From the September 2006 Idaho Observer:

Food as THE weapon

Starving soldiers cannot fight. Starving citizens cannot defend themselves. The first aggressor state to ever attack and occupy another state knew the value of food as a weapon and no aggressor state since has ever forgotten. Back in the good ol’ days, armies and occupying governments could control people by destroying, blockading, rationing, adulterating and/or over-pricing food. Today food is destroyed and adulterated for publicly-accepted commercial reasons; innocent people suffer trade sanctions, blockades and food rationing mandates for publicly-approved political reasons and; prices are determined by powerful multinational corporations that are in the final stages of securing patents on suicide food crop hybrids. The influence these multinationals have on government policies will insure that farmers will have the choice of planting patented, genetically-modified, chemically-grown and nutrient-deficient crops or be driven out of business. "Consumers" will then have the option of eating and starving slowly or not eating and starving quickly. Change the food supply, change the organism. Food is quickly developing into THE weapon in an age where the only remaining strategic advantage of conventional guns and bombs will be to carry out the comparatively humane act of relieving people of their misery.

FDA approves viral adulteration of our food supply

by Byron J. Richards, CCN

On Friday, August 18, 2006, the FDA approved a viral cocktail to be sprayed on foods we eat. This is the first time viruses have been approved for use as food additives. The FDA wants you to believe it will be safe to consume these viruses every day for the rest of your life with no adverse health effects. Not surprisingly, the FDA doesn’t want you to know which foods are adulterated in this manner, for fear you may not buy them; thus, no labeling will be required. This is a monumental announcement by the FDA, indicating the federal agency is throwing all caution to the wind regarding the safety of our food supply.

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. And they want you to believe this is completely safe while refusing to require the additive viruses to be listed on the food label so that you would have a choice.

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 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 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 human digestive tracts with untreatable infections.

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 my book "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 2,500 people 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. The company has already licensed its now FDA-approved viral spray to an undisclosed multi-national company for use around the world. When Intralytix CEO John Vazzara was recently asked about this partner company, he refused to disclose its name. The grand profit-driven biotech experiment on the health and well being of all Americans is now in full swing.

Of course, we will need new wonder drugs to combat new bio-tech-induced 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 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 the Bush administration’s agenda has been to promote American biotech companies as the new future for American prosperity. Administrative opinions have trumped science in virtually every situation where safety conflicts with profit.

The FDA will refuse to require labeling on food sprayed with viruses, just as they refuse to require notification that food has been  genetically modified and contains toxins in every cell. The reason is obvious: No person understanding these issues would buy or eat such food. Thus, the FDA acts to hide the information from the public to foster profits for biotech companies and the growth of the biotech industry. This is a betrayal of the public trust.

Current FDA Director Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, and his chief science officer, Scott Gottlieb, MD, are personally responsible for the decision to contaminate meat with live viruses and need to be held accountable for whatever damages occur as a result of their actions. 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 the 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 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 virus-tainted foods; support 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.

How can any responsible parent feed virus-tainted food to their children? The FDA should be forced to revoke this approval. Since the FDA is refusing to make food companies list the viruses as ingredients in food, consumers have no choice but to avoid buying all foods that could be sprayed. I see no other way that safety can be assured, since the FDA refuses to do its job and is putting Americans’ health at risk.

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.

Get connected to the sustainable family farms in your community. Demand that the food you are eating is labeled with a country of origin. Buy American; buy locally-produced food whenever possible.  Support those who truly believe in being the stewards of our land and food for our people and for future generations. These good people are being squashed out of existence by multi-national agribusiness, companies that could truly care less about the quality of our food supply or the security and health of Americans. How you spend your money is your most powerful vote. Vote for those who care.

Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist and nationally-renowned health  expert, radio personality, educator, and author of "Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America."  Richards has personally developed 75 unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional formulas and encourages individuals to take charge of their health, stand up for their health rights, and not blindly succumb to propaganda from the vested-interests who profit from keeping Americans sick. As a Charter Member of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists (IAACN) since 1991, Richards has presented hundreds of educational classes to health professionals and individuals who want to take charge of their health! Visit Richards website at www.wellnessresources.com