Synthetic meat planning to sneak in several food items, a must read

 

 

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 There’s one thing as bad as keeping cows in factory farm feedlots, standing knee deep in their own excrement, as they eat corn that turns their stomachs into E. coli factories: Forcing people to subsist on synthetic Frankenfoods! That’s the future of food and agriculture unless we move in another direction by voting with our food dollars and demanding action from politicians to save family farms and help them go organic and grass-fed, while meeting high standards for animal welfare and regenerative planned grazing. 

The synthetic biology industry is targeting dairy farmers for destruction. They say that by 2030, their “Food-as-Software” model will have collapsed demand for dairy in the U.S. by 90 percent and the dairy industry will be all but bankrupt. This is not a new plan. Winston Churchill wrote about it in 1931 (quoted in Pharma Food): “Microbes …will be fostered and made to work under controlled conditions, just as yeast is now. New strains of microbes will be developed and made to do a great deal of our chemistry for us. … We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium. … The new foods will from the outset be practically indistinguishable from the natural products, and any changes will be so gradual as to escape observation.” Today this is called “synthetic biology” and “precision fermentation.” One of the products of this technology is an unlabeled Frankenfood that is, just as Churchill predicted, being snuck into our food supply gradually so as to escape observation. 

It appears on ingredient lists as “non-animal whey protein.” It is a wholly synthetic substance spit out of genetically engineered fungus. The manufacturer of “non-animal whey protein,” Perfect Day, started by marketing vegan dairy products, but most of its consumer brands failed and it is now slipping its “non-animal whey protein” into multi-ingredient products that contain animal ingredients. For example, Unicon Apollo protein powder contains Perfect Day’s “non-animal whey protein,” but also real egg and milk ingredients that are advertised on the front of the package as "grass-fed." “Non-animal whey protein” is made in a process similar to the production of corn ethanol. Corn is grown, processed into sugar and then fed to a microorganism programmed to eat the sugar and secrete a protein. Then, the protein is chemically separated from the microbe, likely with toxins like hexane. Not only is this an energy-intensive, hyper-industrial process likely to result in a highly contaminated, toxic end-product, it is also grossly inefficient. 

To make a gallon of ethanol, it takes more than 26 pounds of corn! If the production of “non-animal whey protein” is as efficient, it is a poor substitute for cow’s milk, which takes no more than 3 pounds of corn per gallon of milk. (Plus, milk is a superfood, while the digestibility and nutritional benefits of “non-animal whey protein” have yet to be determined.) Scientist John Fagan of the Health Research Institute used a mass spectrometer to analyze what’s in “milk” made from “non-animal whey protein.” What he found is shocking. A “milk” product marketed as “dairy-identical” contained fungicide, quinic acid, normorphine, hesperidin, convallatoxin, and a huge array of additional small molecules literally unknown to science. Dr. Fagan is a vegetarian, so he has nothing against foods that don’t come from factory farms, but he cautions against eating synbio GMOs until they’re regulated. Currently, they’re being slipped into the food system through the “Generally Recognized as Safe” or GRAS loophole. Even at that, the GRAS submission Perfect Day sent to the Food and Drug Administration is full of worrisome information: 

ALLERGENS - The level of the genetically engineered Trichoderma reesei fungus strain that produces the synthetic protein in the final product is at 6.7 percent. Three T. reesei proteins showed similarities to known allergens (Cryptomeria, Juniperus; Penicillium chrysogenum; and House dust mites). HEAVY METALS - “Non-dairy whey protein” contains arsenic at 16.8 ppb. (There is no safe level of arsenic. The Environmental Protection Agency takes action when water samples are over 10 ppb.) It contains lead at 59.3 ppb. (There is no safe level of lead. The EPA takes action when water samples are over 15 ppb.) That’s what happens when real farms get replaced with “Food-as-Software.” This idea, promoted by NASA and the Pentagon, is that single-celled (and maybe even more complex) organisms can be engineered, as easily as computer software is coded, into Living Foundries to manufacture food, fuel, plastic and pharmaceuticals. NASA's synthetic biology group at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California "is developing ways to encapsulate these living factories for transport, perhaps even for implanting into the human body." Is Bayer (Monsanto) involved? Yes, from the get-go, Monsanto has been one of the key companies working behind the scenes “to shape public perception and prevent regulatory scrutiny” of synbio foods. But, Bayer isn’t attaching its brand-name to new synbio Frankenfoods the way Monsanto did with the first GMO (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Instead, the company has distanced itself by investing in and partnering with companies that maintain separate brand identities. To learn more, check out the first installment in our new “21st Century Dr. Frankensteins” series, George Church: Bayer’s Synbio Spokesman and watch OCA political director Alexis Baden-Mayer talk about her research on Children’s Health Defense TV. We can stop factory farming without eating toxic Frankenfoods or ceding our food sovereignty to chemical and pharmaceutical companies like Bayer. But, we have to organize and activate. The government and the billionaires are on the warpath. They have the money and the power to destroy food and farming as we know it, and plenty of dirty tricks up their sleeves to make their controlled demolition of the food supply look like an accident, a way to “save the planet” or a “shift in consumer demand.” Protecting yourself and your loved ones by securing your own food supply is the easy part: Buy direct from regenerative organic farmers. The challenge is to build the political power and popular education to wake everyone up from this nightmare before it’s too late. TAKE ACTION: Stop Bayer’s “Food-as-Software” Plot to Destroy Farming  

 

SAMPLE TEXT TO YOUR STATE LAWMAKERS You will be able to edit this text on the next page after you enter your information. Dear State Lawmaker, Did you hear that Italy is set to become the first country to protect agriculture by banning synthetic biology from food production? We should do that in our state! Synthetic biology is an extreme form of genetic engineering that is being used to make fake meat and imitation dairy. The industry calls it “precision fermentation,” genetically engineering microbes to produce synthetic proteins and unique molecules unknown to nature. The Impossible Burger and Bored Cow “milk” made with Perfect Day’s synthetic “whey” proteins are two products that are already being sold in stores and restaurants. This production method isn’t regulated and it is very dangerous. In the 1980s, Showa Denko, a manufacturer of the amino acid tryptophan, accidentally poisoned thousands of its customers with a synthetic version made from genetically engineered bacteria. Showa Denko killed 37 people and caused 1500 to be permanently disabled. Showa Denko’s genetically engineered tryptophan contained a highly toxic contaminant that comprised less than 0.1% of the total weight of the product, yet that was enough to kill people. This contaminant was identified as a dimerization product of tryptophan–two molecules of tryptophan chemically linked together. This compound was generated when the concentration of tryptophan within the bacteria reached such high levels that tryptophan molecules or their precursors began to react with each other, generating the deadly toxin. Being chemically quite similar to tryptophan, the toxin was not easily separated from tryptophan and contaminated the final commercial product. Genetic engineering generated the Showa Denko toxin. The toxin was not present in the original, non-genetically engineered Showa Denko tryptophan or in tryptophan produced by other manufacturers using natural bacteria. Showa Denko eventually paid more than one billion dollars to victims and their survivors, but they tried to cover up their mistakes by destroying all samples of the genetically engineered organism as soon as the problem was recognized. There is no required regulatory process for foods made from genetically engineered microbes, but some manufacturers submit information to the Food and Drug Administration in support of self-designated Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status. Perfect Day’s GRAS submission has a number of alarming things in it: ALLERGENS - The level of T. reesei (the genetically engineered microorganism that produces the synthetic protein) in the product are up to 6.7%. Three T. reesei proteins showed some similarity (ranging from 35-42%) to known allergens (Cryptomeria, Juniperus; Penicillium chrysogenum; House dust mites). HEAVY METALS - Arsenic 16.8 ppb (There is no safe level of arsenic. The EPA takes action when water samples are over 10 ppb.) Lead 59.3 ppb (There is no safe level of lead. The EPA takes action when water samples are over 15 ppb.) And, yet, the FDA sent Perfect Day a “no questions” letter! GRAS is a failed process that lets companies claim that new synthetic Frankenfoods are the same as normal foods and are exempt from pre-market safety testing. But, even this is voluntary! This means we have no way to find out what new synthetic Frankenfoods are entering the food supply or what the risks of eating them might be. Impossible Foods, makers of the Impossible Burger, is not yet allowed to sell its products in the European Union. Impossible Foods’ soy leghemoglobin is produced from genetically engineered yeast. Because Impossible Foods’ final product contains proteins from that yeast, it is regulated in the E.U. as a GMO. The company submitted its dossier for regulatory approval in October 2019. A decision could be ready by the end of 2023. Most people have no idea that genetically engineered yeast are being used to create synthetic “foods” or what the risks of this might be. The only responsible thing to do is ban this technology from the food system. Thank you. Sincerely, Your name