What exactly are GMOs and why should they be labeled?
GMOs (genetically modified organisms) were brought into the world by a
chemical company, not an agriculture or food group. Monsanto created
DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, marketed aspartame, and created bovine growth
hormone (rBGH) to infect milking cows that put pus into commercial milk.
GMOs are created within the seeds of chosen parent crops in laboratories by "splicing" genes from completely unrelated species into those seeds. Normal plant hybrids are cultivated in soil over time by cross pollinating closely related plants.
So
far, GMOs have invaded soy, corn, beets (for beet sugar), cotton, and
alfalfa agriculture. Many GMO edibles are contained surreptitiously in a
wide variety of processed foods, while GMO corn and soy are used by
unnatural factory farm feed lots.
If you've been following NaturalNews for
some time, you may recall several articles describing GMOs' inherent
human and animal health hazards as well as crop and environmental
dangers. If not, you'll find most of them here. (http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html)
GMOs damage crops, the environment, and the food chain
GMOs
are often genetically created artificially to tolerate herbicides, made
by Monsanto and others, that kill weeds. The herbicides contain
glyphosates. Monsanto's Roundup weed killer is meant for Roundup Ready
GMO crop seeds. It's an extremely toxic glyphosate agent.
Glyphosates greatly harm grazing animals and pollute the wells and groundwater of farm areas where they're used. (http://naturalsociety.com)
They create sterility and birth defects among animals and
humans. Most of the honey bee die-off, or colony collapse, is
attributed to glyphosates. If enough pollinating bees disappear, our
food chain is endangered further.
Glophosate's chelating
capabilities remove minerals from the soil where they're sprayed. So
crops get increasingly worse while increasingly abundant Roundup
resistant weeds, or super weeds, force farmers to add more toxic
materials to Roundup.
It's a vicious cycle for farmers who, conned by greater production promises, unwittingly signed on to Monsanto Roundup Ready GMO
binding seed contracts. Monsanto uses patent laws to litigate against
farmers whose non-GMO fields are contaminated by GMO fields, forcing
smaller farms out of business.
Most farmers fold because they
cannot afford the litigation. American farmers are attempting to
organize against mostly Monsanto's GMOs. European farmers have managed
to resist thus far.
Why you should be concerned
Maybe the
reasons summarized above are too abstract. So let's get personal.
Contrary to mainstream media's (MSM) outlook, the jury is not out on
GMOs. GMOs do destroy human and animal health while endangering non-GMO
crops with contamination. That's been discovered by several scientists
acting independently.
They jeopardize their careers and even
their lives by communicating what they find while the MSM ignores them.
Anti-GMO activist and author Jeffrey Smith lists the casualties and
summarizes Monsanto's harassment here: (http://www.sott.net)
Agro-ecologist Don Lotter, Ph.D. released an inside scoop when he stated:
The
promoter gene used ... [the] cauliflower mosaic virus, ... [was assumed
to be] denatured in our digestive system, but it's not. It has been
shown to promote the transfer of transgenes from GM foods to the
bacteria within our digestive system, which are responsible for 80
percent of our immune system function.
This from Wessex Natural Law research papers: The cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV 35S) used for plant genetic engineering is cited as a source of viral recombination as well as a gene silencer and DNA disruptor.
Forget petitioning the government.
It's so corrupted that one of Monsanto's most ruthless executives,
Michael Taylor, now serves in the Obama administration as FDA chief
adviser, or "Food Czar."
That's why our only chance is to help
California succeed with Proposition 37. GMO labeling may spill over
from California making it easier to boycott GMOs. (http://www.kcet.org)
In an alarming new study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology,
researchers from The Committee for Research & Independent
Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) reported on the results of a
2 year feeding study in rats given either NK603 Roundup-tolerant
genetically modified maize, cultivated with or without Roundup, and
Roundup alone, at levels permitted in drinking water and GM crops in the
United States.
The authors of the study pointed out that currently, no regulatory
authority requires mandatory chronic animal feeding studies to be
performed for edible GMOs and formulated pesticides, and the only 90 day
feeding trials were conducted by the biotech industry.
This study, therefore, was performed in light of this need, and the results were an unprecedented confirmation of the cancer-causing effects of GM food and agrichemicals, reported as follows:
In females, all treated groups died 2–3 times more than controls, and more rapidly. This
difference was visible in 3 male groups fed GMOs. All results were
hormone and sex dependent, and the pathological profiles were
comparable. Females developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before controls, the pituitary was the second most disabled organ; the sex hormonal balance was modified by GMO and Roundup treatments. In treated males, liver congestions and necrosis were 2.5–5.5 times higher.
This pathology was confirmed by optic and transmission electron
microscopy. Marked and severe kidney nephropathies were also generally
1.3–2.3 greater. Males presented 4 times more large palpable tumors than controls which occurred up to 600 days earlier. Biochemistry
data confirmed very significant kidney chronic deficiencies; for all
treatments and both sexes, 76% of the altered parameters were kidney
related. These results can be explained by the non linear
endocrine-disrupting effects of Roundup, but also by the overexpression
of the transgene in the GMO and its metabolic consequences. [emphasis
added]
Below is an image of tumors induced through the experiment. More can be found at the journal website.
The results of this new study are doubly concerning. Not only has the
consumption of a genetically modified food crop now been shown to cause
tumor growth and accelerated mortality, but so has the primary
herbicide these plants have been engineered to withstand exposure to:
Roundup. GMO plants actually incorporate glyphosate directly into
themselves, with the herbicide residues and their metabolites persisting
there, making dual exposure to transgenes and herbicide inevitable, and
the synergistic amplification of their toxicities likely.
It is a shameful fact of history that Roundup herbicide was once
marketed by its creator and original patent holder, Monsanto, as being
"safe as table salt." Now, an accumulating body of research shows that
glyphosate, Roundup's active ingredient, is genotoxic and endocrine disrupting -- both hallmark characteristic of many carcinogens -- at concentrations several orders of magnitude concentration lower than agricultural application. In fact, Monsanto has gone to great lengths to deny the emerging Roundup-Cancer link by pouring money into contract research companies like Exponent, who deny its well established harms.
This newest study provides clear and convincing evidence that GMO
agriculture is contributing to cancer in exposed populations. The timing
of this new study -- two weeks before Breast Cancer Awareness Month
(BCAM) -- is all the more fitting, considering that "In female animals,
the largest tumors were in total 5 times more frequent in males after 2
years, with 93% being mammary tumors." They also "...observed a
strikingly marked induction of mammary tumors by R[oundup] alone...even
at the very lowest dose administered." The annual pinkwashing campaign focuses on equating "prevention" with "early detection" by exposing women's bodies to breast cancer-causing x-rays,
rather than to identify and remove the preventable causes, e.g.
chemical exposure, carcinogenic foods, of breast cancer. Perhaps
discussion of the harms of GM food should form an integral part of
BCAM's advocacy.
The precautionary principle requires that if there is indication in a
non-human study that a chemical is toxic to those who are forced to
ingest it, inhale it, or otherwise be exposed to it, the burden of
proving it safe must be on those manufacturing, marketing it and/or
releasing it into the environment.
For too long has America -- albeit, unbeknownst to most of the
population -- been engaged in a mass chemical and feeding experiment,
without the protection of informed consent, or even the right to know
what it is eating through truthful labeling of GMOs. Please help to
spread this information far and wide, and to further garnish support for
California's Proposition 37 (Just Label It), which could turn the tide against GM agriculture's systemic destruction of the biosphere, and by implication, our health.
