Thursday, November 1, 2012

From Food MythBusters




From The HuffingtonPost

Seven Things to Tell Your Friends About GMOs

1. GMOs have never undergone standard testing or regulation for human safety. And now that they're in 70 percent of processed foods, it's extremely difficult for scientists to isolate their health risks.

2. But we know that GMOs have proven harmful in animal studies. A 2009 review of 19 studies found mammals fed GM corn or soy developed "liver and kidney problems" that could mark the "onset of chronic diseases." Most were 90-day studies. In a new two-year study, rats fed GM corn developed two to three times more tumors -- some bigger than a quarter of their total body weight -- and these tumors appeared much earlier than in rats fed non-GM corn. Among scientists, the study has its defenders and critics, but even the critics underscore that we need more long-term studies.

3. And the most widely used GMOs are paired with an herbicide linked to serious health risks. GM crops -- Roundup Ready soy and corn -- are treated with the herbicide glyphosate, which in exposed humans has been associated with DNA damage. In the lab, it's proven toxic to human liver cells.

4. The consequences of GMO technology are inherently unpredictable. Inserting a single gene can result in multiple, unintended DNA changes and mutations. "Unintended effects are common in all cases where GE [genetic engineering] techniques are used," warn scientists. One such environmental consequence -- genetic contamination of other plants -- is already documented. Note that unlike food, once released into the environment, seeds can't be "recalled"!

5. GMO makers intimidate and silence farmers and scientists. GMO corporations use patents and intellectual property rights to sue farmers, block research, and threaten investigators. "For a decade," protested Scientific American editors in 2009, GMO companies "have explicitly forbidden the use of the seeds for any independent research," so "it is impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised."

6. GMOs undermine our food security. Within the biotechnology market, Monsanto alone controls 90 percent of GE crops worldwide. And Monsanto is one of three GMO companies including DuPont and Syngenta that control 70 percent of the global seed market, reinforcing monopoly power over our food. GMO seeds are costly and must be purchased every year, so they worsen farmers' indebtedness, dependency, and vulnerability to hunger.

7. GMOs aren't needed in the first place, so why would we take on these risks and harms? Studies show that safe, sustainable farming practices applied worldwide could increase our food supply as much as 50 percent. And keep in mind that the world's already producing 2,800 calories for every person on earth every day -- more than enough. And that's just with what's left over after using half the world's grain for feed, fuel and other purposes, and wasting one-third of all food. So the urgent question isn't about "more" anyway. It is, How can all of the world's people gain the power to secure healthy food? And a good start is knowing what's in our food.

For a cool, just-released animated video devouring the myth that we need industrial ag, see foodmyths.org.

3 comments:

mythopolis said...

Well, I've been anti-Monsanto for a long while and its myopic make-a-buck fast philosophy that promotes agri-business conglomerates and the threat to the traditional farm. It needs to become an agenda item in Congress, but chances are Monsanto likely has Congress in its back pocket already.

And yes, there is a great disparity between resources that are available but not applied to global issues of poverty, malnutrition and starving. It becomes less a question of whether there are resources to alleviate those problems and more an issue of unwillingness to establish more equitable ways of distributing the world's resources. Of course, if you start talking about the re-distribution of wealth you become viewed as a commie-pinko- weirdo! Tsk-tsk!!

Stickup Artist said...

For the first time in the United States, we here in California are voting to have our food labeled to identify if it has been genetically modified. I desperately hope it passes because as goes California, so does the rest of the nation. And I totally agree with myth. Too much money is concentrated in too few hands, uncaring hands...

mythopolis said...

Fact:

A Monsanto official told the New York Times that the corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety of its food products. "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."