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What’s on your plate?

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot

Biotech corporations are in cahoots with government to feed the world with genetically modified food. Canada’s regulatory system requires new biotechnology products to undergo science-based safety assessments. However, in the case of Monsanto’s MON 88017, glyphosate-tolerant corn, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reviewed studies undertaken by Monsanto and deemed them to be “a full, comprehensive and rigorous safety assessment” on which to permit “unconfined release into the environment and livestock feed use.”

GM foods were introduced in 1996. Today, seven out of 10 processed foods in our grocery carts contain GM ingredients as a result of this lax regulatory position. Experiments have been conducted on our food supply without our consent or knowledge. To date, there have been no studies assessing the long-term effects of GM foods on either human or environmental health. Claims that GM foods increase yield and are needed to feed the world’s increasing population have been decried in the Union of Concerned Scientist’s 2009 report Failure to Yield.

GM plants have mostly been modified to withstand applications of the herbicide Roundup and to produce their own Bt insecticide in every cell, including pollen. We eat Bt toxin with every bite of Bt corn or processed food containing Bt corn. From 1996 to 2008, US farmers increased their use of herbicide by 383 million pounds, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008. Overuse of Roundup results in “superweeds,” which are resistant to the herbicide, which causes farmers to use more Roundup every year. The widespread use of glyphosate is causing negative impacts on soil and plants, as well as on animal and human health.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is a strong immobilizer (chelator) of essential plant nutrients, as well as a powerful biocide that harms beneficial soil organisms. Consequently, glyphosate has deleterious effects on the nutritional quality of the crop produced and increases disease susceptibility. And GMOs cross-pollinate and their seeds can travel. It is impossible to fully clean up our contaminated gene pool.

Health problems have increased severely since GMOs were introduced 15-years-ago. The percentage of Americans with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from seven percent to 13 percent in nine years; food allergies have skyrocketed and disorders such as autism, reproductive disorders and digestive problems are on the rise. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine tells us not to wait before we start protecting ourselves, especially our children who are most at risk.

Public education campaigns have succeeded in confining almost 80 percent of GMO planting to just three countries: the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In more than two dozen countries, including China and in the European Union, GMO labelling is mandatory.

Take a stand and join communities around the world to declare your community a ‘GE-Free Zone’ and while this is in process demand your grocery store puts ‘GMO-free’ stickers on processed food. Get to know what you are being dished up today by using the true food shoppers guide. Seetruefoodnow.org/shoppers-guide.

Carolyn Herriot is author of A Year on the Garden Path, a 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide and The Zero Mile Diet: A Year-round Guide to Growing Organic Food (Harbour Publishing). www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath/

3 comments

  1. These are all misconceptions about the biotech product. Biotechnology has always helped in enhancing the nutrient value of food materials as well as there durability. Earlier people used fertilizers for the protection of crops from pests are they not harmful for health???
    Biotech techniques lihe GE crops have eliminated the synthetic fertilizes and they have no adverse effect on health. you can ask even your doctor about using them. The GMO are criticized only because there are something more than natural and people are not aware of the procedure involved. There is a need of teaching people about what is GMO or GE crops and how they are produced and why they are needed.

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  2.  
    Great article. I hope to share this link with all my readers. GMO foods are everywhere these days courtesy of Monsanto and their Frankenstein creations.

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  3. The only things Americans have left now are the power of petition, the vote, and consumer power.  Monsanto is too deeply entrenched in the U.S. government to trust it.  It's time to get down and dirty and let our constituents know we're going to vote them out if they don't start looking out for the american farmer and the american consumer.

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