the best practices can't guarantee perfection," said Mark Ferguson, the company's defense lawyer in a recent trial.

Two Missouri farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their crop with modified genes from an experimental strain of rice engineered to be resistant to the company's Liberty-brand herbicide. The contamination occurred in 2006, during an open field test of the new rice, which was not approved for human consumption. According to the plaintiffs' lawyer, Don Downing, genetic material from the unapproved rice contaminated more than 30 percent of all rice cropland in the United States.

"Bayer was supposed to be careful," Downing said. "Bayer was not careful and that rice did escape into our commercial rice supplies."

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Bayer Admits GMO Contamination is Out of Control

Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite 'the best practices [to stop contamination]'(1). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.'

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