Human beings need food, clean water, and shelter to survive. Should we be guinea pigs for food that cannot exist in nature?
Monsanto, DuPont, PepsiCo, BASF, Bayer, Dow AgroSciences, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and ConAgra are just a few of the giant food and agri-businesses that want you to to be in the dark about what you eat. What's in it for them? Money.
A Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is one in which scientists take a DNA sequence, or gene, from an unrelated species and insert that gene via genetic engineering to achieve a perceived improvement in the original organism.
Do you remember learning about fruit flies in junior high science class, maybe something about a monk named Mendel breeding them to study genetics? These GMOs have nothing in common with the thousands of years of cross-breeding and hybridization that humans have performed to achieve desired traits in our food. That’s right, transgenic GMO is a concept foreign to Gregor Mendel’s dominant and recessive gene studies in garden peas.
For thousands of years we bred crops and animals to better suit our environment and thus us.
These giant companies have changed our food in an unnatural way so the food can be patented and they make more, you guessed it, money.
In the process they have misled consumers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been in on it. When GMO crops were originally approved for use we were told that the Bt toxin would break down in our digestive systems. We also were told that the glyphosphate, the herbicide applied on the GMO crop, would breakdown in our digestive systems.
Recent studies have shown that we were not told the truth or the FDA did not perform complete studies.
A recent study from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, found maternal and fetal exposure to the Bt toxin from GMO corn. This shows that not only are the poisons not being broken down in our digestive systems, but that it also crosses the breast milk barrier that protects our babies.
Scientists in Italy have shown that GMO corn significantly impacts the intestinal and immune response health of laboratory mice. And now the Journal of Applied Toxicology has a peer reviewed study showing that GM food toxins with or without the accompanying Monsanto herbicide RoundUp (glyphosphate) can cause cancer in human cells.
So what about the original promise of increased food production so we can feed the world’s burgeoning population now exceeding 7 billion souls? Even that has been shot down. GMO food crops do not increase production at all, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
So why do we have GMO food? The agri-giants have lobbied relentlessly since they patent these products and make, yes, money on the seed, herbicides, and fertilizers.
The big food companies like General Mills and Kellogg’s want to lie to you using labels like “All Natural” and “Using Natural Ingredients”, so they can charge more, but they can still be GMO foods. California has Proposition 37 on the ballot this November to label GMO foods. If Californians pass this law, the whole country will benefit since food companies won’t make one package for California and one for everyone else. California is too big of a market.
If you are a registered voter in California, please vote yes on 37.
As a consumer there are only two ways to protect your health from the onslaught of GMOs. Buy organic since GMO is not allowed under the USDA organic rules or grow your own food with heirloom seeds.
You are in control of your health. Make the right choice, say no to GMO.
Syndicated talk radio host Ethan Bearman can be heard on his show, Smoke-Filled World, Sundays 4-6 p.m. Pacific time on KOMY 1340 AM and 6-8 p.m. on KSCO 1080 AM discussing this topic and other current events at http://www.gcnlive.com/programs/smokeFilledwld/ . Ethan also hosts KSCO Presents, Tuesdays noon to 2 p.m. He also writes regularly on his blog at http://www.smokefilledworld.com
