THE RECORD
June 18, 2003

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Hating governments is a national pastime, hyped on by the corporate media that would like to see total chaos and anarchy to realize the glories of the so called "market economy" under the rule of a few business moguls. Yet, it is amazing that when people put large investments, often their life savings, into some huckster's scheme for a quarter of a percent higher returns and then when it collapses and they lose everything, they scream that it was the government's fault for not looking after their investments and demand reimbursements.

The same is happening with our food supplies, concentrated more and more into the hands of multinationals, whose only interest is the so called "bottom line" for the next quarterly report. Most people still believe that after all the downsizings and so mass firings of government service the food on their table has been inspected and safe.

Well, good luck, because government has no idea what goes on most of the time, until some major problem arises. Like the currently raging mad cow problem, which is causing incredible damage to farmers, the hospitality and tourism industries and ultimately for everybody. In this case, it took government inspectors three months to examine the head of the cow in question and if things proceed more on the demands of our neoconservative politicians, in a couple of years it will take six months. If there'll be any inspectors left at all.

The sordid fact is that people in any part of the world have absolutely no idea what they are eating, because nobody knows, or wants to, or even dares to ask questions, as they might be against WTO, or NAFTA rules.
There are approximately 200,000 chemicals in use today, of which about 10 or 12,000, or five percent, have been thoroughly examined for their effects on human health. Nobody really knows the effects of the majority of household chemicals used around the house, or at workplaces and when it comes to chemicals in food products, they're out of control

How many people bother to read the ingredients printed on the sides of canned and packaged foods? How many bother to find out what they feed to their children from cans, bottles and packages, all advertised on TV? Let's just look at Aspartame, also known as "NutraSweet" or "Spoonful", found in all the so called "diet" soft drinks and a variety of food products as sugar replacement.

There have been hundreds of reports over many years, condemning this product, yet it is being produced and used without any questions. This is from an article from the Women's Cancer Resource Center, of Minneapolis, MN: "When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in Aspartame converts to formaldehyde and then to Formic Acid which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants). Methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis, thus people were being diagnosed with having MS in error. MS is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is."

So, why doesn't government do its job of protecting people from the myriads of chemicals manufacturers put into their products? In some cases it is pure corruption, where large corporations donate millions to ruling political parties.

Then there is fear of lawsuits. Under NAFTA and WTO rules Canada could not cut out certain poisonous products without having to pay huge amounts of compensation to foreign manufacturers.

And there is public pressure. Some of these greasy spoon fast food joints have been poisoning people with burned fats for decades, but if any politicians would dare to question their continued use, the public outcry would put them out of office.

According to the Bush junta, the Fraser Institute and the Alliance, there's no global warming either. Can anybody imagine either of them questioning the products of major corporations? Of course not. Profitability is far more important than public health.

Now, the mad cow tragedy. As it has been established many years ago, the mad cow disease started in Europe and Britain, where cattle have been fed with the animal proteins from dead animals, as an "efficiency" and "profitability" measure. The result was the killing and wasting of hundreds of thousands of animals. Yet, the practice is still going on, even here in Canada, except now they are supposed to feed the dead cow carcasses only to pigs and poultry. Except nobody knows where and for what the feed is going to be used, as once a farmer, or feedlot, buys the stuff they can do anything they want with it.

People have no idea what some of those feedlots, now Alberta wants to introduce 50,000 animal compounds to become as "efficient" as the US producers, are feeding and doing to animals. For example, commercial hog farms usually feed the pig's own manure back to them for a second shot at digesting the feed. A scientist friend, who was department head at a major animal health laboratory, told me of a hog grower who wanted to know whether he could feed the pigs' manure back to the animals twice?

The animals at these filthy lots are the breeding grounds for illnesses, so they pump them full of antibiotics and other medications. Large areas, the water tables, creeks and rivers around these lots are poisoned with medications in the manure, leaching so deep into the ground that there's no way they could ever be cleaned up again. But it is "efficient" and profitable and good "market economy", so no politician would dare to question it.

Copyright (c) 2003, West's International