Increasingly, many people are concerned about GMOs – Genetically Modified Organisms – and whether they are indeed safe for human consumption.  And rightly so.

GMOs are food crops that have been drastically altered by a process that uses bacteria to invade cells of plants with a DNA foreign to that plant.  The altered cell is then cloned into the plant.

The altered plant – say corn – will then be able to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer, with about 68 per cent becoming herbicide-tolerant.  These altered crops are known to have much higher residues of toxic herbicides as they have been exposed to massive amounts of petroleum-based pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

So why would anyone “go GMO”?

It’s driven by industry...mostly through research done by chemical companies.

They’ve been doing research for many years.

The genetic blueprints of fruit, grains and vegetables are being restructured with conglomerations of DNA from viruses, bacteria, insects and animals.  Yes, animals!

Tomatoes can have cells from fish cloned into them!

Long-term studies of the health effects of GMO foods on humans have not been done.

We are the proverbial guinea pigs, however, short-term studies done on animals have not provided good news.

Already, GMO foods have shown adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, damage to the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopetic  systems according to Gilles – Eric Seralini, a molecular biologist in a report to the International Journal of Biological Science, Dec. 2009.

In the report, Seralini stated that foreign genes, forced into the plant’s DNA form, have been linked to thousands of toxic and allergenic reactions, thousands of sick, sterile and dead livestock and damage to virtually every organ and system studied in lab animals.   Pigs and cows fed GMO food suffered from widespread sterility and damage to their immune systems.

Mice that were fed GMO food have experienced reproductive problems and infant mortality, even to the extent that changes to sex organs were seen.  This in turn causes altered young sperm cells.  Half of the offspring died when the mom was fed GMO foods, and the survivors were smaller than normal.

GMO crops are also reported as having contaminated nearby non-GMO crops, which led to economic hardship for small independent farmers and certified organic growers.  There have also been reported lawsuits where small farmers—whose crop was contaminated by nearby GMO crops—have been sued by a huge corporation.  Why?  The huge corporation is Monsanto, and the farmers were “charged with patent infringement”.  Very sad indeed.

Frankly speaking, the most frightening thing about genetically modifying the food that we eat is why is it being done?

Many years ago there were thousands of small independent farmers whose vegetables and animals we consumed; today the small independent farm is a sunset industry.  Only large multi-national corporations can afford the increasing cost of land, fuel, seed, fertilizers, etc.

Not convinced?  About 40 years ago, oil companies started investing money into producing hybrid seeds.  These hybrid seeds produce good crops but the plant grown will not produce viable seed, so seed cannot be saved for planting next year.  Only open-pollinated seeds will produce productive plants each year.   Grain farmers traditionally saved their own seeds (for replanting) instead of buying seeds each year.   So increasingly, farmers must purchase hybrid—and GMO—seeds from the patent holder of that new seed.  The huge corporation – the multi-national company known as Monsanto – “signs” up farmers to purchase GMO hybrid seeds.  Monsanto has exclusive rights on GMO seed, with a long-term plan—as this writer sees it—to one day soon have a monopoly on farm products that 6.5 billion people on this planet need.

And, naturally, huge corporations like Monsanto are regular lobbyists to ensure that government regulations don’t get in the way of their business!