FYI, here is what Jim Hightower, one-time Texas Sec. of Agriculture
and current radio personality, said on the air recently about
soy-based infant formula.
FYI, clipped from AlterNet -- the
independent news and syndication service -- June 13, 2001.
http://www.alternet.org
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HIGHTOWER: Reformulating Nestle
Jim Hightower, AlterNet
June 12, 2001
Viewed on June 14, 2001
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My momma use to tell me: "Don't put anything in your mouth unless you
know where it came from."
Good advice, yet many mothers today are unwittingly putting something
in the mouths of their babies without realizing where it comes from.
The something is infant formula made by Nestle Inc., which markets
its formula under such brand names as Alsoy, Good Start, and
Follow-up. Mothers know from reading the package that these baby
formulas are made from soybeans. What Nestle doesn't tell mothers,
however, is that these are not nature's own soybeans, but ones that
have been genetically engineered.
Moms might want to know this, since such biotech manipulation of the
genetic make-up of soybeans has not been tested for its longterm
impact on human health, nor is their a medical monitoring program in
place to detect health problems that might derive from consuming
Nestle's Frankenfoods. Infants are especially vulnerable, for their
bodies are so tiny and their only source of nutrition might be this
genetically altered formula. Yet, Nestle has fought every effort to
require labeling to inform American mothers, so they can decide for
themselves whether they want to put this stuff in their babies'
mouths.
In Germany, however, where there's been a widespread campaign against
genetic tampering with the food supply, Nestle agreed back in 1996 to
quit using genetically engineered ingredients in the baby food
products it sells there. Why not do the same here? A corporate
official airily dismisses this notion, declaring in convoluted
corporate -speak that Nestle is "providing our consumers in each
market with the products they want and with the information they
need." Earth to Nestle: If you don't provide the information, how
do you know we want the product?
This is Jim Hightower saying ... A citizen's action group called
ecopledge.com has launched a campaign calling on Nestle to stop
messing with our babies.
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--
--
Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
110 Rice Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
[log in to unmask]
www.steingraber.com
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