What are Genetically Modified (GMO) foods and seeds?
Genetically Modified foods are known as GMO’s (genetically modified organisms)? I am fairly new at eating GMO free. The trigger for my wanting to not eat GMO’s was when I heard companies were making tomatoes with a gene from fish inserted! I want to share some of what I have learned about genetic engineering.
What do Genetically Modified (GMO’s) Foods or seeds do?
A genetically modified organism (GMO, also called “genetically engineered”) is a plant, animal or microorganism (eg, bacteria) that is created by means that overcome natural boundaries. Genetic engineering involves crossing species that could not cross in nature. For example, genes from a fish have been inserted into strawberries and tomatoes. While the Food and Drug Administration insists that foods produced by genetic engineering are the same as foods from traditional breeding, their own scientists reported that, “the processes of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are different and… they lead to different risks.” (Source: Discovery documents from the lawsuit against the FDA, Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al v. Shalala, May 1998. Center for Food Safety, 666 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 202-547-9359.)
The type of genetic engineering that is being done such as splicing a fish antifreeze gene with a tomato is something that would NEVER occur in natural crossbreeding or grafting. Plant geneticists say that such gene splicing of fish with tomatoes and strawberries make the plant and fruits better cold tolerant.
I am a bit overwhelmed that such genetic engineering is considered safe for human consumption by the FDA! I have known for some time that corn is a GMO crop and that Monsanto is a main sponsor for GMO foods trial. Consider this about corn:
There is a special kind of corn grown that you may not really know much about. This corn is engineered in a laboratory to contain pesticide which kills worms that enjoy corn and “gobble it up” in the corn fields of America. If you consumed this same pesticide, even just a couple of droplets a day in your orange juice maybe for breakfast, you would die of cancer or from some other horrible disease quite quickly. Consuming this form of genetic modification of food is nothing but a slow poisoning of your body.(http://www.organicauthority.com) Does this make you want to go out and by corn products?
I didn’t realize that as of the year 2000 there were over 40 plant varieties that have completed all of the federal requirements for commercialization. And to my knowledge companies do not have to post if their product is GMO or contains GMO’s. These are GMO food crops: tomatoes, cantaloupe, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and cotton but what are the rest of the plant varieties to make up the 40?
What are the health risks eating GMO’s and how can we find out what is GMO in our markets? Stay tuned, I’ll be researching and posting but until then I recommend reading this article on Genetically Modified Foods (GMO’s)
Here’s to Health!
Colleen
Sadly its one company in particular that is controling GMOs worldwide and until they are stopped and everyone wakes up to what they are doing in not only their country but in others too, they have free reign.
It’s a crazy scary time in agriculture right now. It’s becoming harder to trust labels now and sad that $$$ will always be more important than human lives.
Thanks for the information. I have been “organic” for a little over 10 years and I have to say finding food that is acceptable to eat is WAY easier than it was 10 years ago! That’s promising for sure, but it seems that there are new ways of hiding what’s in the food. Between GMO, MSG, and BPA you really just have to grow your own and make everything from scratch!
What do you really think about GMOs?
This needs to be on the package, so the consumer can make an informed decision. It’s disgusting how much bad stuff gets into the food supply.
That is scary! I wish the it was the law to label GMOs! What if you were allergic to fish and ate a tomato that had fish genes! So weird!
Here in CA there is an initiative on the ballot for food labeling anything that has GMOs I am really hoping this passes. Personally I would rather choose non modified foods.
Even having noted that it was released/written 12/13 years ago, I read with interest the linked article http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php because I felt the style of writing was not ala propaganda, the information contained within was presented not as facts but as food for thought.
I am still not concerned about GMOs, but will continue to be informed. Please continue to post articles on heath topics that interest you, as they will interest us, your readers, too.
GMO’s are such a loaded topic–while I agree that they should be completedly labelled for consumers (like in Europe) they are not necessarily bad.
I think that GMO foods are not healthy, and should not be allowed into the food system! Why can’t we make food the normal and healthy way! I do not want to eat GMO foods! I do not want to eat GMO foods because it can lead to health problems!
More food to have to be concerned with and to research. I try to avoid GMOs when ever I can. I don’t mind reading labels. It’s just too bad that GMOs are allowed to be in our food supply at all.
I really hate that we have to be concerned with this! It’s just disgusting to think what’s allowed to be done with our food! Thanks for the reminder