OK Senator: Aborted Fetal Cells are used in development of flavor enhancers

—————–ACTION ALERT—————–

URGENT: ALL OKLAHOMA RESIDENTS: Contact your State Senator and tell them you want them to support Senator Shortey’s SB 1418. Not sure who your State Senator is? Go to www.oksenate.gov Bottom right hand corner – enter your address, city, zip to find your State Senator (not to be confused with US Senate)

For Immediate Release: January 26, 2012

Oklahoma Senator correct – mainstream media wrong: Aborted fetal cells are used in development of flavor enhancers for food products.

(Largo, FL) An onslaught of articles reported by the mainstream media earlier this week ranged from utter disbelief to crass remarks denigrating Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey (R) over the bill he introduced banning food products developed using aborted fetal material in his state.

Unfortunately for the media, the good Senator is correct.

“This is perhaps the worst case of irresponsible reporting by the mainstream media that we have witnessed in this millennium,” stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director of Children of God for Life who first broke the story in March 2011. “A simple fact check would have revealed that Senator Shortey is correct about how some of our foods are being produced.”

The focus is on San Diego based biotech company Senomyx, who states on their website that, “We created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

What they don’t tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 (human embryonic kidney cells) taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors.

As an example of just one of over 75 patents on file in which the aborted fetal cells are utilized, Senomyx states in US Patent number 7,297,543: “The invention provides a preferred mammalian cell lines, e.g., HEK-293 cells that stably express T1R2/T1R3 and G.sub..alpha.15 under inducible conditions. These cells are useful in cell-based assays for identifying compounds that elicit or modulate sweet taste.”

Senomyx has entered into agreements with food giants, PepsiCo, Nestles and Cadbury Adams LLC, a division of Kraft Foods in which the companies pay Senomyx for the research and development of the flavor enhancers and then continue to pay royalties on the products sold. Some of these companies already have products on the market in the US using Senomyx flavors, whereas PepsiCo’s products are still in the development stage.

Because of this, Children of God for Life began a massive worldwide boycott of PepsiCo beverages when they admitted that would be the focus of their Senomyx research collaboration.

“PepsiCo has the ability to request that Senomyx use one of the morally acceptable cell lines available,” noted Vinnedge. “Unlike Campbell Soup who listened to the public and severed ties with Senomyx, PepsiCo has referred to the research as the “gold standard” for the industry; they have openly misled the public and created a public relations nightmare for themselves!”

“We stand firmly and proudly behind Senator Shortey who had the courage to step forward and protect the people of his State who have a right to know about these products,” she added. “Shame on those in the mainstream media who never bothered to check the facts before they began assaulting his good name.”

Children of God for Life hope other states will join Oklahoma’s efforts as well.

The PepsiCo boycott has garnered the support of over 30 other US prolife organizations and has now extended to nearly a dozen foreign countries. A shareholder resolution filed late last year with the Security and Exchange Commission by a concerned stockholder would require that PepsiCo “adopt a corporate policy that recognizes human rights and employs ethical standards which do not involve using the remains of aborted human beings in both private and collaborative research and development agreements.”

PepsiCo attorneys responded with a 36 page plea to the SEC in an attempt to quash the information. Both sides are currently awaiting the SEC ruling.
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Read just one of the many disturbing reports from the liberal media.

Oklahoma news did a much better job.

Read Senator Shortey’s bill.

Note: We advised the Senator that the wording in the bill needed to be slightly modified to ensure accuracy. That wording would read:
….food or products for consumption which contain “cells, components, DNA or any material derived from an aborted fetus” and in the second part …..or which used “cells, components, DNA or any material derived from an aborted fetus” in the research or development of any of the ingredients.