Beware of Genetically Modified Organisms
October 30, 2009 – 4:39 pm by MarinaHanes
Corn, soybean, rapeseed (canola), flax, alfalfa, sugar beet, squash and papaya are commonly genetically engineered (GE) foods, and you probably eat them without even knowing this. Currently, our government doesn’t label commercially available GE foods such as the ones listed above. The Campaign, a grassroots movement that supports labeling GE foods, estimates that 70% of U.S. and Canadian food contains GE ingredients. If you knew that a food was genetically modified, would you still buy it?
GE foods are specially designed to have desirable traits like a resistance to insects or viruses, a tolerance to severe weather conditions (e.g. droughts) and enhanced nutrition. Obviously, these traits are ideal in the fact that our crops have become super organisms – less vulnerable to devastation. Food shortages seem to be less of a threat now, but at what cost are we creating these crops?
These crops are genetically manipulated to inherit genes that don’t occur naturally. Environmentally these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can contaminate natural organisms causing ‘genetic pollution’. If these desirable traits spread, we will reduce our planet’s biodiversity of certain crops and may also be killing off non-target insects that are beneficial to the environment.
With regard to humans, there hasn’t been any conclusive testing to determine whether GE foods cause allergic reactions, yet these foods are still available to consumers. Recently the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a Michigan State University’s mouse model that researcher, Venu Gangur, designed specifically to test whether GE foods cause allergies. In 2000 StarLink corn was thought to cause allergies, so the Center for Disease Control tested it but their data was inconclusive. This corn contained cry9C protein, which protected it from black cutworms and other corn borers; initially, this corn was approved for nonfood products and animal feed in 1998 but somehow traces of this protein were found in taco shells and other foods, so people thought their asthma attacks and other allergies were attributed to this modified corn.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture claims that the Animal and Plant Heath Inspection Service (APHIS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are all responsible for regulating GE food products. However, there are so many unanswered questions when it comes to GE foods, yet our government still allows them to go on the market. It is mandatory that GE foods are labeled in Europe, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand but the U.S. and Canada don’t have this requirement. Why does the U.S. and Canada have to be the blind guinea pigs?
Tags: GE, genetically modified organisms, organic vegetables