GMO plants have been created in laboratories and then
planted by farmers.
Last year, if you’re like the
average American, you ate more than your body weight of a group of foods you
didn’t even know you were consuming. Foods that have never been proven safe to
eat. Foods that are becoming more and more widespread in our food supply.
These foods consist of genetically modified organisms
(GMO), plants that have been created in laboratories and then planted by
farmers. The most frightening part about these foods is that they are unlike
any other foods that humans have ever eaten before recent times. And they were
probably on your dinner plate last night and almost certainly in your snack
foods.
Food for Thought
The
Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocate organization, determined that
Americans eat, on average, 193 pounds of GMO foods a year. And the group
justifiably asks: “If you were planning on eating your body weight of anything
in a year, wouldn’t you want to make sure it was safe to eat?”
But
you don’t know if these foods are safe to eat and nobody is planning any
research to find out how risky they are. The government doesn’t require
international corporations like Monsanto, that make tremendous profits off of
these foods, to establish their safety.
Other
countries are more concerned about these foods than we are. As a matter of
fact, the United States is just about alone in not requiring labeling of GMO
foods or the performance of safety tests to see whether or not these bizarre,
chemist-created foods are harmless. As a result, about 90 percent of the corn,
soy and cotton now produced in the United States are GMO crops. When you eat
processed foods like corn chips or breakfast cereal, 70 percent of what you
take in has been made from GMO products.
GMO Profits
Who
stands to profit from this change in our eating habits? Primarily Monsanto, the
bio-tech company that controls 90 percent of all GMO seeds that farmers plant.
A
big reason Monsanto can get away with engineering this profitable threat to
health stems from its gargantuan lobbying efforts in Washington. According to a
report by Food and Water Watch, a non-profit consumer organization, Monsanto
and other huge food and agricultural biotechnology firms and trade associations
lavished more than $540 million in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts
during the past decade. And their efforts are accelerating. Food and Water
Watch has determined that the annual spending on politicians by these
corporations has doubled during that time. These companies employ more than 100
lobbying firms and also have in-house lobbyists who wine and dine government
officials to get what they want.
Revolving Door
In
many cases, the same people who hold high paying jobs at Monsanto eventually
move into positions at the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be
protecting us against their abuses of the food system.
Consider
the case of Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for Foods for the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). In the past, he has moved from a job at the FDA to a job
at a law firm that represented Monsanto. Then he moved to a job at Monsanto,
over to the United States Department of Agriculture, back to the law firm, over
to Monsanto, to a position on a university, to a think tank and then back to
the FDA. It’s a pretty cushy career path for Taylor, but a disaster for our
protection from questionable food. While Taylor was doing his second stint at
the FDA, the agency adjusted its regulatory policies so GMOs could be introduced
into our diet without being tested for toxic effects.
Pesticide Danger
Aside
from the possible danger of eating GMO foods that have had genetic material
from other species added to their cells, the GMO crops that farmers grow often
have been sprayed with unconscionable amounts of pesticides that contaminate
our air and water. Residues of these chemicals may also contaminate foods made
from these plants.
Many
of these GMO crops are “Roundup® ready.” That means they have been modified
genetically to survive massive amounts of the pesticide called Roundup® (also
provided by Monsanto). Glyphosate from Roundup® is now being detected in ground
water far from the farms at which it is sprayed. Traces are even being found in
the urine of city dwellers. It crosses the placental barrier and can be
detected in the blood of unborn children.
This
technology threatens you and me and the world around us. Roundup®-ready crops
have led to the creation of “frankenweeds,” weeds impervious to herbicides. GMO
seeds that produce their own pesticides are creating “frankenbugs” that
withstand and even thrive on GMO plants. But this toxic brew is killing off
populations of beneficial insects like pollinating honeybees. It has led to
what is called colony collapse disorder and a world-wide die-off of bees. GMO
crops may also be wiping out monarch butterfly populations.
Right
now, the only way for you to avoid GMO foods is to eat organic food. Any other
food, even items marked “all-natural,” may contain GMO ingredients.
If you were to write a movie about evil scientists
plotting to insert secret ingredients into our food that might make humans
sick, you’d have a hard time coming up with something more inventive and
potentially more dangerous than genetically modified (GMO) food. Even though
GMO ingredients are not listed on food labels, they have already infiltrated
our dinner plates. And this technological change to our food has the potential
for sabotaging the world’s food supply.
Amazingly,
most Americans don’t even realize they eat GMO food at just about every meal.
In particular, the soy and corn ingredients of our favorite dishes almost
always contain GMO ingredients.
Vast Amounts of GMO
U.S.
farmers and farmers around the world plant shockingly vast amounts of these
laboratory-created crops. In particular, soy, corn and cotton (our food
frequently has cotton- seed oil added to it) have been genetically engineered
to contain toxic pesticides and to withstand massive amounts of herbicides
applied to farm fields. This allows GMO crops to survive and be harvested while
weeds are supposed to wither and die. Of course, other beneficial living things
like honeybees and a wide collection of wildlife also perish from pesticide
exposure. And the pesticides often persist long enough to poison our water and
air.
Right now, the International Service for the Acquisition
of Agribiotech Applications estimates that since GMO crops were introduced in
the 1990s, a billion acres worldwide have been planted with these plants.
That’s an area larger than the continental United States. GMO farming is good for
farmers…deadly for people!
Hidden Problem
Although
GMO proponents argue that the technology is safe, recent discoveries about what
happens in the genetic material of altered organisms are not reassuring. In
theory, alter- ing an organism’s genetic material seems simple and precise. The
process is supposed to consist of extracting a desirable gene from one plant or
animal and inserting into another.
For
example, suppose you want to create tomatoes that can withstand cold weather.
In theory, you take the genes that allow a frost- resistant plant to survive
freezing temperatures and you put it into a tomato plant. When seeds of the new
tomato plant grow, the presence of this genetic material stimulates activity in
the new plants that keep them alive as the temperature drops.
In
practice, however, unforeseen complications arise that are unexpected. Only
during the past few months have scientists discovered that the genes
technologists insert into plants are often contaminated with unintended
material. That includes viruses.
Recently,
the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) discovered when lab scientists
altered genes in GMO food they were also feeding in parts of a virus gene. No
one had ever noticed that before.
This
virus gene, however, is now in the food we eat. Is it safe? Will it lead to
unforeseen illness among the millions of people who consume it? The experts are
uncertain. It has never been present in our food previously. Until this recent
scientific discovery, nobody knew it was in our GMO foods.
Reports
about this virus show that of the 86 different processes being used to insert
genes into GMO crops, this virus is present in 54 of them. Meaning this virus
of questionable safety is in a lot of the snack foods sitting in your cupboard.
Viral Danger
Experts
explain that these types of viral genes can be very dangerous. Viral genes are
designed to hobble our immune systems (and the immune systems of plants and
animals) so that the viruses can invade cells and flourish. Scientists are
concerned about this newly discovered viral material because the viruses that
invade the cells of a plant do not funda- mentally differ from the viruses that
make us sick.
Concern
about these genes caused Pete Riley, director of the public interest group GM
Freeze, to warn: “This is a clear warning (that GMO food) is not sufficiently
understood to be considered safe.” Riley also told the British publication The
Daily Mail, “’Authorization for these crops must be suspended immediately, and
they should be withdrawn from sale, until a full and extended review of their
safety has been carried out.”
Labeling
Movement
Perhaps
the only good news about GMO food in the United States is its presence soon may
be labeled on food packages.
Last
November, voters in California turned down a law requiring food companies to
list GMO ingredients on food packages. Although most consumers seem to be in
favor of GMO labeling (Doesn’t everybody want to know what’s in our food?),
food manufacturers spent more than $40 million in the election season
frightening voters and ensuring the GMO labeling law lost. Voters in Washington
state recently declined a GMO
labeling mandate due to an extensive and deceptive TV and print mailing
campaign that flooded the airways and mailboxes sponsored by Monsanto, Dow, and
Bayer that just overwhelmed voters with bogus campaign claims, and flat-out
lies How sad!
But now that food companies are realizing other States are
going to be passing GMO labeling laws in the near future, they seem to be
caving in and negotiating with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to craft
labeling guidelines. Even Wal-Mart seems to be moving in favor of GMO labeling
In this effort, though, we should keep our government officials and local
supermarkets aware of the importance of this issue. Write to your local
legislators and the heads of your favorite food companies to make sure they
know you want GMO foods to be labeled.
If
you want to avoid eating GMO foods— until foods are labeled—the only sure way
is to stick to organic food. Certified organic food is the only food in
supermarkets and health food stores that has to be free of GMO ingredients.
Here’s
a tip for cleaning non-organic vegetables in the meantime….
Note:
You should always rinse organic produce also, as there
may be residues of germs or signs of visiting insects. Plain water alone is fine for
organic items only.
For all non-organic veggies & fruit… a
non-toxic cleansing brew is simply vinegar and lemon juice.
Keep a kitchen spray bottle filled with white distilled
vinegar and the juice of 1/4 lemon.
Spray all non-organic fruit and veggies well and allow
to sit for a few minutes before rinsing with water. Some veggies and fruit are
sprayed with as much as 5-6 different kinds of pesticide, and herbicide, and
spraying and rinsing will dissolve most all toxins.
These toxins are not removed with simply washing under
water as they are made to withstand water from the rain.
Remove outer leaves of lettuce, cabbage, and other
leafy veggies, and remove any peel that’s possible before eating.
