Most of you have probably heard the words 'genetically modified food' before, but most of you may not understand the huge impact these plants are going to start having on our lives. Genetically modified foods (GMOs; also referred to as biotech or bioengineered foods) are plants that have actually been genetically altered to posses some trait that they normally would not have. For example, putting the genes from a bacterium into a corn plant to make it resistant to a certain disease or pest, or putting genes from a flounder into a tomato to help it withstand cold temperatures.
GMOs were created for a few reasons, and although the biggest push behind them has likely been money and power, in theory, they do posses some good qualities. Creating foods that are resistant to certain environmental factors (droughts, floods), creating food that contain higher amounts of vitamins (like golden rice which, unlike any other rice, contains vitamin A and can help prevent deficiencies in developing countries), and creating food that have a built-in resistance to pests so that less pesticide needs to be used. However, the evils of these GMOs far outweigh the goods in most scenarios. Let's discuss....
So, as previously mentioned, genetically altered foods have genes from a different organism implanted into them. If any of you have food allergies (like me) you can see what a potential nightmare this could become. For example, what if you are allergic to fish and unknowingly ate the flaversaver tomato (no longer being grown) which had flounder genes implanted into it? That could result in a potentially fatal tomato encounter. Well, you are probably thinking, just don’t buy the genetically modified tomatoes, right? Well, unfortunately, in the US, GMOs are not required to be labeled. That means that any non-organic food item that you buy could be or could contain GMOs. In fact, it is estimated that around 60% of all food in the typical American grocery store has been genetically modified in one way or another! A large part of this results from the fact that much of our corn and soy is genetically modified, and corn and soy are abundantly found in the multitude of processed foods most Americans put into their bodies every day.
Another issue of GMOs is the issue of safety. GMOs are relatively new on the food scene, having come into the mainstream beginning in the 1990s. Manipulative food laws of the FDA called GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) allowed these new food items to come directly onto grocery store shelves with little to no safety testing. So, in essence, neither the government nor you has any idea what these GMOs may start to do to our health over long time frames (although the test that do exist definitely show questionability of the safety of GMOs.)
So now that we know that GMOs could pose some serious health threats, what about the environment? Glad you asked. GMOs can affect populations of beneficial insects by killing these insects when they land on plants that have been genetically altered to kill pests. These also exists the potential for the creation of superweeds. Superweeds are weeds that have genetically crossed with crops genetically modified to be immune to herbicide. If these crops cross with weeds, it can create weeds that can no longer be killed with herbicides. Furthermore, the more and more fields we plant with GMOs, the more and more contamination of our non-GMO crops through crossbreeding. Creating huge GMO monocultures where every farmer is growing the same exact strain of a crop will essentially wipe out all diversity, and will lead to all of our food being genetically altered. Yuck.
Now we move on to the social issues. First off, Monsanto (the company who rules the game of GMOs) has introduced a terminator gene into their altered crops. This terminator gene makes the seeds from the next crop sterile, meaning that farmers who grow GMOs can no longer save seeds and need to purchase new seed each and every year. This not only gets pricey for the farmers (making our food costs go UP) but also give Monsanto a monopoly on the seed world. Not to mention that Monsanto has a patent for all of these GMO seeds that it creates. And, due to some crazy patent laws and some bad rulings by US judges, any farmer (or anyone for that mater) that is found to have Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds on their property without paying for it can be held liable. This means that if GMO seed accidentally blows from one field and contaminates another, even if that farmer doesn’t want that GMO seed in his field, that farmer can be sued by Monsanto for having their property in his field. Sounds ridiculous, right? It is, but sadly it is TRUE.
Everyone out there needs to watch The Future of Food. It is a wonderful documentary that gets more into depth about this subject than I can get here and explains the technology, the law and the effects behind GMOs.
So, what can you do to stop GMOS? First, educate yourself. Learn more about GMOS and watch The Future of Food. Second, find out where your food comes from! Organic food, by law, cannot be genetically altered (however, this may become problematic as our organic crop field become contaminated with GMO seed). So, buy organic. Shop at farmer’s markets and talk to the farmers. Shop at your local grocery (not the big chain stores) and tell them your concerns. Ask where they source their food from and make educated decisions. Lastly, get the word out! Tell your friends and neighbors about this GMO craziness that is happening. Write your local, state and federal representatives and tell them you DON’T want GMO food in your grocery stores. Call your children’s schools and urge them to not serve GMO food for school lunches. Network and see what you can do.
Seems like a lot of work, right? But this is the health and future of our environment, our agricultural system and our children. Europe has passed laws mandating the labeling of GMO food, so why cant we? I surely don’t want my son eating a food that is so toxic to pests that the food itself is registered as a pesticide, do you? If not, join me in this fight against GMOs and spread the word. Together we can make change happen.
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