GMO: What you need to know => This morning I am pondering GMOs, and you should be too. GMOs are genetically modified organisms. The biggest issues surrounding GMOs is around the modification and patenting of seeds by large biotechnology companies. Firstly, biotech companies manipulate the genetic makeup of seeds to 1) make them resistant to pesticide and 2) make them create their own pesticide. Interestingly enough the biotech companies making the seeds farmers use to grow our food also create the pesticides used to protect crops from insects. One of the biggest and most hated companies you’ve probably heard of is Monsanto. Secondly, biotech companies patent the seeds they design and prohibit farmers from saving seeds. This forces farmers to pay up near $300 for a bag of corn every new planting season. Farmers in the past, and organic farmers, save the best of their crop and re-plant those seeds. This replanting of saved seed is also better for our environment creating a rich biodiversity of plants. What is the problem with all of this? We don’t know what effects GMOs are having on our health. As you know from my last email on scientific studies on health, many studies are needed to tip the scale and confirm a hypothesis one way or another. While we’ve been eating GMOs for over 15 years in America, just now the concern is growing, and very few studies have been done. The longest study to date on GMOs found rats developed tumors when fed a diet of GMO corn and when fed a diet with Roundup pesticide. However, it was heavily criticized by many of Monsanto’s carefully placed scientists (one Monsanto employee had recently joined the journals staff that first published the study and then rejected and unpublished it). Another issue with GMOs is the incredible amount of pesticide we spray on the plants we now eat. We know that pesticide isn’t good for us, and we know that it is being found in human bodies, in fact, it is found in most human bodies. Check out this document on a CDC test for 34 pesticides in 9,282 people. GMOs have been banned in many other countries until further studies are done, and most countries require that GMO be placed on the label. Not in America. Just now some states have started to require the labeling of GMOs with incredible financial pressure from the big biotech companies not to do so (some biotech companies even made threats to sue). After the earthquake in Haiti, Monsanto donated seeds to help with the relief effort. The Haitian farmers burned the seeds claiming they were “a new earthquake”. And, one last quick comment on the ads and campaigns paid for by the big biotech companies like Monsanto about “feeding the world”. It has been proven that organic crops yield just as much as the GMO crops. The organic crops even help preserve topsoil whereas chemical farming destroys it. Angry? You should be. Everyone hates Monsanto and companies like it because they are playing with our health for profit. How do you avoid the pesticide chemical crap storm? Best bet is to go organic. Just know that the only way to stop them is to band together and cut off the cash flow. Every time you make a purchase you are voting Monsanto up, or Monsanto down. How will you vote?
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 11:47:55 +0000