Byron J. Richards, CCN
August 24, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
Are
you willing to stand in line for a virus-laden sandwich? How do you like
the idea of buying virus-infested food for your family? The first virally
contaminated foods entering our food supply with the blessings of the
FDA will be luncheon
meat and poultry. Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold
cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken.
At issue
is the very real problem of a poor quality FDA-approved food supply that
is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many of them imported
from other countries. The use of antibiotics during growth and radiation
during food processing is required by the fast-food animal farms owned
by multi-national companies to cover up the horrendous health of the animals
they wish to feed to Americans. Animals in poor health are a friendly
place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after such meat goes
to market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants
to add another adulteration into our food supply.
The
stated goal of the new FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium
known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking;
however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing
and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can readily infect foods
such as deli meats.
Yes,
the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage
of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious
live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However,
they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly
bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval
was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments.
Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of
a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime.
Turning
Loose the Bacteria-Killing Viruses
The
company that produces these biotech viruses is Baltimore-based Intralytix,
Inc. The viruses are known as bacteriophages, viruses that kill bacteria,
or phages for short. Phages have been around a long time, living as parasites
inside many bacteria.
Intralytix
uses biotechnology to grow viral phages in a culture with Listeria,
in theory teaching the viruses to recognize the bacteria. The FDA-approved
cocktail contains six different viruses intended to attack one strain
of bacteria.
This
concoction is then sprayed on food. If Listeria is present in the
food, the bacteria will ingest the viruses. This results in massive viral
replication inside the bacteria, until such point as the bacteria simply
bursts. This battle results in significant production of bacterial poisons
called "endotoxins", as the bacteria tries to defend itself. When the
bacteria burst, these endotoxins are released. These, along with the victorious
live viruses, will now be on the food that will be eaten.
The
FDA and Intralytix would like us to believe that these viruses will only
attack the specified bacteria they are intended to kill and will be harmless
to humans. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but they can't possibly guarantee
such safety. It is true that the viruses, at least at this time, cannot
recognize human cells. However, the virus can potentially recognize normal
bacterial cells in the human digestive tract and may be able to adapt
to infect one or more of these friendly bacteria.
The
FDA Certainly Knows There Are Risks
The
FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix
product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that
the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used
as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product
once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved
drugs that the agency can't keep track of?
There
is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of
endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail,
the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food,
and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract.
The
human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins.
They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol.
They also interfere with the healthy function of cells
lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the
presence
of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon.
Additionally,
the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person
who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction
to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity?
Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce
a variety of human immune responses? Phages are so good at disrupting
normal immunity that they are being considered for use as part of organ
transplant medicine.
The
ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive
tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly
possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive,
are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to
infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria
of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating
viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if
not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages
can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs.
Furthermore,
the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down.
They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen
with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to
have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed
to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner
or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria
and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable
infection.
There
is also the very real possibility of unintended viral recombination. What
happens when a person with viral stomach flu eats food containing a dose
of this viral food additive? It is certainly possible for the genetic
material of the flu virus to interact with the genetic material of the
viral phages, provoking an undesirable new viral infection.
Let's
not forget that the FDA won't tell us which foods in the food supply contain
genetically modified organisms (GMO). Seventy percent of the packaged
food on grocery shelves already contains GMO adulterated food. These foods
have viral promoter genes woven into the DNA of every cell, a technique
used to implant a pesticide toxin into every cell of this fake food (see
Fight
for Your Health, chapter 15). What happens when the viral phages
interact with the viral promoter genes in GMO food? What new virus will
be encouraged to form?
Keep
in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply
to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously
ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly
with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more
to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these
foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What
the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the
true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven
ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few?
The
FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from
the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just
one more insult added to a long list of injuries.
The
Tip of an Iceberg
Intralytix
has an agenda for the American food supply, as well as for healthcare
in general. This recent FDA ruling allows Intralytix and other similar
biotech companies to get their foot in a door that should be slammed shut
and bolted closed.
The
company is also seeking FDA approval for viral sprays to treat foods that
could be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella, which means
that similar "trained" viruses could end up in a majority of the protein
foods in our food supply.
Intralytix
sees financial opportunity. They have already licensed their now FDA-approved
viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the
world. When
the CEO of Intralytix, John Vazzara, was recently asked about this partner
company, he
refused to disclose their name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment
on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.
John
Vazzara also owns
stock in, as well as provided seed money to start, SteelCloud Inc.
(formerly Dunn Computer Corporation). SteelCloud is a defense contractor
with lucrative deals with the Department
of Defense, recently landing
a 3.4 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security.
Congress
should investigate the financial ties and backroom dealings that would
allow this bizarre food additive approval by the FDA.
Of course,
we will need new wonder drugs to combat the new bio-tech produced infections.
Americans will stay sick and the sickness-driven bio-tech industry will
flourish. The bio-tech industry will make people sick on the front end
and treat them on the back end. It's a win-win situation for profit on
illness.
The
FDA is Rapidly Becoming a Public Enemy
Experimenting
with viruses being added to the food supply is incredibly dangerous and
reckless. It is completely impossible for the FDA to guarantee safety
in the near term or the long term. Thus, the FDA has made the bureaucratic
decision that relative safety is acceptable to them. What right does the
FDA have to tamper with the food supply in this manner?
It is
quite clear that the Bush agenda has been to promote American biotech
companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions
have trumped science in virtually every situation wherein safety conflicts
with profit. The FDA acts to foster profits for biotech companies and
the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.
The
leaders of the FDA are personally responsible and need to be held accountable.
This means Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., temporary head of the FDA and
his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These men are not only
obsessed with
approving risky drugs for the benefits of Big Pharma, it is now clear
that they are willing to allow obvious adulteration of the food supply.
They seek to control what we eat, and they are tampering with survival
of the human race.
The
FDA does not truly know how safe viral phages are to consume on a regular
basis. They have no idea of the cumulative effect over the course of a
lifetime, especially as more of these viral cocktails are added to the
food supply. They have no way to measure how this new type of adulteration
in the food supply will interact with the poor digestive/immune health
of half the American population, in combination with all the other serious
adulterations already approved by the FDA. The FDA lacks due diligence
in honoring its mandate to protect the American public.
Boycott
Viral Tainted Foods, Support Your Sustainable Farmers
The
only hope Americans have is to resurrect the quality of our food supply.
Doing so is against the odds, as there are billions of dollars of profit-mongering
taking our food supply in the wrong direction. One day Americans will
realize that food security is as important to national security as any
other topic. It is now crystal clear that we cannot count on the FDA to
do the job that Harvey Wiley, M.D., envisioned
one-hundred years ago.
Consumers
standing in line to buy a luncheon meat sandwich will have no idea if
they are ingesting live viruses as part of their meal. While the FDA will
require the ingredient to be listed on packages as "bacteriophage preparation,"
most consumers will have no idea that means they are ingesting live viruses.
Foods bought at deli counters or prepared in restaurants will not need
to warn consumers.
How
can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children?
The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Every American has an
obligation to support food security for our nation. Congress must correct
the leadership at the FDA and the FDA itself. Americans must quit buying
poor quality toxic food. Your greatest ability to change this problem
is based entirely on what you purchase.