Right to Know About GMOs

            Right to Know about GMOs

By Kelly Ragan

            Genetically modified organism (or GMO), it sounds like it should be something from a comic book.  A small and meek tomato that succumbs too easily to the cold learns the definition of resistance when the genes of an Arctic fish are directly embedded into the tomato’s DNA to make it become: Anti-Freeze.  Unfortunately, the reality is not far off from the fiction.  In the 1970s the technology to do just that was developed.  We can now combine DNA from plants, animals, bacteria, and viral genes that would never occur through nature or traditional crossbreeding.  Many of the GMOs that we find today were created for an herbicide tolerance.

            In 1976 an herbicide called Roundup was created that killed all things growing.  It took two decades for this company to take DNA from a bacteria that thrived in a chemical waste dump and insert it into soy, corn, cotton, and canola.  This is the Roundup resistant crop that we find today.  This “miracle” for the modern farmer claims to increase yield, improve drought tolerance, have nutritional superiority, and so on and so forth.  Unfortunately, it seems that the miracle is just a mirage.  Super resistant weeds are now growing which means that more toxic herbicides (millions of pounds worth) are being released into our ecosystem.  What seems most unfortunate of all is that most Americans have no idea what a GMO is.

            According to Life Source Natural Foods last year “93% of soybeans, 86% of corn, and 93% of cotton planted in the United States [was] genetically modified.”  That’s a significant amount of product that the FDA feels Americans don’t need to know about.  In 1992, the FDA declared that GMO crops are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) based on what the producers are saying about them.  Seems a bit biased in my opinion.  In Europe, many countries have placed bans on GMOs.  The EU uses labeling as a mandatory aid for European consumers.  There’s a movement in the US for the same recognition.

            From October 1st through the 16th marchers traveled over 300 miles to Washington, D.C. in the Right2Know March.  The aim was to get attention and awareness on what we aren’t being told about GMOs.  We have a right to know!  Start taking matters into your own hands.

- Purchase conscientiously and look for the Non GMO label or buy certified organic

- If you must buy non-organic avoid the Big 8:  Corn, Canola, Soybeans, Cottonseed, Sugar Beets, Hawaiian Papaya, Zucchini, and Yellow Squash.

- Don’t forget about your animal products, GM alfalfa is a very common livestock feed; what they eat, you eat!

- Download the Non GMO Shopping Guide

- Get a free Non GMO mobile shoppers guide for your iphone, ipad, ipod, and/or android.

- Visit the Non GMO project to stay up to date

            Most of all, educate yourself.  Ignorance is bliss until you have a stack of medical bills.  Don’t wait to see what the “unknown” effects are.  Personally, I don’t want to be any biotechnology company’s guinea pig so I’ve signed the viralJust Label It! FDA Petition for GMO Labeling in America.  In all those comic book stories, the heroes are always trying to protect the people from something that wants to harm them, from something they may not even be aware of.  Be a hero.