Are Frankenfoods Taking Over? Genetically Modified Foods Are More Common Than You Think

I'm pretty sure with all the never ending, ongoing attention to nutrition most of us have heard of GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. It's a big buzz word nowadays and I'm glad it's been in the spotlight because it is a very serious issue with alot of controversy and hidden agendas. I feel I must tell you straight up that I am opposed to the de-regulation of GMOs and I am pro-labeling. As it stands now, GMOs are allowed to be present in the foods we eat and big agro doesn't have to disclose that they're even in there. There is no labeling law here in the United States like there is in Europe.

Let me give you a short version of how GMOs came into play. It may go back further in time but this is a portion of what I've dug up after a few years of passionate reading on the subject. Genetically modified organisms have been around for centuries. Food crops and animals have been altered in what is called selective breeding. Farmers will breed a certain animal to another selected animal with the hopes of that offspring having certain, desirable traits. Dog breeders and race horse breeders do it all the time for performance and temperament. Another example would be putting the genes of a cold water fish into a strawberry thus making the strawberry more tolerant to cold weather. The process has been growing and growing in popularity when it comes to our food supply.

Somewhere between 1997 and 1999 2/3rds of all processed food in the U.S. had genetically modified ingredients. The Supreme Court made a ruling that food could now become patented for commercialization. Thousands of applications for experimental GM organisms have streamed into the U.S. patent office since that Supreme Court ruling.

The first GM whole food product was a tomato called the Flavr Savr tomato. It was more resistant to rotting so it could stay on the shelf longer. The year it was served to the general public was 1994 and it required no special labeling.

That bothers me. As an American citizen I feel I have the right to choose. Food is a big part of my life, it's what nourishes my body and the bodies of my children and allows me to perform at my best. I want to know what I'm putting into my body so I can decide if it's beneficial to my goal of a long, healthy life or not.

The companies generating these organisms state that the advantage of a GMO is the ability to produce disease resistant crops and herbicide resistant strains. That means they want crops that they can spray with all these poisons (that we ingest when we eat them...and no, water doesn't wash them off) and the crops won't die but will instead be resistant to the poison. Personally, I think the driving force is to increase and maintain the monopoly that the biotech industry has on the world's food supply. Unfortunately, at the root you will find money, greed, and power.

What about cross contamination? It is next to impossible to say that they can contain these crops and prevent them from infiltrating 'virgin' crops. What happens if someone eats a GMO soybean which was crossed with a Brazil nut (which some people are highly allergic to)? I'll tell you, they go into anaphylactic shock and can die. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty outraged if my allergic spouse or child ate some edamame without knowing it had a Brazil nut gene in it and died as a result. Or a person that is allergic to cow's milk and has to drink soy instead. Without labeling how do we know what we're ingesting?

I just don't believe these organisms are safe. There have been too many instances of death and abnormality in both the animal world and the human world. Cows are becoming sterile and when they do conceive alot of the calves are aborted. In 1989 dozens odd Americans died and thousands were affected by a genetically altered form of an amino acid called L-tryptophan. A $2 billion dollar settlement as paid out by Showa Denko, Japan's third largest chemical company. The FDA screams regulate supplements but doesn't regulate the organisms which are allowed to go into the supplements.

In 2006 the U.S. tried to export rice to Europe. It was interrupted because much of the crop was cross contaminated with GMO rice which whose genes weren't approved and like I said earlier, Europe requires labeling of GMOs. The information sources on the potential problems of GMOs is endless, I just wanted to give you a couple examples.

A biotech firm (AquaBounty) is trying to get GMO salmon on the market. Seriously? You want me to eat man made foods that hasn't had appropriate, long term testing? These salmon are created to be bigger than the average salmon. The company says that they're trying to make sure the salmon are sterile so they don't take over the ocean. I'll stick with the ones that Mother Nature/God created which have stood the test of time and aren't reported as having any ill effects associated with them. Let alone the fact that it poses serious threat to the fishing industry which has already been hit hard due to environmental 'accidents'. What will happen to all those jobs, and more importantly the families who depend on the income to feed their children? There are numerous implications to allowing the salmon to go on our dinner plate besides the ones I mentioned. I hope "we" make the right decisions.

Monsanto is a company that is a significant player in the biotech world and the company is extremely controversial. Monsanto was founded 1901 and has had it's iron in many fires. Some of those fires include inventing saccharin, putting caffeine in coke, being a big player in manufacturing plastics, and expanding into other industrial chemicals. Two of the ones that stick out most in my head are DDT and Agent Orange which were predominantly used in the Vietnam War. They are also involved in nuclear weapons and the atomic energy commission. They also are responsible for setting the standards for LED's which happened around 1968.

Monsanto scientists can be credited to be the first to genetically modify a cell in 1982. Because of the company's tendency to sue and take over small, family owned farms stating patent infringement, it has become a four letter word throughout a lot of the farming industry. You see, you can't stop the wind from blowing, and if a seed from a farmer's crop of 'virgin' (not Monsanto's altered seed) wheat blows into a Monsanto crop and does what it's supposed to do (reproduce) then Monsanto sues that farmer for patent infringement. Monsanto usually ends up putting the farmer out of his family owned and operated livelihood because few can monetarily stand up through the drawn out process and they have no choice but to recede. But wait! Owning the world's agriculture isn't enough, they have to move on to live animals now. Beginning February 2005, Monsanto has patent claims on breeding techniques for pigs. This grants them ownership of any pigs born of such techniques and their related herds.They are responsible for the bovine growth hormone as well. I'm sorry, but I'm not giving my kids milk with hormones in it. I am very passionate when it comes to Monsanto so I can tend to ramble, and my apologies to you if that's what's starting to happen in regards to them. One last thing, they also have their hands in politics.

You can be pretty sure that you are greatly reducing the exposure to GMOs if you try and buy organic. My understanding is that certified organic labels mean no pesticides are used and no GMO products are allowed as an ingredient. The studies on the potential dangers of GMO foods is clear. A bottom line of the studies done so far prove that pesticide residue, which isn't washed off with water or soap, (you need a special 'cleanser'), do real damage to major organs including the kidneys, liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and more. That's just the outside, what about the innards of the food and/or animal? It has been suggested that allergies are more rampant because of damage to the immune system. Researchers at Columbia University tested the urine of pregnant women and found pesticide residue. The exposure to these chemicals could affect the cognitive development of her child up to nine years later!

Some of the foods that contain GMOs are as follows:Rapeseed (re-named canola), honey, cotton (considered a food because the oil can be consumed), rice, soybeans, sugar cane, sugar beets, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, flax, papaya, squash, radicchio, cotton seed oil, tobacco, meat (meat and dairy products usually come from animals that have eaten GM feed), peas, vegetable oil, dairy products

As a parent, it's hard enough to try and sift through all the contradictory information we get about the benefits of real foods. I really don't want to have to worry about an undisclosed ingredient in my food that may cause damage down the road. To me it's not worth the gamble. That's why I'm a big proponent of mandatory labeling. I know, I know, that would mean spending money. How about we take the $500,000.00 we gave AquaBounty as a bail-out and re-invest it into mandatory labeling? It's a start.