Monday, June 6, 2011

What happens when we engineer food?

If you have not paid much attention to what is happening to the food production in the U.S. you might want to start now. According to the Human Genome Project, a government initiative out of Oak Ridge National Laboratories, 53% of the crops grown in the US are genetically modified.  Since 1996 genetically modified food has exploded in corn, cottonseed, and soybeans to name a few.  I would be very suspicious of GM food since we also have more people than ever suffering from food allergies, autoimmune diseases, autism, and behavioral problems. Below you can read some of the reasons there is an effort to get the Millions Against Monsanto campaign going. If you are not sure about what the problems with GM food are, read on:

#1 Monsanto's Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the umbilical blood of their babies.

#2 The authors of the Canadian study conclude that the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin through a "normal" non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic (so-called "natural" and "conventional") meat, egg, and dairy products from animals fed Bt corn.

#3 Monsanto's GMO "Bt" corn and cotton plants are engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.

#4 Mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn had elevated levels of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig's disease, autoimmune disease, and colitis.

#5 Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

#6 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known allergens - it actually fails the World Health Organization's allergen screening tests.

#7 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.

#8 In addition to its GMO "Bt" crops which are engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO "RoundUp Ready" crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.

#9 In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto's GMO "RoundUp Ready" soybeans were found to transfer Monsanto's "RoundUp Ready" DNA to the bacteria living inside human intestines.

#10 According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto's GMO Bt DNA to human digestive bacteria could create a "living pesticide factory" that could be responsible for the "increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders - since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market."

1 comment:

  1. So exactly what I suspected. I have read studies also that show that the same growth hormones added to animal food carry through the cycle to human ingested meats, related studies have shown that testosterone is used in animal feed to induce better muscle to fat ratio in meats. Another study i read that studied women with elevated levels of testosterone in the second trimester of pregnancy, and then followed their children for years afterward, showed male or female, a more system and order obessessed mindset, which much resembled the inflexibility to change, of the autistic condition and the obsession with organizing. I believe that the rise in behavioral disorders, and cancer and autoimmune disorders is a direct result of our divergence from a natural agrarian society. Pesticides kill insects but have no effect whatsoever on us? How is that even believable?

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