Behind the scenes of GMO food

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Recently, there has been a lot of controversy concerning GM foods. DOW, Syngenta, Bayer, Monsanto and others have been regularly in the spotlight in the last few years concerning herbicides, pesticides and genetically modified seeds.

Genetically modified food affects different segments of the world in different ways and there are generally 2 main segments, the farmer and the consumer.

• If you are a farmer, the technology promises higher yield with less inputs
• If you are a consumer, the technology promises better prices and more availability

Whether you are eating GMO corn flakes for breakfast or rubbing a cosmetic GMO moisturiser onto your skin, gene engineering technology is the underlying principle that delivers these products to humans and animals.

What does GMO food promise

• less use of pesticides
• solving global food shortages
• massive increase in yield potential
• better farmer income and profitability
• food safety through thorough testing
• more nutrition than conventional foods
• better shelf life than conventional foods
• better tasting than conventional foods
• heirloom and conventional seed security as GMO crops can coexist without cross contamination

At the moment, GMO crops are predominant in the mainstream food sectors, such as corn, canola, soy, etc. because these foods are grown every year on more than 160 million hectares of global land.

The sheer volume of growth hectarage makes it financially attractive for GMO companies to invest in these products, although it only represents about 3% of globally planted agricultural land.

The so called "frankenfish"

Recently, GMO solutions have also spread to salmon whereby the technology promises higher fish yields with less inputs in a shorter time frame - similar promises to the food grain business.

Click images to enlarge

Image credits : Seeds of Death (Documentary), counterthink.com, naturalnews.com

The above image (right) is a clip from film footage of 18 month old salmon. The salmon on the top is the GMO variety that grows approximately double the size in the same space of time.

As of Q1 2013, the GMO salmon is under evaluation for human consumption.

GMO food review

Cheaper prices, better yields, less inputs and so many other advantages listed above, all sound fantastic. 

So why is GMO food so often in the news? Why is there increasing negative publicity?

Easily opened doors

GMO food is a relatively new technology that is heavily patented and not very well regulated.

The newness of the technology gives it some kind of "amazing" status that has the power to open doors that are traditionally difficult to open, such as the doors that the drug industry have to open.

For example, when a newly manufactured drug is approved for human use, generally they have to go through tests that look like these :

• 3 month test on at least 3 mammal species
• 1 year test on one mammal species
• 2 year test on another mammal species

These tests are designed to make sure (as best as possible) that they are safe for humans with no or very strictly controlled and known side effects.

Once approved, these drugs are administered to humans that are sick (ie people that actually need them) and is monitored by professionally trained people, such as doctors.

The science involved in creating GMO products is on the same level as the science used to create new drugs, but at present, typical GMO testing involves secretive rat trials for 90 days. In addition to this secrecy, any failures of these tests do not have to be made public.

Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

Critics are saying that if GMO food science is roughly the same as drug science then why do GMO food products not have to go through the same kind of rigorous testing that new drugs have to go through?

Corruption, Apathy, Incompetence, Peer Pressure?

Drugs enter our bodies and are used the same way as GMO foods are used, so why are they tested differently?

Should foods be patented?

Because the GMO food technology is so heavily patented, nobody is allowed (and are too scared to in case of lawsuits) to tamper and research the technology.

This means that nobody can conduct manufacturer endorsed independent tests to verify what the GMO companies claim to be true.

Any tests that are done are dismissed as unofficial and do not get picked up by mainstream media (there are many other reasons for this, such as conflict of interest between advertising revenue and negative reporting from, and of the same company)

Poor Government regulation and accountability

With the technology being so new and with the patented secrecy veil, nobody, including Government regulatory bodies, have a full and independently verified picture of GMO.

Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

Blue chip companies are well known to cut corners in pursuit of profits with little regard to the health and safety of their customers. The question that people are now asking is "If something goes wrong with GMO food technology, can mankind fix or reverse it?"

The answer is ... no. A new organism created by gene modification cannot be undone, it can only be destroyed. But if this GM organism has contaminated other naturally occurring organisms, then what is the plan?

It has been estimated that cross pollination by naturally occurring climatic conditions can be as much as 500 miles.

Image credit : seppo.net

GMO food companies say that if an organic farm located next to a GM farm is contaminated by GM pollination, it is the duty of the organic farmer to ensure that there is sufficient land boundary to prevent this from happening.

If 500 miles is not enough, the organic farmer risks losing his Organic status if his farm exceeds certain requirements of the Organic Rule Book.

And to add insult to injury, the organic farmer can be sued by the GMO food company for knowingly or unknowingly using the seed produced from his own crop.

Here is an example of "nobody knows" and how do we fix the problem

Why are bee colonies dying off at unprecedented rates? Nobody knows.

There are persistent rumours of GMO companies trying to develop bees that are resistant to pesticides. 

If there are no bees to pollinate our plants - how can we grow anything? Albert Einstein said that mankind cannot live longer than 4 years without bees ... let's hope he is wrong.

One third of what we eat would not exist without bees. This short video will put their importance into perspective.

A morally corrupt GMO company that creates a "frankenbee" would hold the world to ransom and reap substantial profits. The profits would be so significant, one could probably afford to employ the best lawyers all over the world and fight off lawsuits everyday of the week.

Then launch a media campaign and quieten the masses by saying that your company solved the bee problem. (All protected by patents, of course)

Plant GMO types

There are 3 types of plant GMO's :

• (1) Pest resistant GMO's (also called Bt - there is reference to this in the video mentioned further down in the page)

The gene of a soil bacteria (that is toxic to some insects) is inserted or engineered into the seed

• (2) Herbicide tolerant GMO's

The seeds are engineered to withstand herbicides. When applied, the herbicide kills the weeds but not the crop.

• (3) Stacked GMO's

These seeds include pest resistant and herbicide tolerant genes. There can be between 2 and 8 extra genes engineered into the seed to provide these "stacked" characteristics

Rising health issues

Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

There is some official and unofficial testing going on and these are some of the results that are emerging :

Health Problems

Animal tests have shown worrying health impacts including :

• allergic reactions
• body weight disturbances
• male fertility disturbances **
• immune response disturbances
• blood composition disturbances
• liver, pancreas, stomach (***) and kidney function disturbances
• some of the above disturbances are being passed from mother to baby
• gastrointestinal effects such as inflammations, ulcerations and excessive growth of stomach and gut lining

** You will not find articles like these in mainstream media such as BBC, CNN, etc. because common mainstream media is influenced and sanitised by Governments and big companies.

*** You can view / download the actual report here and for a quick visual reference, the photos of the damaged pig stomachs appear on page 8.

Click images to enlarge
Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

Nutritional changes

• changing levels of existing nutrients and vitamins
• emergence of new toxins and changing levels of existing toxins
• emergence of new allergens and changing levels of existing allergens
• emergence of new anti-nutrients and changing levels of existing anti-nutrients (anti-nutrients prevent the body from absorbing nutrients)

Birth defects from glyphosate

There is no doubt that products like glyphosate/Roundup causes birth defects in experimental animals. The industry’s own studies, conducted in the 1980s and 1990s show this. These experimental animals are mammals, that have babies just like humans.

As of 2012, Europe is not allowed to grow GMO foods, although, Europe is allowed to import GMO foods to feed livestock for human consumption. The US GMO seed manufacturers are exerting enormous pressure via US diplomatic channels to force the EU to accept GM foods into their agricultural food farms.

Why? Crop yield results clearly show that conventional seeds in Europe do not produce any less than their Bt/Roundup ready equivalents with substantially less glyphosate (and Bt) toxicity.

Glyphosate is allowed to be used in EU since 2002 for weed control. The German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, BVL, denies that glyphosate causes birth defects. (Independent scientific studies by Argentine scientists show that this is not true)

The question is, why is the public in Europe not being told about this conflicting information?

According to Occupy Monsanto, these are the facts :

• Industry has known from its own studies since the 1980s that glyphosate causes malformations in experimental animals at high doses
• Industry has known since 1993 that these effects also occur at lower and mid doses
• The German government has known since at least 1998 that glyphosate causes malformations
• The EU Commission’s expert scientific review panel knew in 1999 that glyphosate causes malformations
• The EU Commission has known since 2002 that glyphosate causes malformations. This was the year it signed off on the current approval of glyphosate

Even with these facts, in Europe, Roundup is still used by home gardeners and local authorities on roadsides, in school grounds and in other public areas, as well as in farmers’ fields.

Why do European officials allow this when there appears to be overwhelming evidence for nations to resolve their conflicting studies? Glyphosate either does or does not cause animal defects - surely these intelligent people in important positions can figure this out.

What we do know is that the public loses trust in these institutions and their Government when conflicting information like this starts to appear on the internet. The public are tired of being lied to and the internet gives us the opportunity to listen to both the German and Argentinian studies and make up our own minds.

Conspiracy theorists talk about GMO Foods being the new eugenics. If you have the time and interest, research Eugenics and the Nazis during the 1930's. Also look to see who financed these Eugenic projects (and why) and then look to see who has substantial financial interests (with Government directives) in present day GMO Food technology. Some governments will and are known to do anything to maintain their global advantage.

Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

GMO's are creating superweeds

GMO herbicides are creating superweeds and some GMO companies are now producing seeds that can tolerate even higher doses of herbicide to combat these superweeds. 

A common chemical in herbicides is glyphosate - a known cancer causing chemical and environmental toxin. (Opens a new tab in the same site with document references)

Farmers are forced to use more herbicide to fight these superweeds. If they don't, the superweeds are now so strong, they will choke the crop. Statistics show that farmers in the USA used 10 times more glyphosate herbicide in 2007 that they did in 1993.

Unfortunately, as the effectiveness of glyphosate decreases farmers are going back to the older and deadlier 2,4-D.

Image credit (above) : Food and Water Watch

Image credit : Seeds of Death (Documentary)

(Roundup weedkiller is the number one herbicide sold in Europe and the rest of the world)

Glyphosate is a chelator. Chelation by glyphosate is the process of inhibiting the plant's ability to take in specific nutrients from the soil. Without these nutrients, the plant is unable to manufacture enzymes to protect itself from pathogenic plant disease. This disease then kills the weed.

Chelation affects the crop too. This is called "flashing" and is observed as a yellowing of the plant. Widespread and increased use of glyphosate increases its chelation ability. This lowers the nutrient uptake of the crop even further. This process is one of the many reasons GMO food opponents are saying that GMO foods contain less nutrition than conventional foods.

While healthy adults may be able to tolerate less nutritious food, it is out of the question for children. Because of their growing metabolism, children will not develop properly if they consume non-nutritious food. Products like Pepsi, Pringles and Quakers simply have insufficient nutrition to produce any kind of healthy child.

For the farmer, continued use of glyphosate results in reduced crop production efficiency, increased plant disease and higher costs.

Dr. Bott, U. of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
© Copyright 2013 Scribd Inc.

Southwest-Germany - Winter wheat farming in 2008 & 2009 point to potential negative side-effects of long-term glyphosate use.

For the world, glyphosate takes time to break down naturally and is bioaccumulative meaning that its concentration builds up over a period of time, throughout the environment - water, air and land.

GMO pest resistant seeds are creating secondary pests. Secondary pests are pests that become more common when their predators are killed by the pesticide in the seed.

GMO food opponents

All these individuals are opponents of GM foods making very public statements. They raise genuine points and concerns that are falling outside of mainstream media.

Yet, when GMO companies make public statements, they often attract front page locations - especially when it comes to money and profits.

Click their image to see who they are and support them - they are supporting us.

	Click images to enlarge

When we dig deeper and further back into GMO opposition, we find academic sites that have been advocating their opposition to GMO's for more than 10 years and have been addressing the issue to the very organisations that are tasked to take action on national and global levels.

Click image to enlarge
© 1999-2013 The Institute of Science in Society

Yet, in the last 10 years, the only people that seem to be heard and acknowledged are the highly paid lobbyists working for the biotech companies that are successfully pushing through controversial laws and patents to the detriment of ordinary human beings.

Only through the internet are we starting to find out that concern and opposition has been going on for years already but falling on deaf ears.

Much of the world is already struggling through poverty and recession to pay bills and debts. But we still have to take time out to go into the streets to demonstrate against low quality and toxic foods being produced by big business.

What are the regulatory authorities and civil servants that are tasked to do this job actually doing?

This story appears in the Seeds of Death video - Dr Pusztai was tasked by the EU  to lay down regulatory framework for GMO use in the European Union. He was fired and his scientific team disbanded after he started releasing his GMO test results to the very civil servants and regulatory authorities that paid him to do the research.

At least we know what some of them are capable of doing.  We hear various reports that Monsanto called Bill Clinton to say that Dr Pusztai is harming the GMO business by publicizing his research on British television. Bill Clinton then called Tony Blair and he called Dr Pusztai's boss. Dr Pusztai was told to be quiet and shut down the project ... and if he opened his mouth, he would lose his pension.

Whether this chain of events is actually true or not, does not really matter. Globally, governments are caught time and time again misleading the public, hiding information and corrupting the system. The fact that it is possible, is good enough reason for the public to stay guarded. Remember, these are the same leaders that told us that they had proof of WMD's in Iraq.

Success at any cost

There are frightening stories on the internet that GMO company, Monsanto, actually hired the Blackwater security company to infiltrate anti-GMO groups.

The image below is a screenshot of the digitaljournal.com website. Click here for the full article.

Click image to enlarge

On the face of it, the GMO food business appears to be a disgrace in business ethics and moral judgement in almost every way.

While the scientists that actually work in these companies may not associate with these business ethics, by association, it seems hard to accept the fact that there may be really good people in the GMO system that are trying to make a positive contribution to humanity.

If these people really do exist ... much of mankind has their faith and future health in you.

Seeds of Death by Gary Null

It's an hour and twenty minutes. If you have the time, watch it.

What we found evident is the persistent stubbornness by Governments and regulatory authorities that GMO food products are as safe as 5 year olds making mud pies in the garden ... and the biotech companies marketing them as such ... and the world believing that they are.

Companies using GMO Food ingredients

You have a right to know which companies are using GMO Food products. You have a right to make a choice to support them or not. Here is a list that you can keep with you.

Image credit : www.ascendingstarseed.wordpress.com & www.realfarmacy.com

Do you have what it takes

This is 11 year old Birke (He's probably around 14 now as the video is dated 2010). He illustrates the lies and misrepresentation of the GMO Food industry pretty well.

He also highlights the predatory nature of these companies to focus on young impressionable minds. He mentions how "natural food" is discredited as "lunatic farming".

If the kids of the world shared Birke's point of view and grew up to be global leaders, we would probably have a less toxic world with healthier people.

If you are trying to understand more about GMO foods, how they are made and grown, where they appear and what they may look like, have a look at these images and videos. We found them super useful and worth sharing and hope you will do the same.

Click the image/s to enlarge. Image credits appear on each image. If no credit is displayed, we don't know who the copyright holder is. (Sorry)

This is an animated video and works great for our younger generation to expand their awareness of the effects of GMO in our world today.

There you have it

You probably know a bit more now than you did a few minutes ago. Have your say or get out there, make the most of your life and enjoy every minute of it - toxin free.

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