Tufts University’s Fraudulent China Golden Rice “Experiment”
By LARRY
ROMANOFF – September 17, 2020
The US Department of Agriculture and the US military used Tufts
University as a tool under the guise of conducting innocent food health
research, to carry out an illegal, deplorable and fraudulent biological weapons
experiment on unwitting Chinese children. This is part of that story.
Many groups have experimented
with gene-splicing technology, inserting unrelated DNA into various seeds. In
one case in Canada, a government department discovered an
"anti-freeze" gene contained in the blood of fish living in Arctic
waters, permitting them to survive in waters of sub-zero temperature. The
scientists spliced this gene into Canadian wheat crops, permitting the wheat to
withstand freezing temperatures without damage. An American research lab
spliced the genes from fireflies into tobacco plants, producing a tobacco field
that glowed in the dark. These examples may be harmless, but others are much
less so.
The US Defense Department has
invested huge sums in research directed to splicing lethal genes into these GM
crop seeds, including smallpox, bird and swine flu viruses, the plague, AIDS,
and more. As a military
weapon, such science is priceless. Why bother with a shooting war when Monsanto
can sell them rice, corn and soybeans that contain smallpox and the H5N1 virus?
When the seed is harvested and passes into the nation's food supply it could,
within weeks, exterminate 50% or more of the population without firing a single
shot and with no risk to the aggressor. I have seen US military documents that
even included a handy "cost per death" chart, demonstrating that
seeds are far cheaper and more effective than bombs in the search for military
domination. The report also noted that
"As well, genetic weapons
can be dispersed in a multitude of ways, using virus-infected insects or
bacteria, or spliced into GM seeds. These weapons are difficult to detect and
identify, and often a treatment or vaccine could be years in the
making." (1)
There is no shortage of direct
evidence that GM seed was conceived, financed and developed by the US military
in conjunction with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its potential
use as a biological weapon or, more precisely, a weapons delivery system. The
ability to splice pathogens into GM seed is now beyond dispute, and
has formed a major part of the US military's bio-chemical warfare development
programs. (2) A question no one seems to have asked is why, for
more than 50 years, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Diseases (AMRIID) has been part of the US military's notorious
bio-weapons labs at Fort Detrick, Md., under the pretense of researching
"infectious" diseases. This was the source of the US military's
weaponised anthrax, among many other pathogens.
The entire American Golden Rice
program was funded by the US military through the USDA, a Department known to frequently cooperate with the
US military especially in the production and development of bioweapons. The
USDA was not only heavily involved in financing Golden Rice research but was
clandestinely growing its own undocumented strains of this GM rice in its own
private hydroponic systems, strains which were subsequently tested on unknowing
populations. The dangers of GM seed for military use were recognised
decades ago. In 1998, Time Magazine published an article which detailed the
worldwide search for genetic material that might offer remarkable military
applications. (3) (4)
•Vitamin A
Vitamin A is not one thing, but
rather a large group of related nutritional elements that include retinoids and
carotenoids, retinol, retinoic acid and things like β-Carotene (beta-carotene).
Foods that are high in Vitamin A include sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy
greens, peppers, fish, liver, and tropical fruits. Most of these are part of
the daily diet in China, requiring no artificial supplements, most Chinese
obtaining all they need simply by eating a normal diet.
Like most vitamins, Vitamin
A is essential for body health, but this one is unique in many respects in that
its presence affects the body's immune system and genetic functioning. It
regulates gene transcription, which involves breaking the bonds and separating
the two strands of a body's DNA and re-combining and splicing the nuclei of
cells, and thus plays a critical role in cell functioning. Portions of Vitamin
A and its related compounds are used as medicines to modulate a body's gene
functions. This is not trivial, and is the subject of much very high-tech
biological research today. It is also true that while even massive doses of
other vitamins may not be harmful, excessive Vitamin A is toxic to the human
body, especially to pregnant women and, given its extraordinarily complex
genetic DNA functions and its effects on the body's immune system, is not a
chemical to be either under- or over-dosed.
•Golden Rice
This GM (genetically-modified)
food has been controversial for more than a decade, from concerns that, like
many other GM foods, it may be unsafe. GM food is especially controversial in
China, with no consensus as to its safety, is under strict regulation and,
given the substantial trust issues involved, is even more so when foreign
entities or researchers are involved. So-called "Golden Rice" (for
its yellow color) was developed to be rich in Vitamin A and therefore
ostensibly of benefit especially to children. The rice does not actually
contain any Vitamin A, but rather β-Carotene (sometimes called pro-vitamin A)
which the human body synthesises into the vitamin. Golden Rice was developed
jointly in the early 1990s by a Swiss professor of plant science named Ingo
Potrykus, and a German professor of cell biology named Peter Beyer, with grants
from the Rockefeller Foundation. This latter information is both discouraging
and moderately frightening. Here is an explanation by one internet commenter:
"These are the same people
that let millions die in the US over a period of 30 years from a simple lack of
Niacin. Where were they then, if the Rockefellers want to save the lives of the
poor? Why wouldn't they begin in their own country, especially when it was widely
known the disease [Pellagra] was easily curable? From all the available
evidence, and in spite of all the propaganda and hype, I have seen nothing that
tells me the Rockefeller Institute has ever been interested in anything but
schemes for population reduction. And that means if they are financing projects
to insert beta carotene into rice, it will be as an adjuvant for yet another GM
sterilisation technique."
I am compelled to agree with the
above assessment, since it is indisputably true that the Rockefeller Foundation
has been for most of a century at the forefront of concocting schemes of
worldwide birth control, fertility reduction and sterilisation in all
non-Western countries, all for the stated purpose of severely reducing the
undeveloped world's population. It is also true that for many decades the
Rockefeller Foundation (and the US government) did indeed observe millions
dying in the US from a simple lack of Niacin (Vitamin B3, or nicotinic acid),
and could easily have devoted resources to eliminating this scourge since the
cause was well-known. They chose to ignore it because the deaths were almost
entirely in the poor and black populations.
•The Golden Rice Propaganda Train
The promotion of this Golden Rice
and the active public support of its field trials and human experiments arise
not only from the Rockefeller Foundation, Syngenta and its so-called Golden
Rice Humanitarian Board, but by the usual list of suspects that include
Monsanto and Bayer, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Several authors
have noted that Golden Rice has been heavily promoted by these major players in
both the GM and population-reduction industries, but the rice achieved its
primary fame for exhibiting what scientists refer to as "wildly erratic
results".
Even though Syngenta and other
supporters sometimes viciously attack detractors, most aid agencies and a great
many reputable scientists have consistently claimed that "Golden Rice
is a technical and dangerous fix for a non-existent problem" since
necessary vitamins can be easily provided by common vegetables. As Dr. Brian
John wrote,
"Although the GM industry
trumpets Golden Rice as the savior of humanity and the potential preventer of
millions of cases of blindness or death, even the World Bank has stated that
consumption of local green leafy vegetables and fruits have for more than 20
years dramatically reduced any deficiency of Vitamin A "in very cheap and
efficient ways"." (5)
The US FDA, perhaps surprisingly,
stated clearly that GM Golden Rice has no nutritional value, that the
beta-carotene in carrots and spinach is 40 to 50 times greater and more easily
and safely absorbed. It
further noted that the beta-carotene in Golden Rice is very short-lived, being
exceptionally unstable in the presence of Oxygen and degrades by 90% within
about two months. (6)
According to David Schubert at
the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences La Jolla, California, Golden Rice
can be particularly dangerous because of unpredictable enzyme mutations and
that many clinically toxic effects cannot even be identified or measured by
today's technology. It was stated further that excessive retinoic acid is
"exceedingly dangerous, particularly to infants and during pregnancy",
that it can accumulate in the body and cause various birth defects. Results
from these and many other longer-term studies indicate that "genetic
modification is inherently dangerous". It seems that only the biotech
industry has consistently found genetically-modified seed and food as safe,
perhaps in large part due to their very short-term studies, whereas a great
many other industry researchers have found in their animal tests an almost
consistent pathology related to consumption of these foods.
This transgenic Golden Rice has
been heavily promoted worldwide by a strategy of guilt-inducing fear-mongering.
We're told that millions of children suffer blindness each year and millions
more die, from a simple deficiency of Vitamin A. GM Golden Rice, the savior of
the world's children, can prevent this. It is a matter of life and death. If
you refuse GM rice in your country or frustrate the attempts of Bill Gates and
the Rockefellers to consume it freely in every (poor) country, you are
personally responsible for those millions of little tragedies. The fact
that those children could have been saved by spinach or carrots is irrelevant;
neither spinach nor carrots have been appointed by god or Bill Gates to save
the world; only Golden Rice has this imprimatur. Even if you don't
want GM soybeans or maize to feed your pigs and depopulate your country, how
can you be so heartless as to refuse GM Golden Rice that will prevent millions
of deaths and injuries? In this context, Golden Rice has substantial propaganda
value because it can function as the poster child for GM food, curing disease
while feeding the world, a claim that cannot easily be made by other GM foods.
But Golden Rice has a second and
more important purpose, which is to function as a kind of Trojan horse. If you
don't know, this metaphor emerged from a story about the Trojan War between
ancient Greece and Troy. The Greeks had besieged the city for a decade but were
unable to subdue it, so they constructed a huge wooden horse which they filled with
soldiers, left the horse at the city gate ostensibly as a farewell gift, and
appeared to sail away. The Trojans naïvely pulled the horse into their city
and, during the night, the Greek soldiers emerged, overcame resistance and
opened the city gates to the Greek army who had quietly sailed back to Troy.
The Greeks destroyed Troy (from the inside, rather than by external attack) and
won the war. And this is the true function of Golden Rice - to force nations by
fear and guilt to open their Gates (sorry, gates) to all GM food, removing
import restrictions under the guise of humanitarian aid, overcoming internally
that which cannot be overcome by direct external attack.
The Journal Science published an
opinion paper authored by a group of respected international scientists, which
stated the US needs to provide better justification for military involvement in
GM seed creation, instead of the US State Department merely claiming "the
project is for peaceful purposes and does not violate the Biological Weapons
Convention." Guy Reeves, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Biology in Germany, and one of the authors, said this
technology "is more feasible as a weapon - to kill ... than as an
agricultural tool. Another co-author, Todd Kuiken, a senior research
scholar at North Carolina State University, said, "The pure fact that
this is a military program would naturally raise ... questions". (7)
•The Tufts University
Experiment
The official narrative of Golden
Rice is that it can provide citizens of poorer nations with their daily
requirement of Vitamin A. In 2012, Tufts University in Massachusetts conspired
with the US Department of Agriculture, the US State Department and unknown
other agencies, to conduct a Golden Rice experiment on Chinese children in
China, ostensibly as a field trial to prove these claims. But this was
done in a secretly-arranged and conducted experiment that had already
previously been prohibited by China's health authorities, and which was riddled
with deplorable ethics and illegalities. It is of more than usual
concern that the US government and an American university would presume
to surreptitiously conduct a clearly unethical and illegal test of a GM
food on Chinese children. (8)
For this study, the Tufts
researchers followed the standard American template for their "China"
tests, which is to enlist a native-born Chinese researcher on staff to contact
low-level officials in a poor Chinese province to obtain their cooperation in an
American research project for which the real purpose is seldom if ever
disclosed. I know from experience that these local officials are often badly
misled as to the real intent of these studies, are without exception wined and
dined, and are probably often paid as well. And, in virtually every case I've
examined, the Chinese participants in these studies (I usually refer to them as
"victims") were never informed of the fact of the trial being an
experiment, sometimes not informed of the trial at all, simply being unwitting
participants, and not once therefore being in a position to provide consent -
informed or otherwise. This case was not different. In fact, Chinese
journalists found an email to the research team urging the organisers "to
not speak openly" of the fact the children were being fed GM-modified food
because the topic was deemed to be "too sensitive" to reveal to the
childrens' parents. (9)
To conduct the tests, Tufts
University sent unidentified personnel to China who may or may not have been
Tufts University staff but may have been employed by the USDA, a US Pharma
company, or another branch of the US government that could include the military.
They arranged with local officials in a poor school district to feed their
Golden Rice to a group of about 100 small children daily for several weeks,
during and after which they conducted unidentified and undetermined blood and
other tests on the children, then packed their data and returned to the US.
Tufts and the USDA might have
escaped with their duplicity and deceit, but for Greenpeace who noticed an
article published in August of 2012 in The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, which claimed that GM Golden Rice had been used in an experimental
test on Chinese children in Hengyang City in China's Hunan Province. Greenpeace
informed China's CDC of the tests, claiming "the parents likely were
completely unaware or misinformed" of the fact and/or purpose of the
study, an accusation that proved to be true. Questioning the trial’s
legitimacy, and condemning the research as exposing the children to health
risks, Greenpeace said the trial contravened a Chinese Ministry of Agriculture
decision in 2008 to abort plans for the project, was a breach of scientific and
medical ethics, and asked the government to launch an investigation. Fang
Lifeng at Greenpeace said it was "incredibly disturbing" to think
that an American institution had used Chinese children as the subjects of its
experiment. "Chinese agriculture authorities stopped the same trial four
years ago. How did the research come to be revived after that emphatic
ban?"
Local officials initially denied
the claims, stating there had instead been a study on the transformation of
vegetable carotene into Vitamin A in children, and that the study had been
conducted by the Chinese CDC in its Hunan branch. According to Xinhua News, the
officials further stated that the study had not involved any American
institution, that all parents had been notified and approved of the
"experiment", that the study "did not involve GM rice or other
GM food", that all food used in the experiment had been purchased locally
and, finally, that all results from the study had been immediately submitted to
the China CDC upon completion. According to them, the study was approved by the
ethics review committee of the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, with both
parents and pupils consenting to take part in the study.
The Chinese government did indeed
look into the matter immediately, and the China CDC conducted a three-month
investigation that included sending representatives to the US to interview researchers
at Tufts University and to obtain copies of the blood samples and other data
that were removed from China without authorisation. Upon discovery of the
facts, the government applied severe sanctions against the individuals involved
and provided substantial compensation to the enraged parents and children who
were victims of this clandestine experiment. Several Chinese scientists
who participated in the scam were dismissed from their posts, including two
members of the CDC staff itself and the head of science and technology at the
Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences.
The apparent leader of this
experiment, a native Chinese named Tang, was the director of the
(USDA-financed) Carotenoid and Health Laboratory at Tufts University. When the China CDC began its investigation, Tang
insisted that the study had been conducted with all required regulatory
approval, whereupon Tang was asked to provide a detailed report of her research
and supporting materials to document her authorisation. The CDC discovered
that Tang did not make the necessary application to the government to conduct
her experiment, neglected to apply for ethical evaluation of the study, but
instead fabricated (i.e., forged) all the government approval documents.
Another serious ethical violation
was that the consent forms did not mention GM rice and parents they were shown
only the signature page of the consent form. Moreover, it appears that at least
some consent forms from a local nutritional study had been dishonestly used to
support this illegal Tufts study, and further that many other consent
forms and supporting documentation had been either back-dated or forged in
total. The CDC also discovered that Tang and Tufts University brought
their Golden Rice from the US into China illegally, without declaration to
Chinese Customs or other relevant authorities. The CDC stated that the American
collaborators in their little conspiracy "meticulously concealed the
reality" that the experiment involved golden rice. In summary, the
CDC accused all participants at Tufts of concealing the main facts, shading the
truth, repeatedly creating interference to discovery of the facts, and
illegally obstructing the investigation.
The entire American Golden Rice
program at Tufts was funded by the US military, through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA),
from which originated these illegal experiments in China. Even more, the USDA
was clandestinely growing undocumented strains of this GM rice in its own
private hydroponic systems. It was in cooperation with, and perhaps at the
specific directive of, the USDA, that Tufts researchers initiated the study on
Chinese children, presented as an independent Tufts academic research
project to disguise its true origin and purpose.
Further, and more seriously, the
USDA wasn't the only government body involved in this experiment with Chinese
children. Another US government health group called the NIDDK was heavily
involved in financing and publicly defending this experiment, and therefore as
well in the strategy and planning. The same NIDDK revealed that the US State
Department had given approval and clearance for this China experiment after
reviewing it for "any potentially negative foreign policy
implications." This latter quote is of enormous significance since
the State Department is never involved in such matters except in conditions
involving international illegalities or the contravention of national
sovereignty, or perhaps the prospect of a public revelation of military
subterfuge as for example a clandestine test of a biological pathogen on the
citizens of a foreign nation.
For this medical trial which, on
the surface, was apparently innocuous and almost trivial, to have required and
obtained White House and State Department approval is virtually irrefutable
proof that something much more important was occurring than the absorption of
Vitamin A.
I should note here that the above
State Department quotation is not unique. It has been used in situations where
the US military has planned bio-weapons experiments and field tests on an
unwitting public, sometimes in foreign countries and often against American
citizens. When US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara planned and executed his
150 simultaneous and different top-secret bio-weapons programs in the late
1960s and early 1970s, the wording then was the same. As I noted elsewhere,
McNamara ordered the military Joint Chiefs of Staff "to consider all
possible applications" of these agents against enemy nations in a coherent
plan for a total "biological and chemical deterrent capability",
the plan to include cost estimates and an "appraisal of
international political consequences". I have little doubt the
above review by the US State Department for "potentially negative foreign
policy implications" has a similar origin.
It is not a secret that Tufts'
Golden Rice efforts in the past have been covered with scandals, both in the US
and China, with their US trials attracting condemnation. In an article in The
Chronicle of Higher Education, Tom Bartlett noted that "This isn't
the first time research on Golden Rice at Tufts has been criticized."
Tufts University had already done the same in New Zealand and other countries,
and had attempted to conduct precisely such studies in China in prior years but
were refused permission. A similar study that had begun in China in
2008 was discovered and ordered aborted, these particular trials and
experiments then being specifically banned by China's national government.
The Americans, whether Tufts
researchers or USDA/Military officials, did not bring their GM Golden Rice into
China through normal channels. Instead, they smuggled it into the
country without declaring it to Chinese Customs officials. You don't
need to be a lawyer to recognise this as an illegal act of some magnitude,
since the import of seeds and most foodstuffs is heavily regulated by all
countries and, if caught, these people would almost certainly have been
imprisoned. This is not normal conduct one would expect from a highly-regarded
American university and a Department of the US government conducting a
legitimate vitamin field trial.
The Americans cooked the rice
before smuggling it into China, an action bereft of rational explanation, and to my best knowledge Tufts has refused to
provide one. Since the rice was to be mixed with normal rice and eaten by the
children during school lunches, both varieties should have been cooked at the
time, immediately prior to eating. Given the clandestine nature of the entire
affair, I see only a few possibilities for this, one of which may have been a
questionable attempt to evade China's prohibition on the import of GM products
by claiming that cooked rice does not fall under this definition. A more
serious - and more likely - possibility is that the rice was cooked to
disguise viral or other biological material which may have been spliced into
the rice DNA, and which would have been easily detectable in uncooked rice but
perhaps detected only with difficulty in the cooked version. A third
is that for this experiment a chemical or biological additive was necessary in
the cooking process, which would have been problematic if done in China in the
school kitchen, under the observation of Chinese staff.
Contrary to the claims of Tufts
University that no harm had been done, there were repeated reports of children
suffering reactions to the rice, such as nausea, upset stomach, vomiting and
similar, with many children developing dizziness and fever during the trial. One mother reported that her daughter aged 11
was a participant in the program, receiving this GM rice for 15 days, but
withdrew her from the tests after the girl developed a severe fever on at least
three occasions. None of these are normal reactions to uncontaminated
rice, and strongly suggest the possibility of an undisclosed biological
pathogen. She also noted that the children received frequent blood tests
without explanation, being informed the blood would be sent to the US for
testing. As more than one set of parents asked, "If it’s safe,
why did they need to deceive us into this?" Moreover, why would the
childrens’ blood samples need to be spirited out of China (illegally) and sent
to the US for testing?
It is not the result of excessive
suspicion that these physical reactions, combined with the inordinate secrecy
and overall illegality, have all the hallmarks of the delivery to the children
of some kind of substitute vaccine or similar. Given the serious genetic role
played by Vitamin A in the human body, and its role in the human immune system
- or immune-suppression system - I find all of this worrying. I do not know
what tests China's CDC performed on these children during their investigation,
but I would be surprised if further testing failed to reveal the existence of
antibodies that should not be present. It would also be mandatory to examine
whether the future fertility of these little victims had been compromised in
any way by the USDA's version of Golden Rice. It is possible these
children may have been rendered sterile.
•The Pathogenic Nature of the
Tufts Experiment
There is one additional matter
relating to the perpetration of this GM rice on Chinese children, that of the
inherent pathogenic nature of all genetically-modified food. The fact
that the USDA was so determined as to make repeated attempts over many years to
secretly conduct this Golden Rice experiment on Chinese children in China,
raises many warnings. If this were a simple matter of testing a
spinach substitute for its Vitamin A content, there would be no need for
secrecy or smuggling. The simple fact that these experiments were not conducted
openly is sufficient proof in itself that the USDA was hiding something,
perhaps even from the researchers themselves. And that 'something' will almost
certainly be pathogenic. It is of even more concern when we consider the USDA's
determination to conduct these trials specifically in China and not in any
other nation, leading immediately to a suspicion the pathogens were race-specific.
Given all the secrecy, the
denials and cover-ups, and the documented fact that many of the Chinese
children suffered physical reactions, in some cases rather serious, leads one
to question the actual content and intent of Tufts' experiment in China. This
concern is exacerbated by the fact that the USDA created and produced this
particular undocumented strain of Golden Rice in its own labs, and grew the
rice itself in its own hydroponic stations. There is therefore no
documentation or proof of precisely what was fed to the children, beyond
only a vague claim by Tufts researchers that this strain contained large
amounts of pro-Vitamin A, a claim that tells us precisely nothing about the
genetic manipulation performed on the plants. Again, given the negative
physical reactions by the children to this rice, reactions that would be
impossible with normal rice, it is reasonable to theorise that the
children were actually fed not a pro-Vitamin but a pro-pathogen. And,
given the USDA's suspicious repeated determination to conduct this experiment
specifically in China on Chinese children (rather than in India on Indian
children, or in Japan on Japanese children), it is also reasonable to
theorise that the pathogen was race-specific.
One of the dangers voiced by many
scientists is that the various strains of this Golden Rice were apparently made
with 'genetic modification techniques' "that cause uncontrollable
mutations and other collateral damage to the host plant genome, with many
unintended, uncharacterized effects". More frighteningly, ISIS wrote that
the viral sequences "created for enhanced horizontal gene transfer and
recombination, the main route to creating new pathogens." Another ISIS
article titled, The 'Golden Rice', An Exercise in How Not to Do Science, stated
that the science involved was being promoted not for human health but "to
salvage a morally as well as financially bankrupt agricultural biotech
industry", concluding that these clinical trials of
"uncharacterized, unapproved, experimental (Golden Rice) on children ...
is morally inexcusable."
A group of acclaimed
international biologists and other scientists wrote a strongly-worded letter of
protest to Professor Robert Russell at Tufts University, stating in part,
"We are writing to express our shock and unequivocal denunciation of the experiments
conducted by your colleagues which involve the feeding of genetically modified
Golden Rice to (Chinese children) . . . These unethical and potentially
dangerous trials MUST be stopped." (10)
A news release by Dr Brian John
at GM Free Cymru stated that these trials ... "are shrouded in mystery,
and may even have been illegal since Golden Rice has no regulatory approvals
either in the USA or elsewhere for cultivation or use as a food. There are not
even any published animal feeding trials. Other research results are shrouded
in mystery and secrecy. It is almost unbelievable that any human feeding trials
of Golden Rice should be contemplated by Tufts University and the American
authorities, since this is a GM variety which is acknowledged to be
very unstable and unpredictable in its behavior, and which has no
authorizations for cultivation or food use anywhere in the world. The use of
children in these experiments is profoundly disturbing, since they are in
no position to understand the implications or the risks to their long- term
health that might arise from eating an untested GM variety. The ethical issues
are even more disturbing ... the feeding of an untested GM rice to vulnerable
and sick children is absolutely unforgivable."
In an ISIS report, the agency
wrote that "One major hazard inherent to GM organisms is enhanced
horizontal gene transfer and recombination (which) is considerably worse with
transgenic plants like Golden Rice because ... (it provides) a ready vehicle
for ... horizontal gene transfer to all species ... including human cells. In
general, horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA facilitates the creation
of new pathogens. The identification of (these) sequences ... raises questions
as to whether the widespread use ... in genetic modification has indeed
resulted in creating a new pathogen for humans." One of India's
most respected biotechnologists, Dr. Vandana Shiva, was a speaker at an
international biotechnology conference where she said a Syngenta
representative told her Syngenta's goal was to "control food" by the
end of the century. (11)
•Denial, Lies and Cover-Up
Following the public disclosure
of their illegal experiment and prior to China's CDC investigation, Tufts
University followed the standard American pattern (as exemplified by Harvard
University in Anhui, China, for example) of denial, then repeated lying about
the facts, followed by the typical obfuscation and mis-statements to cover up
their ethical failures and illegalities. Then, as is also so typical,
when finally forced to face the indisputable truths, Tufts exonerated themselves
then blamed the Chinese for their lack of ethics. (12)
Tufts did finally effectively
admit it had used small Chinese children as guinea pigs in a GM food experiment
without disclosing either the fact or the nature of their project, and admitted
their researchers "were out of compliance" with multiple regulations
and requirements. That's a rather mild statement, considering that many of
their actions were not only unethical but clearly criminal, but Tufts
"firmly defended their experiment" even while confessing they
"violated ethics rules", though their definition of this
violation was that "one researcher in China broke the rules" - by
failing to inform parents of the fact of an illegal GM food experiment on their
children, and by failing to obtain consent. Tufts' statement clearly -
and falsely - implies without stating that it was a Chinese researcher who
committed these violations.
It was especially troubling that
Tufts and various US government agencies tasked with the investigation, and the
entire US media, neglected to address the obvious illegalities like the
smuggling into China of prohibited genetically-modified food, all the forged
documents and the false statements, and glossed over with a mere mention the
fact that the consent forms, to the extent they existed at all, had been forged
and/or back-dated, and were clearly fraudulent. Their so-called investigation
ignored the fact that Tufts researchers lied about obtaining approval from the
necessary Chinese authorities, and neglected in total to address at all the
huge carpet of lies issued in what was indisputably a shameful cover-up. They
also totally ignored the fact that their duplicity and outrageous illegal
conduct left China's national government with the responsibility of providing
substantial compensation to all the enraged families involved in this affair.
I would end by stating that,
given the repeated reprehensible ethical violations by American universities in
China, no American university should ever be permitted entry to China for any
research of any kind. All US universities and research institutions
should be permanently banned from the country.
*
Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been
translated into 32 languages and his articles posted on more than 150
foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well
as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired
management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions
in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export
business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University,
presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr.
Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books
generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors
to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When
China Sneezes’. (Chapt. 2 — Dealing with Demons).
His full archive can be seen at https://www.moonofshanghai.com/ and http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com
*
Notes:
(2) The Guardian, June 19, 1999,
published an article titled "The seeds of wrath", in which was stated
that GM seed was "Developed with the US government and military"
participation and support. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/1999/jun/19/food.food
(3) Tim McGirk; "Gene
Piracy"; Time Magazine; November 9, 1998
(4) In February of 2016, Director
of US National Intelligence James R. Clapper, in presenting a "Worldwide
Threat Assessment" testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee,
asserted that gene editing had become a global danger to humanity and included
it in the section of his report dealing with weapons of mass destruction.
(5) THE "GOLDEN RICE"
HOAX -When Public Relations replaces Science; http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/goldenricehoax.html
(6) GMO Golden Rice Offers No
Nutritional Benefits Says FDA; Allison Wilson, PhD and Jonathan Latham, PhD
https://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/gmo-golden-rice-offers-no-nutritional-benefits-says-fda/
(7) Science, October 4,
2018; www.dailymail.co.uk
(8) Golden Rice Study Violated
Ethical Rules, Tufts Says; September 17, 2013; http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/09/17/223382375/golden-rice-study-violated-ethical-rules-tufts-says
(9) According to China's Health
Ministry, Tufts cooked the "golden rice" in the United States and
brought the cooked rice to China on May 29, 2008, without due declaration to
relevant Chinese authorities. Four days later, Tang and other research
participants recooked the GM rice and mixed it with ordinary rice and served it
for the children's lunch. The research team did not tell the children's parents
or guardians that the test would be using GM food. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-12/07/c_132025944.htm
(10) Scientists Condemn Human
Experiment with GE Food; Thursday, 19 February 2009; http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0902/S00328.htm ; http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SPUCTGM.php
(11) GM Seeds and the
Militarization of Food
https://fpif.org/gm_seeds_and_the_militarization_of_food_-_and_everything_else/
(12) This has been common
practice by Americans in China. A few years earlier, Harvard University
conducted an even more fraudulent study in China, this one ostensibly
conducting asthma research. However, according to police officials, Harvard
researchers forged all the relevant approval documents, claimed approval of
their study from a non-existent medical authority, exposed countless thousands
of Chinese to various potentially lethal pathogens, then illegally collected
and shipped back to the US hundreds of thousands of vials of Chinese DNA. And,
in a truly despicable libel, the US government then claimed the DNA was sent to
the US because of "the risks of the Chinese government misusing sensitive
genetic information".
Copyright © Larry Romanoff, Moon of Shanghai, Blue Moon of Shanghai, 2021
