From the beginning, my doctor has said that GMO foods are bad. She never says why exactly except that she will say that we don't feed our body what it needs when we consume GMO foods. Her medical advice is geared towards the instruction of methods by which we can be in health. It goes beyond the standard admonishment to control fat, sugar and salt consumption.
The GMO issue is extremely controversial and on the surface appears to be based more on the fear of the unknown rather than on scientific evidence. There's really very little to be alarmed about when the process by which a GMO is created is nothing more than removing genetic material from one plant and introducing it into another plant to give that plant the desired properties belonging to the donor plant.
Genetic modification can be used to increase the nutritional value of that plant's produce. It can create a virus resistant strain, a pesticide resistant strain or one that will grow in less than desirable soil conditions. Genetic modification can be and is used to change the color of things as well. That is how rose growers achieve all those multiple colored variants of the rose. Slightly different process, but still genetic modification. That's not all bad, but I have questions.
One of those questions concerns Monsanto's insistence on farmers not saving the seeds from this years crops for planting next season. The only reason I, who am not a scientist, can come up with is they know what properties altered first generation GMO seeds have, but don't know what properties future generations of those seeds will have. This is concerning to me and largely why I have worked for a year to remove GMO products from my pantry.
The other question I have is based on what foods I know contain GMO ingredients, is there a link between GMO and our obesity problem?
It would be easier if producers of our foods were required to label for GMO ingredients, however I am reminded of the trans fat labeling that isn't the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I am aware of what words to look for on the labels and far too often find those words listed in the ingredients. I would assume the GMO guidelines, if they were ever established, would allow producers the same leeway to claim something is 0 GMO if the percentage is below a specified amount.
I am going to include a link in this post to a list of foods containing GMO ingredients. Once you've looked at it, I'm positive you'll be shocked at just how much of it you have in your homes.
Products containing GMO ingredients
Sherry, on May 14th I posted this:
ReplyDelete10,000 years of farming practice flipped by the court
Monsanto won a lawsuit against a farmer yesterday in the Supreme Court. That farmer is bankrupt now, he owes more than his farm is worth. All because he saved a little bit of last years harvest for seed, that is how farming worked for the 10,000 years BM (before monsanto).
Monsanto has carved out a new right for products. Single use, this is going to be big. You break the law if you reuse the seed, you must buy seed from them each year. Monsanto seeds are poison resistant, plant them then wash the field in chemicals. No anyone with cancer?
Can Ford get in on this, you should have to repurchase your car if you use it a second time. What about Music, buy a CD and it plays once. For the fridge and toaster, same. I think the public is going to soon find the Monsanto patent model spreading to other things.
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Sherry, the pollen from GMO corn floats on the wind, and non GMO crops end up with some of these new attributes. Monsanto trucks prowl the country roads grabbing samples from fields, if it tests for their gene the farmer faces a lawsuit due to the wind patterns. This is all about market domination, and forcing everyone to buy seed every year.
In Europe anti GMO is very strong. The public has kept most of it off the shelves and it is totally illegal in some nations, the public here has no interest in this or the bees, or loss of fresh water to fracking, just entertain us. Good post.
Take heart, folks have begun to catch on in Twitter about it. I've been making these changes over a period of two years but only on the GMO for a year and thanks to Hubs Crohns disease had to buy corn flakes for his breakfast cereal.
DeleteOn the one hand, the labeling of products won't solve the problem, on the other, too many not buying products by these manufacturers will put many, many people out of work. The only real way to gain control at this point is to not buy any of the products on the list and get the attention of the government. Catch 22 no matter how one looks at it.
Look at this article, same subject, very interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16633-is-the-monsanto-protest-the-next-salt-march
See? I told you people are starting to pay attention. We need to know which foods have GMO ingredients and stop buying them. And it really is that simple.
DeleteWe are casting a vote for Monsantos Methods every time we buy a product with GMO ingredients. We vote for them with our dollars.
In reality if we are going to supply food in the future for an exploding human population it will have to be through scientific manipulation to produce high yeald.
ReplyDeleteWorld population was @ 500 million in 1900; 1 billion in 1920; 2 billion 1940; 4 billion in 1975 and over 7 billion today. It seems the population growth has slowed over the past forty years, but even so we could have 14 billion by 2050 and 28 billion by 2100.
The problem isn't GMO, or global warming or depletion of the ozone layer or deforrestation etc. - they are the symptoms. The cause is uncontrolled population growth.
I guess we should just enjoy eating real food while it is still available.
the Ol'Buzzard
I had to do the research before answering your comment. I think maybe you're right. Growth + the movement out of urban and into rural areas has left us with a depleted amount of arable land to grow food on.
Delete