Did you know that genetic engineering (GE) "is helping to improve
the health of the Earth and the people who call it home"? A trade group
funded by Monsanto wants your kids to believe it.
The Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI) has published a kids' book
on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that purports to give kids "a
closer look at biotechnology. You will see that biotechnology is being
used to figure out how to: 1) grow more food; 2) help the environment;
and 3) grow more nutritious food that improves our health."
If that book doesn't appeal to you, you could try a nanotechnology coloring book
made by a company that produces such things as "colloidal silver
nanoparticles" used in antibacterial products that find their way into
the water supply and can be poisonous to the human system. It compares
nanotechnologies like these silvers to "the smell of baking cookies."
Or perhaps a "biosolids" workbook made by wastewater treatment facilities? It directs kids to grow sunflowers in toxic sewage sludge to see how they grow.
Monsanto Brainwashing: GMO Myths for Kids
GMO Kids Book (Source: Council for Biotechnology Information)Monsanto and its cohorts among the "Big 6"
pesticide and GMO companies -- Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer, Syngenta,
Dupont, and BASF -- are fighting a battle with California voters on
whether or not GMO foods should be labeled. In the meantime, the trade
group CBI, whose membership consists solely of those six corporations,
is busily educating children on the supposed benefits of GMOs.
As several outlets have reported, CBI is promoting its dis-informative Biotech Basics Activity Book for kids. The book has cute illustrations and introduces kids to the "neat topic" of biotechnology.
Note that the industry uses the term "biotechnology" exclusively.
According to Stacy Malkan, a spokeswoman for the Yes on 37: California
Right to Know Campaign, "Polls show that the term 'biotechnology' is
viewed much more favorably than 'genetically modified' or 'genetically
engineered food.' Yet the term most easily recognized and understood by
people is 'genetically engineered food.' So they are obviously trying to
change the language for PR purposes, not accuracy or clarity." The
choice of terms is a subtle example of the transfer or association
technique to project positive qualities of one concept onto another.
On page four, the book asks, "How can biotechnology help the health
of the Earth and its people?" It directs kids to "look closer" and use
the decoder at the side of the page to figure out three ways that
biotechnology helps us. The answers are at the end of the book.
Strangely, some of the hazards associated with GMOs, such as a large increase in pesticide use (383 million more pounds) and possible liver and kidney damage, are not listed.
Nano Coloring Book
Benzene Nanogears to color (Source: NanoSonic)In
"nanoscale," one nanometer equals one-thousandth of a micrometer or
one-millionth of a millimeter. Nanoparticles can occur in nature, but
there is now an entire industry devoted to turning all sorts of minerals
and other substances into nanoparticles that give consumer products
certain properties. For instance, nanosilver has been added to dozens of
consumer products for its antimicrobial qualities. Artificially
produced nanoparticles are now being added to paint, cosmetics,
sunscreen, vitamins, toothpaste, food colorants, and hundreds of other
consumer products, without sufficient review of their safety.
But a coloring book produced by NanoSonic, a manufacturer of
nanoparticles and nanomaterials, implies kids should not worry. After
all, it explains, there are nanoparticles in "the smell of baking
cookies." Many of the images waiting to be colored are of items found in
nature, like fractals and bird feathers. These are cheek by jowl with
images of nanoparticles like benzene nanogears (image at left; benzene
is a known carcinogen).
Although minerals occur in nature, we've long known that overexposure
to certain minerals is toxic. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), high doses of copper,
for instance, damage liver and kidneys and can lead to death even
though copper in tiny amounts is a micronutrient essential to human
health. "Nano," of course, refers to the size of the particles, not the
size of the dose or exposure.
According to
the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), "Despite already
being commercially available, nanomaterials in sunscreens, cosmetics,
foods and food contact substances are unlabeled and largely untested for
their human health effects. Existing research raises red flags,
indicating that nanomaterials have the ability to enter the bloodstream
through contact with the skin, ingestion and inhalation, as well as move
in the natural environment once discarded."
Some scientists are concerned that certain nanoparticles may be particularly hazardous to children.
Many sunscreens, for example, contain nanoparticles of zinc oxide or
titanium dioxide, which are potentially harmful in their nanoform.
For some products like spray-on sunscreen, nanoparticles make the
sunscreen more easy to apply. Scientists like Dr. Philip Moos of the
University of Utah's Nano Institute is worried
that children might actually ingest this nano-sized zinc oxide,
particularly from these spray-on sunscreens that carry warnings about
"excessive inhalation." Dr. Robert Schiestl of the University of
California Los Angeles found in a 2009 study that titanium dioxide
nanoparticles cause systemic genetic damage
in mice and increase the risk of cancer and concluded, "I believe the
toxicity of these nanoparticles has not been studied enough."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no immediate plans to review evidence of ingredient toxicity, according to the Environmental Working Group.
Sludge Workbook
Growing Plants in Sludge (Source: King County Wastewater Treatment Division)The "biosolids" workbook
published by the "Biosolids Program" of Kings County in Washington
State (the Seattle area) suggests that kids try growing sunflower or
marigold seeds in composted sewage sludge as well as in different kinds
of soil to see which grow best.
Toxic sewage sludge
is the material left behind after human and industrial waste is
processed at wastewater treatment plants to clean and separate the
water. The workbook activity doesn't suggest using gloves or any
protective gear, even though some of the toxic contaminants found in
virtually every sewage sludge sample tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in 2009 include 27 heavy metals, four volatile organic compounds,
dozens of pharmaceuticals, several steroids and hormones, and multiple
kinds of highly toxic flame retardants.
The workbook talks about the supposed benefits of treated sewage
sludge -- "biosolids contain all the essential nutrients that plants
need for healthy growth[,] . . . are rich in nutrients and organic
matter, and are used as a soil amendment to improve soil and fertilize
plants" -- without mentioning any of the toxic contaminants listed
above. These toxics are especially hazardous to children and pregnant
women. A follow-up article to the influential Chicago Tribune
series on flame retardants, for example, exposed that small doses -- "no
more than 3 milligrams per kilogram of weight per day" -- of the flame retardant "Firemaster 550," promoted as safe by industry and government officials, "can trigger obesity, anxiety, and developmental problems."
Toxic sludge also commonly contains
endocrine disruptors, phthalates, industrial solvents, resistant
pathogens, and perfluorinated compounds, which can bioaccumulate in
soil, plants, and animals. All good reasons not to have kids planting
seeds in it. The workbook reads like a follow-up to the "sludge puppet" on which the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) previously reported, also made to educate kids about the joys of sludge.
Kids' Propaganda
As CMD's PRWatch has reported,
industries and their front groups "target . . . America's teachers and,
ultimately, our children . . . trying to justify everything from
deforestation to extinction of species . . . . Surreptitious public
relations campaigns and deceptive advertising are battling today for the
hearts and minds of our children." John Borowski, an environmental
science teacher, reported that teachers at the 2000 National Science
Teachers Convention were "quickly filling their bags with curricula as
corrosive as the pesticides that the Farm Bureau promotes."
Twelve years haven't changed the way spinmeisters operate. Corporate
propaganda like this is distributed online, handed out at conferences
and fairs where these corporations, agencies, and their front groups
exhibit, as well as at teachers' conventions like Borowski describes.
© 2012 Center for Media & Democracy
Rebekah Wilce is a farmer with a degree in writing from the
University of Arizona. She researches and reports for CMD and milks cows
at a local farm. She is the lead writer for CMD's
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