As a new study published in May casts new doubts over the safety of introducing GMO’s into the food chain we ask “can it be stopped?”
Genetically modified crops have been engineered to contain a Bt toxin that causes the stomachs of would-be pests to split open, killing them – a built-in pesticide. The official line from industry and regulators alike has been that the toxin is destroyed in human digestion and that even if it did survive, it wouldn’t be a problem.
The Study: New research from Quebec, published in the peer reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology in May 2011, indicates that the toxin not only survives digestion, but enters the blood stream. Further, they found that it is passed to foetuses.
Although there have always been concerns about the toxicity and potential allergenicity of Bt proteins – and reports of adverse reactions to the natural form as a spray have been well documented.
What Are They Doing?
For thousands of years, farmers and plant breeders have used selective breeding to improve things like yield, size, taste, resistance to disease and so on. The GM lobby often claims that what they do is no different. This is a mis-representation.
Some of the “successes” these experiments have turned out are:
• Crops that contain built-in pesticide bacteria
• Crops that are compatible with spray-pesticides so that otherwise deadly quantities can be used without causing damage (to the crops, anyway…)
• Potatoes that contain DNA from spiders, to produce artificial silk;
• Fruits that contain DNA from flounder fish to provide greater frost resistance
• Soy beans that contain Omega-3 fats
• Corn that contains genes that weigh sperm down, to be used as contraceptive
The natural world is a delicate and balanced ecosystem comprised of delicate and balanced ecosystems. Once these changes are made, they are forever a part of our ecology.
GM produce has been linked to organ disruption, infertility, allergies, and super-bugs (references can be provided). While it’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss the wide-ranging potential dangers of GM crops, it’s clear that the regulators are happy to use us and the environment as guinea pigs, without any kind of consent. Billions of people are consuming GM produce every day and GM crops are contaminating non-GM crops.
The Situation: It’s only the refusal of shoppers to buy GM in the late 1990′s that has kept you from following in the steps of the USA. Yet the Government has already given the go-ahead for the commercial growing of GM maize in UK and consistently vote in favour of approval of new GM products at the European Union.
The Bottom Line: Those of you in UK should seriously consider becoming proactive now if you want to keep GMO’s out of the food chain to protect yourselves and future generations. This is big, dirty business and nobody is going to protect your interests.