Dr Caius Rommens developed GMO potatoes for the Idaho-based agbiotech company Simplot. The chief genetic modification he introduced was to silence the potatoes’ melanin (PPO) gene.

This gene, when operative, causes potatoes to discolour when bruised. The GMO potatoes do not discolour when bruised. They have therefore been marketed as bruise-resistant and are being sold without GMO labels in the US and Canada under innocuous-sounding names like Innate, Hibernate, and White Russet.

After finding that “most GMO varieties were stunted, chlorotic, mutated, or sterile, and many of them died quickly, like prematurely-born babies”, Dr Rommens renounced his genetic engineering career and wrote a book about his experiences, Pandora’s Potatoes: The Worst GMOs. [Full article]

After an uptick in lawsuits in the 1980s, the vaccine manufacturers essentially held the government hostage and threatened to stop making vaccines unless the government took on responsibility for vaccine injury lawsuits. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was then enacted which made the taxpayers liable for injuries caused by vaccines and not the manufacturers.

This removal of liability has created the incentive to turn out new vaccines with very little testing, as the companies don't have to worry about financial hardships for injuring people, which in turn has shaped the situation that we find ourselves in today. [Full article]