Say No to GMO for Fido: What are GMOs and Why Should I Care?
There has been a lot of press about Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs, and health concerns. It is important to explain that genetically modified food is not at all like hybrid tomatoes or dogs, where different varieties of the same species are bred together. In genetic modification, a gene from another species, often a bacteria or mold is inserted into a plant or animal. And, while this sounds amazing, it is fraught with unknown consequences.
DNA is the code of life, but what it really does is code for the proteins, enzymes and hormones that are required for an organism to live and grow. When we insert genes from a different species, the goal is to have the Genetically Modified Organism produce something that the other species was producing. But scientists cannot be sure exactly where in the DNA the extra gene is incorporated and therefore cannot know exactly what proteins will be coded for. These foreign proteins may cause immune stimulation, allergic reactions or toxicity. In fact, a few GM crops were introduced into our food supply and later removed due to excessive health risks. Our government does not require long term safety studies to prove the safety of newly developed genetically modified foods and even allows the original manufacturer of the new species to perform its own short-term studies with no oversight. Many of these studies have since been shown to be falsified. http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/Conclusions
The modifications either get the plant to produce its own insecticide, as with BT corn or BT cotton; or make the plant resistant to herbicides, such as Round Up ready corn, canola, cotton and soy. BT corn is registered as an insecticide with EPA, and yet it part of our food supply. BT corn produces BT toxin that is designed to rupture the gut of its intended victims and has been implicated in intestinal damage in humans.
Round Up Ready plants are modified to survive when sprayed with the herbicide Round Up, which has the active ingredient glyphosate. This allows glyphosate to be sprayed onto crops throughout their life cycle. Round Up is also used as a desiccant, a drying agent to help with harvest, on many non-GMO crops including wheat. These crops are sprayed just before harvest, so this herbicide ends up in our foods at high levels.
Glyphosate was recently added to the list of probable carcinogens (cancer causing agents) by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is known to bind many minerals in the soil, so that the plants and the meat animals that we eat have become severely deficient in many vital minerals including magnesium. Glyphosate is also a hormone disrupter, mimicking estrogen and is strongly implicated in the rise of breast cancer and lymphoma. It has been shown to damage the intestinal lining, increasing the risk of leaky gut, which leads to all types of autoimmune diseases. And if that were not enough, glyphosate was originally patented as an antibiotic. It disrupts the bacterial balance in your intestine and in the soils. The bacterial imbalance in our intestines leads to gas, indigestion, diarrhea, poor nutrient absorption and constipation. The loss of bacteria in the soil is causing our vast farmlands to die and topsoil to be lost.
In the US, 94% soy, 93% corn and 90% of canola are genetically modified. Since clear labelling of GM containing foods is not required, our only protection is to eat and feed grain free or certified organic or GMO-free foods.
References:
http://www.fortune.com/2016/07/31gmo-labeling-bill/
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-01/life-cycle-genetically-modified-seed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0456-0008
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jat.2712/full
Dr. Stephanie Seneff: https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/
Docuseries: GMOs revealed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIifmNfDiMwBmt295S5KbLg
