Why didn’t I know about GMO’s?

A friend who is learning about GMO’s told me that she felt badly that she didn’t know about them before now. It got me thinking as I felt the same way when I first learned about what was going on with our food supply.

Here’s a great description of GMO’s from the Non-GMO Project Shopping guide:

GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This relatively new science allows DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a laboratory, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. Virtually all commercial GMOs are bred to withstand direct application of herbicide and /or to produce an insecticide. None of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition or any other consumer benefit. Studies, meanwhile, increasingly show a correlation between consumption of GMO’s and an array of health risks.

Read more here: http://www.nongmoproject.org/consumers/

Why didn’t we all know about GMO’s?

Because, it seems, Monsanto did not want us to.  Putting Genetically Modified Organisms in our food was never presented to the American people, it was done behind our backs. The FDA (run by former employees of Monsanto) allowed them to be marketed, based on Monsanto’s assurance that the products are safe.  There was never any safety testing done by our government and tests done elsewhere in the world have proved them to be unsafe and potentially dangerous.  Our government, both the Democrats and the Republicans have handed our food supply over to a private multi-national corporation. This is the corporation who gave us DDT and Agent Orange. They now own almost all our commercial seed.

They are not doing this to ‘save the world’, they are doing this to control our food supply. If they had good intentions they would not be suing our farmers or putting our seed cleaners out of business. Farmers have traditionally saved their seed to replant for the next year and they’ve done this for thousands of years.  Monsanto is known to sue any farmer who saves their seed, even unintentionally.  They have also put most, if not all, of the seed cleaners that our farmers use out of business as well.  Watch The Future of Food for more information. You can watch the movie here, for free: http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

This is the history of GMO’s in our food supply, dates and basic info from: http://deliciouslivingmag.com/greenliving/dl_article_1558/ comments added by Mom.

1986   First field tests of genetically engineered plants (tobacco) are conducted.

1987   Advanced Genetic Sciences’ Frostban, a genetically altered bacterium that inhibits frost formation is field-tested on strawberry and potato plants in California—the first authorized outdoor tests of an engineered bacterium. Again this was done without public knowledge or approval.

1993   The FDA declares GMO foods are “not inherently dangerous” and do not require special regulation. And the FDA, the same people who are now being put in charge of our farms, allowed them to with no questions asked. In 1994, Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto said, “If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” (source, Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994).  Here’s what another Monsanto employee had to say,

The debate on genetically modified (GM) brinjal variety continues to generate heat. Former managing director of Monsanto India, Tiruvadi Jagadisan, is the latest to join the critics of Bt brinjal, perhaps the first industry insider to do so.

Jagadisan, who worked with Monsanto for nearly two decades, including eight years as the managing director of India operations, spoke against the new variety during the public consultation held in Bangalore on Saturday.

On Monday, he elaborated by saying the company “used to fake scientific data” submitted to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approvals for its products in India.

The former Monsanto boss said government regulatory agencies with which the company used to deal with in the 1980s simply depended on data supplied by the company while giving approvals to herbicides.

Read more here:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/StoryPrint?sId=83093&secid=4&page=0

Here’s some more history of GMO’s in the US.

1995   GMO soy and corn planted in the United States.

1996   GMO foods first hit supermarket shelves. WE are not told!

1996   Seven percent of soy and 1.5 percent of corn crops grown in the United States are genetically modified.

1999   The rising tide of public opinion in Europe brings biotech food into the spotlight.  Europe has stopped accepting some of our food as it’s GMO and they do have labeling.  Ireland is a GMO free country!

2000   GMO corn StarLink, approved solely for animal feed, ends up in corn products for human consumption.

2002   ProdiGene violates the U.S. Plant Protection Act by allowing experimental biopharmaceutical corn to mix with a commercial soy crop.

2004   GMO wheat developer Monsanto decides against selling GMO wheat because of negative public perception.

2004   Eighty-five percent of soy and 45 percent of corn crops grown in the United States are genetically modified.

Anything you eat with soy, corn, canola like high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, etc, is most likely genetically modified.

We can get GMO’s out of our food supply but we need to speak up. Let’s make 2011 the year that the USA goes GMO free!

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here:  http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-december-3rd/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/12/real-food-wednesday-12110.html

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