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.