The corn mafia and Vitamin C!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/vitccontro.cfm
But now one small but vocal retailer concerned about GMOs in the environment
has started asking his supplements suppliers if there are GMOs in the
vitamin C he sells. The answers he says he's gotten have ranged from "we
don't think so but we don't know for sure" to "probably." That's not good
enough for Joe Lemieux, owner of the 2,500-square-foot Go To Health store in
Brooksville, Fla.

"People think that health food stores are a kind of haven from things like
GMOs," Lemieux said. "That's why this issue is so explosive, because I can't
tell them that the vitamin C is made without GMOs." He's not saying the
products are unsafe, but he says that genetically modified crops are bad for
the environment, and the agriculture business needs to get that message from
consumers and retailers, which is why he's taking a stand in his store.

Lemieux still stocks vitamin C but is telling his own customers not to buy
the products, and he's letting others in the industry know about his
boycott--through word-of-mouth and a Web site that deals with organic
issues--until someone can make a non-GMO vitamin C.


http://www.rense.com/general77/price.htm
Not only will you see higher prices for C, you will see it for all other supplements. You will also see cheaper ingredients, not unlike the current Costco-Kirkland calcium carbonate and synthetic vitamin E.

Most C now is from corn. If not organic it is a very heavily treated with pesticides and may be GMO.

Another example is stevia extract. It used to wholesale for about $25 pound. Now it is more than $30 for one-half pound.



http://72.41.23.143/Dangers%20of%20Bt%20Co...ied%20Foods.htm
Dangers of Bt Corn and Other Genetically Modified Foods
99% of the Vitamin C used commercially in supplements in the U.S. is derived from genetically engineered corn (Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt Corn) and comes from manufacturing plants in China, where the quality of raw materials produced for supplements tends to be less than optimal and the toxic solvents used to extract the Vitamin C, such as toulene, xylene and dioxin are allowed in residual amounts in up to 100 parts per million in total.

In 2004, scientists investigating a spate of illnesses among people living close to BT corn fields in the Philippines believe that the crop may have triggered fevers, respiratory illnesses and skin reactions. The concern surrounds an unnamed village in northern Mindanao, where 39 people living near a field of Bt maize—which contains a pesticide in the gene—started suffering when the crop was producing pollen. Doctors thought they had an infectious disease, but when four families left the village and recovered, and then showed the same symptoms on return, an environmental cause was suspected. Terje Traavik, scientific director of the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, was asked to investigate. Blood tests showed the villagers had developed antibodies to the maize's inbuilt pesticide.

His team also said it had found that genetically engineered viruses used in the GM process recombined with natural viruses to create new hybrid viruses with unpredictable characteristics. If confirmed, this could suggest that they could cause new diseases. Prof Traavik said tests so far showed evidence of an immune reaction. He said, "With such evidence of possible human health impacts of foods already on the market, we believed that waiting to report our findings through publication would not be in the public's interest."

A farmer who fed his pigs BT corn (which is still permitted for feeding of livestock) saw the birthrate of his pigs plummet 80%. Shelby County Farmer, Jerry Rosman, who had been raising pigs for over 30 years checked had lab testing done to check his pigs for disease, but tests came back negative. He had made a decision to depopulate his herd, when he heard about another area producer who was also depopulating because of simlar problems. The more he learned, the more
suspicious he became. The herds had different management styles, different
breeding methods and different swine genetics. Two of the managers shared a
veterinarian, while two others shared a different veterinarian. A common denominator, Rosman says, is that all of the operations fed their herds the same Bt corn hybrids. One of the producers subsequently switched back to known tested pure corn, and low birth rate is no longer a problem within that herd. "Their
farrowing rates are back where they need to be," Rosman reports. "Everything is going fine."

Tissues including meat of chicken who had eaten only genetically engineered Bt corn were found to contain pieces of DNA from this food. Such uptake of food DNA seems always to occur when we eat, apparently without causing harm. The problem however is that every cell in plant GE foods contain genetically unstable DNA from the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) promoter. This DNA is suspected to be carcinogenic. Moreover the CaMV is related to human viruses that cause serious diseases (AIDS and Hepatitis . The corn grains on one cob of GE corn contain hundreds of millions of such CaMV DNA. As this viral DNA may end up in our cells, it cannot be considered sound science to approve such food without finding out if it is safe to ingest large amounts of it as occurs when GE foods are eaten. No such studies have yet been done.