Please take a little time to learn about the dangers of GMOs. In the search to understand what caused our children’s genes to express so differently form ours (their parents) – this is very relevant information.
Consider reading Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette by Jeffrey Smith.
Visit the website www.responsibletechnology.org and download a free non-GMO shopping list and also sign up for the free monthly e-newsletter Spilling the Beans
The following are a few key paragraphs written by Jeffrey Smith to provide an introduction to understanding genetically modified foods:
The full code of the DNA for a particular type of organism is called a genome. The functional units are sequences called genes. Genes code for proteins.
When a gene is active or expressing, its code is reproduced or transcribed into separate RNA (ribonucleic acid) strands called transcripts. The transcripts can then be translated into amino acids according to a specific formula.. A connected sequence of amino acids make up proteins, including the type of proteins called enzymes.
The terms genetically modified, genetically engineered, or recombinant DNA technology refer to the process which inserts genetic sequences into DNA. The method of insertion into plants can be with a gene gun or via bacterial infection using agrobacterium. The inserted gene is usually from a different species. It produces a genetically modified protein. This protein is selected to confer a new trait for the transgenic organism into which it is placed. In addition to the inserted gene, other genetic materials (gene cassette) are added to either inform the scientist that the insertion was successfully integrated into the host’s genome or to help the foreign gene function properly in the new DNA.
Mutations refer to deviations or errors in the genetic sequence that frequently lead to altered or mutated organisms.
------Genetic Roulette, pg.13
…..eating a genetically engineered corn chip might theoretically turn your intestinal flora into living pesticide factories, because corn is often genetically engineered with a gene that creates Bt toxins, and the corn chip contains these genes. The only human feeding study yet conducted on genetically modified crops, which was done on soybeans, confirmed that the genes inserted into the soy – which are Roundup Ready (resistant) genes – transferred to gut bacteria. What happens if the same thing happens with corn? It means that it may equip our DNA within the bacteria living inside our intestines with genes that produce Bt toxin, which is designed to kill insects.
……When someone (working in the bio-tech industry) discovers a problem with GMOs they are fired, stripped of responsibilities, or they lose their funding. For example, there was a very simple study done by a senior researcher in the National Academy of Sciences in Russia. Not very profound research design – she simply fed female rats genetically modified soy before they got pregnant, and continued to feed them the soy through pregnancy and lactation. More than half of the babies died within three weeks, compared to only a 10 percent death rate when mothers ate non-GMO soy. The offspring from the GM group were smaller, and in a follow-up study they were unable to conceive. She put this out as preliminary evidence, asking the scientific community back in October 2005 to repeat this study to see if these astounding results were relevant to GM soy – in general, to confirm or contradict.
Since then no one has repeated the study. It would just take a few thousand dollars. No one has repeated the study because the biotech industry is fearful that if it’s verified, it would eliminate GMO’s entirely, because it would demonstrate that they could interfere with the health of offspring. There are some related studies that support its conclusions. When they fed GM soy in an Italian study to mice, they observed changes in their testicles and young sperm cells. When an Austrian government-funded study fed mice corn that was both Bt and Roundup Ready, the female mice had fewer and smaller babies. In India investigative teams confirmed that buffalo eating genetically modified Bt cotton seed had reproductive problems such as abortions, sterility, premature deliveries, and prolapsed uteruses. About two dozen farmers in the Midwest and around the United States claim that certain varieties of corn caused their pigs or cows to become sterile.
….the strategy we have adopted for eliminating GMOs from the food supply is the right one. And that is not to try to get the government to do it for us – that hasn’t worked yet – but to create a tipping point of consumer rejection against GMOs. We think that could happen with as little as 5 percent of U.S. consumers avoiding GM brands. That will make GM ingredients a marketing liability with no consumer benefits and force them out of the markets. It happened in Europe in just 10 weeks from a single high-profile food safety scandal in 1999, and it is happening with rBGH, bovine growth hormone, in the United States, where Walmart, Starbucks, Publix, Krogers, Dannon, and Yoplait have all committed to stop using it because of pressure from consumers. If we’re looking for 5 percent of U.S. shoppers to avaoid GMOs, which is 15million people, we have 28 million people who already buy organic food on a regular basis, 54 million who buy it on an irregular basis – 87 million people who consider GMOs to be dangerous. Most Americans say they would avoid GMOs if they were labeled. We don’t even have to convince people who are resistant to our message. We simply have to carry the message to those who are receptive to it.
-----Section of an interview Jeffrey Smith did in the January, 2010 issue of Acres U.S.A. The whole interview is titled: The Bad Science of GMOs |
