Posts tagged safety

[CIM]

After Firefox crashed again during the second attempt to post this great information let me try a quick post just to ensure the word gets out from the people at http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/.

This may not be the motherload of all GMO info but is close to that and worth sharing this eye opening information with all you know, either personally or in the farming/ grocery/ health food/ restaurant/ activist/ networks along with local media that may look and listen.

This article originally appeared on http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/

Fact-checking about GMO foods

In the last few decades many Americans have been suffering from different chronic diseases. Many factors could be contributing in the increase in chronic diseases but the most important one is indeed our diet, even more so than our lifestyle.

Many of us are so busy to hold on to our jobs, pay our monthly bills and take care of our families that we hardly even notice that we might be shopping and feeding our families with foods that don’t give us nutrients and/or are nutrition-deficient foods. While these foods give our bodies little energy to maintain its health, the even worrying prospect is when we are given toxic foods without our knowledge and foods that are genetically engineered and altered from its natural state into a DNA modified and potentially hazardous compounds.

What is genetic engineering?

In genetic engineering scientists take the gene of one specie and insert it into the DNA of another specie. For example cow genes have been inserted into Pig’s DNA in order to increase the milk production. There are two major GMO crops, the herbicide tolerant crops and the pesticide producing crops. The herbicide tolerant crops are sprayed with pesticides that won’t kill plants but kill pests and insects. However the pesticide producing crops produce their own toxic insecticides that kill pests by breaking their stomach.

Isn’t genetic engineering a dangerous interference with nature?

It took million years of evolution to do things in a certain way and not to mix and match different DNA and genes. Over these millions of years, scientists agree that even slight variation or slight mishaps could have resulted in the humans not existing on the planet. Our evolution has been a very precise and calculated phenomenon without any room for error. Now scientists and large corporations are playing god with people’s lives and that of other specie, in particular our food chain. None of these genetically modified genes and new organisms were a part of evolution and therefore we cannot predict how they will evolve and change our habitat and the food chain that we so much depend on.

There are even more alarming hazards. While inserting genes into DNA of a plant or an animal for its modification, a virus or bacteria is also inserted which is tasked to to turn on the gene. This process in creating a foreign DNA through bacteria insertion could result in mutation and changes at the cellular level which could cause many side effects that would take years to discover past its point of no return. It took million of years of evolution for our bodies to digest foods with certain DNA sequence. When our body is exposed to food with a new DNA sequence, our immune system will attack it and treats it as a foreign invader.

This is precisely why allergies are a common place now in US, and younger children are more prone to have allergies than 30 years ago. Should we assume that the biotech companies will protect us from such mutations? Will they know themselves if a mutation has gone wrong before it is too late? Have safety procedures been put in place in order to make absolutely certain that precautions are taken to protect the public? I myself am not convinced that we can rely on large corporations that have to increase their profitability ever quarter. Every few months there is an outbreak of salmonella and E. Coli bacteria in lettuce, or tomatoes, or sprouts, or chicken, or turkey or some other food product depending on where you live in the country. We have all seen and heard about these outbreaks. What is concerning to proponents of GE labeling and safety regulations and testing before human consumption is that the biotech companies have the power to manipulate the whole creating and evolution of these new GE products and make new genes without acknowledging that the new products can put the health of you and your family at risk.

Are GMOs the best way to feed the world?

We’ve been told by these multi-billion dollar biotech companies that GMO is the best technology to feed the world hunger and that isn’t simply TRUE. But, really, do you want to believe what a large “for-profit company or bank” tells you without safeguards to protect your family? How did we live all these years without GMOs? How come all of a sudden the world can’t feed itself without GMOs? Nature does a much better job than laboratory genetic engineering; it has proven to be safe over millions of years, it’s less expensive, it is sustainable, it does not radically change mutation and make people sick or deformed or damage their organs or cause cancer. This whole hypocrisy initiated by biotech companies that GMO is the BEST and the ONLY way to feed the world hunger is just preposterous since there are many long term side effects, dangerous toxins, and potentially serious health hazards associated with GMOs.

Possible Health Risks and Environmental Hazards associated with Genetically Modified Foods:

Increase in Inflammatory Bowel Disease resulting in Chronic Constipation, Crohn’s Disease and Gastroesophageal Reflux

Inflammation causes many chronic diseases. The rates of chronic diseases have been increasing drastically since GMOs were introduced to public. The figures below show increase in inflammation rate, the rate of chronic diseases such as constipation, gastroesophageal reflux, Crohn’s disease and diabetes.

FDA Statement of Policy – Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties

Landmark Lawsuit Challenges FDA Policy on Genetically Engineered Foods

It is self-evident that these memos are indeed a total scandal on how the FDA was dishonest about GMO safety. In fact the memos showed an overwhelming concern in the scientific community about GMOs. Even FDA SCIENTISTS mentioned in their memos how GMOs were DANGEROUS. The memos describe how GMOs could result in allergy increase, malnutrition, new diseases and pathogens.

Additionally, repeated requests by FDA scientists for a full set of long term studies on GMO side effects were ignored and the ongoing studies were stopped or banned. What people want to know is, why would FDA stop or ban studies by the scientific community to research the safety of GMOs in our food supply? The fact is that, Mike Taylor the deputy Commissioner of FDA is Monsanto’s former attorney and its current VP. However right now there are no regulations about GMO foods from FDA so Monsanto has the main authority to insure that GM foods aren’t hazardous. So Monsanto is making and regulating GM foods and calls them safe. This is the company that was the producer of DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange and called them safe too at the time.

American Academy of Environmental Medicine on Genetically Modified Foods

Most studies and research done on GMOs side effects have been dependent on Monsanto’s funding. However independent studies performed by concerned scientists shows the alarming side effects of GMOs.

For example the American academy of environmental medicine performed independent studies on how GM foods cause immune system disorder, infertility, allergies, accelerated aging, adverse cholesterol level and many other problems like changes in kidneys, damage to liver and gastrointestinal diseases.

Here is the full report of the American academy of environmental medicine about GMOs

French Study Finds Massive Tumors And Organ Damage in Rats Fed GMOs

Gastrointestinal Problems

Bt corn was first introduced into the market by Monsanto in mid 90s. The bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a bacteria that is sprayed on vegetables to kill pests. Engineers inserted BT bacteria into corn and soy. So every cell in GMO soy or corn is producing toxic protein and the pests are killed by the GM plants themselves. BT toxin breaks the stomach of pests with one bite. No wonder why we are facing an epidemic of gastrointestinal problems here in US. Although EPA says that BT doesn’t harm human beings and animals, a study published in February 2012 shows that BT toxin actually kills human cells.

The Study: Bt Toxin Kills Human Kidney Cells

There has been only one study performed on human beings about side effects of GM foods. The study showed that a part of gene in Roundup ready soy was transferred into DNA of bacteria that was living inside intestine. As a result Roundup actually didn’t kill any bacteria but turned the intestine into a living pesticide factory. Some researchers even believe that if you stop eating GM foods, the GM proteins could be still alive and active inside you.

A study in Canada showed that 95% of pregnant women had the BT toxin in their blood. The researchers also found Bt toxin in the blood of 83% of unborn fetuses.

Full Story with great research to save and share!