Generation Monsanto

[Robbien]

Gen-M, the first Monsanto Generation of humans force-fed genetically modified foods hasn't reached reproductive age yet (they were born in the late 1990s). But, if a critical mass of animal feeding studies are any indication, the millennial generation, reared on Food Inc.'s unlabeled "Frankenfoods" can look forward to a long-term epidemic of cancer, food allergies, learning disabilities, sterility, and birth defects.

Corn (85% of U.S. production is GM), soy (91% GM), cotton (88% GM), canola (85% GM) and sugar beets (95% GM) are all genetically engineered by Monsanto to withstand massive doses of the company's glyphosate herbicide RoundUp, or else to exude their own pesticide, Bacillus Thuriengensis (Bt). RoundUp, the favorite weedkiller poison of non-organic farmers and gardeners, causes brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. And scientists warn that RoundUp, the most extensively used herbicide in the history of agriculture, "may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious." In addition, hundreds of thousands of US dairy cows are injected with genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (developed by Monsanto) in spite of studies linking BGH with cancer, and longstanding bans on the drug in the EU, Japan, Canada, and other industrialized nations.

With genetically modified foods and crops threatening public health and the environment, not to mention the next generation's reproductive capacity, why isn't there a massive consumer outcry to restrain Monsanto's biotech bullying and ban genetically engineered foods and agriculture?

The answer is disturbingly simple. Collusion between Monsanto and elected public officials (including the current Obama Administration) has obscured the fact that almost all non-organic foods in the US contain GMOs. Despite poll after poll indicating that 85-95% of US consumers want mandatory labels on foods containing GMOs, Congress has heretofore listened to Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, rather than their own constituents. In the European Union, Japan, or South Korea, where GM foods must be labeled, there are no GM foods on grocery story shelves (and little or none served in restaurants), since most consumers would not buy them and a significant number would complain if they saw GMO labels on products. Consequently there are very few GM crops being cultivated in the EU (mainly a small amount of corn in Spain for animal feed).

Most Americans simply do not understand that 80% of non-organic supermarket processed foods (basically every product containing soy, corn, canola, cottonseed oil, or sugar beet derivatives) are contaminated with GMOs. While nearly everyone in North America has eaten genetically modified foods, only 26% believe that they have.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cummins06212010.html



GMOs--- is what's for breakfast , , , and lunch and dinner.

[NoNothing]

1. From a health hazard point of view

What is the alleged threat, actually? Is it pesticide/herbicide, or the genetic alterations themselves? If it's the genetic alterations themselves, I don't understand how this is any more of a health risk than all the genetic alterations that occur randomly in nature and give us the great spectrum of species and varieties.

[glowing]

3. Maybe a bit of both.. Pesticides/ herbicides.. etc are chemical poison.

Would you drink a bottle of round up ready mix.. What does it say on the side of the label? If ingested, go immediately to ER and don't pass Go. So, after a lifetime of eating foods with pesticides in them, I'm sure you have ingested multiple bottles of these chemicals in small quantities.. Which breaks down your body; and makes you susceptible to disease.

The other issue is engineering the food to alter its natural state. The body may not recognize the chemical equation as food or is unable to break it down... Its like the HFCS issue.. Its the chemical equation that is harmful to the body. If the body is unable to absorb the proper nutrients it needs, you can become more susceptible to disease, etc.

Combine the two and add it through the food chain (as in our meat supplies consuming these products along with the antibiotics and growth hormones and "vegetarians" eating "meat" within the chow. Honestly, it seems as if a large experiment to eliminate the human population all in the name of profit. The politicians and reg agencies and "competition" are supposed to keep them in check.. But they buy themselves out of competition and buy the politicians and bribe the regulatory bodies so there is NO ONE to stop them.

[Robbien]

4. And all the secrecy

We are supposed to trust that Monsanto has our backs. The EPA basically has their hands off of everything GM.

[Voice for Peace]

5. here you go

http://www.google.com/search?q=dangers+of+gmo+foods&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[BelgianMadCow]

6. the genetic alterations are NOT comparable to natural evolution

they are done by literally bombarding DNA with fragments, fragments that come from very different backgrounds. Quite something else than the gentle natural evolution. The bombardment obviously allows alterations that would never occur in nature.

It's like the difference between force-feeding an animal a synthetic feed mixture versus an animal foraging for it's typical, "natural" foods.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. Well you see, they took place over thousands of years, and nobody knows

what occurs at the quantum level when modifications are forced into such a tiny time-frame.

I was unable to get into this site, but the headings are scarcely encouraging:

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/pdf/Papers_on_GM_Hazards.pdf

[NoNothing]

8. That does not appear to be a peer-reviewed publication

And frankly, since all of the important genetic variations are molecular, not sub-atomic, mumbo-jumbo about "quantum level" effects smacks of rank pseudoscience.

[glowing]

2. Another environmental disaster brought to you by corporate Amerika.