Rachel, you wrote, "In the European Economic community it is not legal to 
sell foodstuffs made from genetically modified organisms, at least not formula."  

My understanding was that Martek oils are in formulas sold in Europe.  
Martek's patent from 1992 called "Infant formula & baby food containing 
docosahexaenoic acid obtained from dinoflagellates"  states:  "Accordingly, wild-type and 
recombinant microorganisms designed to produce single cell oil containing DHA 
are an aspect of this invention.  Such recombinant organisms would include 
those designed to produce greater quantities of DHA in the single cell oil, 
greater quantitites of total oil, or both..."  Recombinant is defined as a DNA 
molecule made up of sequences that are not normally joined together. ["An 
Introduction to Genetic Engineering" by Desmond Nicholl] The FDA in the late 1990's 
refused Wyeth's GRAS application for Martek oils because these "novel" oils 
created liver and spleen abnormalities in rats.  One might assume from the Martek 
patent that some of their oil is made from recombinant algae.  Recombinant is 
the result of genetic engineering and the patent states wild-type "and" 
recombinant.

There is no requirement in the USA requiring the labeling of gmo products.  
The FDA assumes that genetically engineered is equivalent to the real thing, 
and thus no labels are needed.  I was not addressing the issue of labeling in my 
post.  In the USA one would almost believe that genetic engineering did not 
exist because this word is not used.  It is my opinion that novel and synthetic 
are used by various people and organizations to say the truth without having 
to say the words genetically engineered. Obviously, we differ in our opinions 
on this.  

I certainly understand that corporate scientists who own patents are limited 
in the amounts of money they make.  I wonder about your statement that there 
is "strong motivation for companies refraining from marketing products that 
damage health", when I consider Vioxx or several other meds that are now being 
taken off the market after the damage has been done.  I think of Fen Phen and 
the number of women who died from this drug just because they wanted to lose 
weight.  The story on this drug and Wyeth's knowledge of the risk is surely 
evidence of a total disregard for life.  In the current legal climate in the USA, 
if you have enough money you can get away with just about anything.
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html