by Kevin Hayden
January 31, 2012
from
TruthIsTreason Website
Kevin Hayden is a
former New Orleans police officer-turned-political
activist. He endured Hurricane Katrina’s chaos and
societal collapse in the days following and after 5
years in New Orleans, moved to Oklahoma. Kevin
currently runs www.TruthisTreason.net and works on local
politics and education about our monetary, food, and
foreign policies while building an off-grid homestead
and helping people become prepared. He can be
contacted directly at Contact@TruthisTreason.net |
The adulteration and modification of some of the planet’s most
widely used crops has changed our food landscape.
Chemicals, preservatives, genetic
modification and low-cost substitutions and fillers have wrecked
meals that were once healthy for us. Stepping inside of a grocery
store nowadays, we find ourselves in a dangerous and toxic new
world.
The introduction of genetically modified
organisms into the food supply in the 1990′s, coupled with rampant
use of carcinogens such as aspartame, and substitutions like high
fructose corn syrup, set the perfect stage to form a deadly
concoction known as processed food.
Sadly, this is what encompasses the
average American diet.
Genetically modified foods are now found in approximately
80% of all
food in a typical grocery store.
What Exactly
is a GMO?
A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is the result of a
laboratory process of taking genes from one species and inserting
them into another in an attempt to obtain a desired trait or
characteristic, hence they are also known as transgenic organisms.
This process may be called either
Genetic Engineering (GE) or Genetic Modification (GM);
they are one and the same.
It’s Hard to Be Informed Without Labels!
In Germany and throughout the
European Union, food products that contain GMOs must be properly
labeled as such.
As a result, there are few GM products
on store shelves because, when made aware of their presence,
consumers almost unanimously reject them. But what many people fail
to realize, both in Europe and in the US, is that conventional
livestock is often fed GM soy and corn, which ultimately ends up on
store shelves in the form of conventional meat, milk, and eggs.
Furthermore, the development of genetically modified foods often
comes from seed and chemical companies, such as Monsanto, the
developer of Roundup Weed Killer. Monsanto inserts most GMOs with a
bacterial gene which allows the plant to survive a normally deadly
dose of Roundup herbicide.
Although the spray doesn’t kill the
plant, its active ingredient called
glyphosate accumulates in the
plant, and is then consumed by rats, livestock, and humans.
Roundup Ready,
Chemicals, and Glyphosate
There is so much glyphosate in GM soybeans, that when they were
introduced in Europe, countries had to increase their allowable
residue levels by 200 fold.
In the Journal of Toxicology in Vitro, researchers found that
Monsanto’s popular “weed killer,” known as Roundup, is capable of
interfering with and/or harming the male reproductive system. (Dec.,
2011)
Glyphosate is considered to be within safe, acceptable levels up to
10,000 ppm. What is more disturbing is that even at a lower,
presumably “non toxic” and almost non existent concentration of 1
ppm of Roundup herbicide, testosterone concentrations were observed
to decrease by 35%.
A
German university study has found significant concentrations of glyphosate in the urine samples of city dwellers.
The analysis of the urine samples found
that all had concentrations of glyphosate at 5 to 20-fold the limit
for drinking water. As well as being used increasingly widely in
food production, glyphosate-based weed-killers often also get
sprayed onto railway lines, urban pavements, and roadsides.
News of this study comes not long after the publication of a study
confirming
glyphosate was contaminating groundwater. Last year also
saw the publication of two US Geological Survey studies which
consistently found glyphosate in streams, rain and even air in
agricultural areas of the US.
Genetically modified crops are causing a growing epidemic of “superweeds.”
These massive weeds have evolved a resistance to glyphosate, a
chemical used on GM crops. Stronger toxic chemicals and soil-eroding
tillage operations are required in order to eliminate superweeds.
Furthermore, by increasing the need for stronger and more poisonous
pesticides, Dow Chemical company is awaiting approval from the USDA
for their new line of corn and soybeans resistant to 2, 4-D, a
chemical related to Agent Orange.
Years ago, this same Agent Orange ingredient was suggested, but the
USDA stated that glyphosate was much safer and effective. We now see
super-weeds resistant to gylphosate and so the
USDA is nearing a
complete reversal on its earlier statements by approving 2, 4-D to
be inserted into the genes of our food staples.
GMOS were initially promoted as a bio-technology to reduce pesticide
usage, but GM crops in the US used 26 percent more pesticides, per
acre, in 2008 than non-GMO crops, based on US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) data.
Animal Studies
and Further Reproductive Issues
In a Brazilian study (The
Impact of Dietary Organic and Transgenic Soy on the Reproductive
System of Female Adult Rat) female rats fed GM soy for 15
months showed significant changes in their uterus and reproductive
cycle, compared to rats fed organic soy or those raised without soy.
In Haryana, India, a team of investigating veterinarians report that
buffalo consuming GM cottonseed suffer from infertility, as well as
frequent and spontaneous abortions, premature deliveries, and
prolapsed uteruses.
A
study of male rabbits showed that glyphosate can cause a reduction
in sexual activity and sperm concentration, and an increase in dead
or abnormal sperm.
…“As an example, it is now being
discovered that pollen from genetically modified corn can kill
monarch butterflies,” writes Ron Garner in his book Conscious
Health.
A Cornell University study showed that
monarch butterflies suffered higher mortality rates when consuming
milkweed leaves dusted with the Bt toxin associated with GM crops.
Industry mouthpieces have long alleged that Monsanto’s Bt toxin,
which is derived from a soil bacterium known as Bacillus
thuringiensis, is harmless to humans. The built-in pesticide has
been integrated into certain GM crops to ward off pests.
Bt corn, for instance, has actually been
designed to produce the toxin
directly inside its kernels, which are later eaten by both livestock
and humans.
In the recent study, researchers Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc
evaluated 30 pregnant women and 39 non-pregnant women… researchers
detected Monsanto’s Bt Cry1Ab toxin in a shocking 93 percent of
maternal and 80 percent of fetal blood samples.
And 69 percent of non-pregnant women
tested positive for the toxin in their blood.
Organ Failure
In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive
study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian
health,
researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of
Monsanto’s GM maize (corn):
“Three varieties of Monsanto’s GM
corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and
Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved
for consumption by US, European and several other national food
safety authorities…
“Effects were mostly concentrated in
kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification
organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition,
some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also
frequently noted.
As there normally exists sex
differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly
statistically significant disturbances in the function of these
organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed
as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others.
We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these
GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity…
These substances have never before
been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore
their health consequences for those who consume them, especially
over long time periods are currently unknown.”
In regards to consuming Bt and GMO corn:
US corn agriculture (almost
exclusively genetically engineered) has been criticized as
environmentally unsustainable and conspicuously subsidized by
the Federal government.
Of the 160 food products that can be
purchased at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant,
not one item can be
traced back to a non-corn source. (It’s hard to avoid corn
ingredients and by-products, with high fructose corn syrup being
the most common!)
When speaking about high fructose corn syrup, one must
understand that due to the government subsidies and the huge
lobbying firms who stand behind corn, it has now become the
dominant ingredient in our food supply.
Corn syrup is far cheaper to
manufacture than real sugar and it is added to almost
everything. Aside from the human
body’s irregular, confused, and
cancerous response to the unnatural high fructose corn syrup, it
is mostly made from genetically modified corn supplies.
Your bread, soft drinks, juices,
processed meats, pastas, chips, desserts, and everything in
between have countless forms of GMO corn and high fructose corn
syrup.
Agencies and
Countries Condemning or Banning GMOs
-
The German government has banned
the cultivation of genetically modified corn, calling it, “a
danger to the environment.”
-
The World Trade Organization, as
urged by the United States, Argentina and Canada, ruled in
2006 that banning genetically modified foods was against
trade rules. However, Austria and Hungary
went ahead with
their bans, regardless. The trade rules have since been
overturned and now allow member countries to develop their
own policies.
-
The Polish government adopted a
policy on GMO food in November 2008. It allows cultivating
GMOs only in laboratories and bans GMO trade; it also
opposes cultivation of genetically modified foods.
-
Ireland has banned the growing
of GM crops, and a voluntary GM-free label can be placed on
all animal products - such as meat, poultry, eggs, fish,
crustaceans, and dairy - that are raised with GM-free feed,
according to a GM-Free Ireland
press release.
-
Sri Lanka has banned the
importation of genetically modified foods, preservatives and
additives.
-
“This decision shows the
majority of Swiss do not want genetically modified
food on their plates,” Marlyse Dormond, a member of
Parliament who backed the ban,
told Radio Suisse Romande.
-
Greece has
extended a ban on a
strain of genetically modified corn produced by U.S.
agriculture biotechnology company Monsanto for another two
years.
-
France
banned GMO maize (corn)
in February of 2008, invoking a so-called safeguard clause
because of, “serious risks for the environment.”
-
The four regions of Tuscany,
Molise, Lazio and Marche and around 25 provinces, cities and
communes in Italy banned GE crops, including Rome, Milan,
Turin, Brescia and Genoa. These are all democratically-taken
decisions in local or regional councils and in the case of
Tuscany, the result has been ratified by the national
government.
-
Portugal has two regions, the
Algarve region and the Madeira islands, that have declared
themselves GMO-free. Additionally, 27 municipalities all
over Portugal have passed GMO-free declarations.
-
Peru’s Congress overwhelmingly
approved
a 10-year moratorium on imports of genetically
modified organisms in order to safeguard the country’s
biodiversity.
The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has
recently found that Monsanto’s genetically modified corn, which was
created to kill insects, may be losing its effectiveness against
rootworms.
Furthermore, the EPA
stated,
“Monsanto’s program for monitoring
suspected cases of resistance is ‘inadequate’”.
Genetically engineered agriculture is an
extension of the current industrial-farming practices that have
resulted in the loss of family farms and farmer livelihoods around
the globe.
In recent years, India has seen an incredible surge in GM cotton
farmer suicides. This is attributed to the GM cotton and repeated
spraying of herbicides destroying the fertility of the soil and the
micro-organisms that exist naturally, resulting in massive crop
failures.
Additionally, many farmers have
bankrupted themselves by having to purchase new seed every year from
the bio-tech companies due to implanted seed self-termination genes.
GMO crops are promoted as way to feed the world and mitigate hunger;
however, numerous studies demonstrate that the GM crops do not
produce higher yields as claimed. As one example, a USDA publication
reports that,
“GM crops do not increase the yield potential.”
Monsanto, the world leader in genetically modified crops and seeds,
has been named the
worst company of 2011 by Natural Society - for
“threatening both human health and the environment.”
|