So What’s the Problem with Genetically Modified Food?

Why would you want to eat genetically modified food?

Here are some points to ponder:

Genetically modified food has not been tested for safety over a long time period. The biotechnology companies that produce the GM food conducted some short-term studies on small mammals like rats and hamsters. They reported no significant findings of ill health.

And the FDA accepted those findings without any other oversight of the testing at all. They just took the biotechnology company’s word for it.

However some well respected and honest scientists around the world became quite concerned about the long-term effects of GM food as their research unfolded. However those in authority over them including governmental and scholastic authority in universities quickly hushed them and forbade them to speak about their concerns and their scientifically arrived at information. In fact some of them even lost their jobs after working in a university for years and years.

These silenced scientists have discovered that animals fed GM food such as corn have difficulty becoming pregnant. Interestingly enough farmers have discovered the same thing in their animals. Scientists have also found the animals may have problems with their immune systems, with producing cholesterol, with regulating insulin and protein synthesis and their cells may not communicate with one another properly. They have also found changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and digestive system.

And so the long-term experiments on the effect of GM food are going on right now in all of us who eat it. And most of the time we have no idea whether the food we eat has come from GM food or from the animals that ate the GM food. Without package labeling we have become human guinea pigs without even knowing it and without our informed consent.

The problem with this type of experiment is that the disease processes may not appear for many years and will be very difficult to link back to genetically modified food.

Another very great concern: genetically modified plants survive after being sprayed by herbicides like Roundup (glyphosate). So the farmer plants the corn which germinates and pops out of the soil along with the surrounding weeds. Then he sprays all of the plants with Roundup. The weeds die, the corn lives for you to eat.

So now you have the double whammy, you not only eat genetically modified food but you’re also eating residues of Roundup.

And what are the consequences of ingesting Roundup?

Evidence is growing that it also causes immune system damage, problems with fertility, damage to vital organs and may induce cancer. Contrary to Monsanto’s advertising that it breaks down quickly in the soil, scientists are finding that it actually persists in the soil for long periods of time causing disruption in the normal soil organisms. Imbalance in soil organisms affects plant growth adversely. And thus the downward spiral in the nutritional content of the food we eat continues.

A third major concern with genetically modified plants: It cross pollinates into fields where plants are grown organically. Once the organic farmers’ fields become contaminated by the genetically modified plants this farm can no longer be certified as organic. This cross-pollination with other plants may be the scariest problem with genetically modified seed and plant reproduction. If it continues out of control it may be difficult to grow plants organically in nature like they have for centuries and all we will have left is GM food.

Although this article just touches briefly on the problems associated with eating genetically modified food, there’s a wealth of other information available for your review. You might start with:

Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey Smith

Genetic Roulette The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods

As for me I want to know if genetically modified food products are in what I eat for I choose not to be a human guinea pig. Therefore currently I only buy organic corn, soy, canola oil, and cotton seed products because unless they’re labeled otherwise about 90% of the soy, corn, canola and cotton seed are grown from genetically modified seeds. And these four products are in many, many, many processed foods.

Organic food by definition cannot contain genetically modified plants or food.

This information is intended to help you make healthy choices in what you eat.
Blessings,

Dr. Jo