GMO - Do You Know What You Are Eating?

I’ve been hearing a lot about GMOs and seeing labels on products saying “NON GMO PROJECT”.  I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering what a GMO is so I gathered information from many of the top sources and put it all in one location just for you!

Sooo…

What is GMO? 

What do we need to know?

Should we like it or hate it?

Are GMOs the answer to world hunger or is it causing a greater issue?

What is a GMO?

GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms and have been around for centuries, yet, many of us are just beginning to see and hear the words GMO.   Organizations are starting to form to help make people aware of GMOs and inform us what foods contain and do not contain GMOs. 

GMOs allow us to genetically enhance (GE) organisms by selectively breeding, mutate, delete, or add genetic material to another organism to achieve the desired result.  Organisms include plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and viruses.  The organism’s genetic material is artificially manipulated through GE by copying the genes of one organism and inserting the genes into another organism.  This is how we are able to create unique blends of organisms.  We genetically engineer organisms because we want what cannot not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

It is estimated that 70% of processed foods in America contain at least one GM ingredient.

GMOs fall into one of two categories:

Cisgenic modification is similar to what occurs in nature.  This GMO swaps genes among closely related, sexually compatible organisms but with far greater precision.

Transgenic modification mixes and matches genes from radically divergent species.

Medicinal products such as insulin, blood factor VIII and human growth hormone were formerly produced from humans and animals and some carried a slight risk of transmitting disease. Now, with GM technology, pure and safe equivalents can be produced.

This may sound like an answer to world hunger and many other issues the world faces.  But is it logical to use this as an option if evidence proves that it hurts us in the long run?

The biotech industry promises that GMOs offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, and other benefits, which have all been proven to be false.  Much research and evidence has proven GMOs to cause health problems, environmental damage and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights.

EXAMPLES OF GMOs

-Sweeter corn and tomatoes

-Delay of ripening until after picking

-Fruits and vegetables that produce their own pesticides and are resistant to herbicide

-Virus resistant foods

-Increase foods nutrition content

-Extended shelf life

-Purebred dogs at the park

-Your neighbor's prize rosebush

-Dogs bred to be more docile pets

-Beefier cattle

-Larger turkey for Thanksgiving dinner

Almost all of the corn, soybeans, and cotton grown in America is genetically modified.  In the near future we may see salmon that is genetically modified to grow faster, resist disease, and able to tolerate various temperatures, which will allow them to grow larger.  

LABELING

Wanting to know what we are putting into our bodies, people have protested to require companies to label products or seeds containing GMOs.

The food industry, companies that genetically engineer seeds and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) have fought against labeling laws because they say GMOs are safe and labels are misleading.

Vermont is the first state to require labeling of GMOs. Connecticut and Maine recently passed laws that would require food manufacturers to reveal GE ingredients on product packaging, but those laws won't go into effect until other states adopt similar regulations.  Sixty four countries are currently labeling GE foods.  This includes the European Union and China.

The same companies that fight GMO labeling in America, label GMOs in the foods they sell overseas. We do this for other countries, yet America has spent over $100M to keep Americans from knowing what's in our food.

  

Biotech companies and the food industry say that such labeling would be expensive and pointless because GE foods are safe.  Others say that labeling such products is extremely cheap, costing producers approximately one penny per day.  Producers change their labels all of the time and don't increase the costs to their customers.  

There was a time when foods did not have nutrition labels and now many of us use this information every day. Knowing GMOs are in our food will make as much of a difference as knowing the nutrition in our food.  Many people may even want to eat GM foods.  Once people know what is in their food, they can then make the choice to avoid GMOs or not.  The long-term impacts of GMOs are unknown, and once released into the environment these organisms cannot be recalled.  There must be a reason the food industry is so against labeling GMO products!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

More than 80% of all GMOs grown in the world are engineered for herbicide tolerance.  This has caused the use of toxic herbicides like Roundup to increase 15x’s since GMOs were introduced.  Between 1996 and 2008, US farmers sprayed an extra 383 million pounds of herbicide on GMO crops.  GMO crops are also responsible for “super weeds” and “super bugs” which can only be killed with even more toxic poisons.  Some crops are even genetically engineered to be immune to herbicide so that farmers can destroy weeds without killing their cash crops.

GMOs cross-pollinate and their seeds can travel and because of this, it is impossible to fully clean up the contaminated gene pool. We must think about our children and grandchildren because the potential impact of this will impact the health of future generations.

THE ENVIRONMENT

GMOs harm birds, insects, amphibians, marine ecosystems, and soil organisms. They reduce bio-diversity, pollute water resources, and are unsustainable.  Roundup herbicide has been shown to cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic deaths and endocrine disruptions, and organ damage in animals even at very low doses. It must be doing the same to us if it is doing this to animals! 

GMO pollution will outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste.  We must learn more about the potential long-term impacts of genetically modified plants on the environment before mass-producing them.

ARE GMOs SAFE?

Many developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe.  More than 60 countries have restrictions or bans against the production and sale of GMOs. America does not ban or restrict GMOs because our government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. 

The very process of creating a GM plant can result in new toxins, allergens, carcinogens, and nutritional deficiencies.  The protein products of introduced genes may be toxic or allergenic to certain individuals who suffer from allergies to various foods such as, nuts, wheat, eggs, or dairy products. 

The FDA says the foods they have evaluated to this point have not been any more likely to cause an allergic or toxic reaction than foods from traditionally bred plants.

Yet, the FDA is not required to approve genetically engineered crops for consumption.

In the medical industry, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) asks doctors to prescribe GMO free diets. Animal studies show organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility. Human studies show that GM foods leave material behind, which cause long-term problems.

Here are some of the health problems arose after 1996:

-The percentage of Americans with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from 7% to 13% in just 9 years.

-Food allergies skyrocketed.

-Disorders such as autism, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and others are on the rise.

Independent scientists are proving that industry-funded research is designed to avoid finding problems, and how findings are distorted or denied.

Scientists who discover problems with GMOs have suffered greatly for releasing negative findings.  Such scientists have been fired, threatened, or denied funding. The media has attempted to expose such issues but they are often censored.

ORGANIC FOODS
In the 1990s, the USDA organic standards prohibited any GM ingredients.  Though, this does not include GE foods.  Therefore, purchasing organic foods is the safest bet if foods are not labeled as being a GMO food.

Nongmoproject.org

Takepart.com

Hse.gov.uk

Responsibletechnology.org

Labelgmos.org 

Learn.genetics.utah.edu

Gizmodo.com

Huffingtonpost.com

Motherjones.com