Archive for the ‘Organic Garden’ Category

Things Do Change if You Put Your Heart Into it

Almost every day has brought a new victory for GMO

labeling, thanks to your continued support. In the

past six weeks alone, Campbell’s Soup, Kellogg’s,

Mars, General Mills, Dannon, and ConAgra have ALL

announced they will label GMOs in their food

products in order to comply with Vermont’s

first-in-the-nation GMO labeling law which goes

into effect in July. This is a BIG WIN!

All of this sounds great, as Here is a statement from Whole Foods

market:

“OUR COMMITMENT TO GMO TRANSPARENCY –

We are the first national grocery chain committed

to providing GMO (genetically modified organism)

transparency for our customers by 2018.

We are well on our way to meeting our 2018

deadline. Currently, we offer more than 25,000

certified organic items and about 11,500 Non-GMO

Project Verified products in our stores.

Being the first to do a lot of this work with GMO

transparency means we are paving the way for those

who will follow. Our GMO transparency initiative

includes all of the food we sell and it takes time

to work through all of the details.

Let’s hope Whole Foods keeps their word.

Here are ten reasons to avoid GMOs:

1. GMOs are unhealthy.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine

(AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets

for all patients. They cite animal studies showing

organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system

disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility.

Human studies show how genetically modified (GM)

food can leave material behind inside us, possibly

causing long-term problems. Genes inserted into GM

soy, for example, can transfer into the DNA of

bacteria living inside us, and that the toxic

insecticide produced by GM corn was found in the

blood of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses.

Numerous health problems increased after GMOs were

introduced in 1996. The percentage of Americans

with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from

7% to 13% in just nine years; food allergies

skyrocketed, and disorders such as autism,

reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and

others are on the rise. Although there is not

sufficient research to confirm that GMOs are a

contributing factor, doctor groups, such as the

AAEM, tell us not to wait before we start

protecting ourselves, and especially our children

who are most at risk.

2. GMOs contaminate.

GMOs cross-pollinate and their seeds can travel.

It is impossible to fully clean up our

contaminated gene pool. Self-propagating GMO

pollution will outlast the effects of global

warming and nuclear waste. The potential impact is

huge, threatening the health of future

generations.

3. GMOs increase herbicide use.

Most GM crops are engineered to be herbicide

tolerant the deadly weed killer. Between

1996 and 2008, US farmers sprayed an extra 383

million pounds of herbicide on GMOs, putting

more poison in the air, water, and soil.

4. Genetic engineering creates dangerous side

effects.

By mixing genes from totally unrelated species,

genetic engineering unleashes a host of

unpredictable side effects. Moreover, irrespective

of the type of genes that are inserted, the very

process of creating a GM plant can result in

massive collateral damage that produces new

toxins, allergens, carcinogens, and nutritional

deficiencies.

5. Government oversight is dangerously lax.

Most of the health and environmental risks of GMOs

are ignored by governments superficial

regulations and safety assessments. The reason for

this tragedy is largely political. The US Food and

Drug Administration (FDA), for example, doesn’t

require a single safety study, does not mandate

labeling of GMOs, and allows companies to put

their GM foods onto the market without even

notifying the agency. White House had instructed

the FDA to promote biotechnology, and the agency

official in charge of policy was Michael Taylor,

Monsanto’s former attorney, later their vice

president. He’s now the US Food Safety Czar.

6. The biotech industry uses “tobacco science to

claim product safety.

Biotech companies like Monsanto told us that Agent

Orange, PCBs, and DDT were safe. They are now

using the same type of superficial rigged research

to try and convince us that GMOs are safe.

Independent scientists, however, have caught the

spin-masters red-handed, demonstrating without

doubt how industry-funded research is designed to

avoid finding problems, and how adverse findings

are distorted or denied.

7. Independent research and reporting are attacked

and suppressed.

Scientists who discover problems with GMOs have

been attacked, gagged, fired, threatened, and

denied funding. The journal, Nature, acknowledged

that a large block of scientists…denigrate

research by other legitimate scientists in a

knee-jerk, partisan, emotional way that is not

helpful in advancing knowledge. Attempts by media

to expose problems are also often censored.

8. GMOs harm the environment.

GM crops and their associated herbicides can harm

birds, insects, amphibians, marine ecosystems, and

soil organisms. They reduce biodiversity, pollute

water resources, and are unsustainable. For

example, GM crops are eliminating habitat for

monarch butterflies whose populations are down 50%

in the US. Roundup herbicide has been shown to

cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic

deaths and endocrine disruptions, and organ damage

in animals even at very low doses. GM canola has

been found growing wild in North Dakota and

California, threatening to pass on its

herbicide-tolerant genes on to weeds.

9. GMOs do not increase yields and work against

feeding a hungry world.

Whereas sustainable non-GMO agricultural methods

used in developing countries have conclusively

resulted in yield increases of 79% and higher,

GMOs do not, on average, increase yields at all.

This was evident in the Union of Concerned

Scientists 2009 report, “Failure to

Yield the definitive study to date on GM

crops and yield.

The International Assessment of Agricultural

Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development

(IAASTD) report, authored by more than 400

scientists and backed by 58 governments, stated

that GM crop yields were highly variable and in

some cases, declined. The report noted,

Assessment of the technology lags behind its

development, information is anecdotal and

contradictory, and uncertainty about possible

benefits and damage is unavoidable.They

determined that the current GMOs have nothing to

offer the goals of reducing hunger and poverty,

improving nutrition, health and rural livelihoods,

and facilitating social and environmental

sustainability.

On the contrary, GMOs divert money and resources

that would otherwise be spent on more safe,

reliable, and appropriate technologies.

10. By avoiding GMOs, you contribute to the coming

tipping point of consumer rejection, forcing them

out of our food supply.

Because GMOs give no consumer benefits, if even a

small percentage of us starts rejecting brands

that contain them, GM ingredients will become a

marketing liability. Food companies will kick them

out. In Europe, for example, the tipping point was

achieved in 1999, just after a high profile GMO

safety scandal hit the papers and alerted citizens

to the potential dangers. In the US, a consumer

rebellion against GM bovine growth hormone has

also reached a tipping point, kicked the cow drug

out of dairy products by Wal-Mart, Starbucks,

Dannon, Yoplait, and most of America dairies.

Don’t let the Big Food Industry or the Big

Pharma pull the wool over your eyes.

They are not about your health and

well-being they’re about their PROFIT.

I wish you the best in your Health, Wealth, and

Happiness.

Dr. Wu Dhi

P.S. Take a look at this movie, “GMO OMG” it’s a real eye opener.

See what happens when the fox is in the hen house.