Round up your food and throw it out, because Roundup Ready resistant and other genetically modified foods (GMOs) have infiltrated our cabinets and refrigerators. GMOs need to be taken off Americans’ grocery lists, because studies have finally begun to come out about the adverse effects they can have on humans and the environment. Through our consumer influence we need to ensure that GMO foods have no place on our dinner tables.
From plums to granulated sugar, countless genetically modified foods are circulating in mainstream consumer markets. As reported in an article on The PEW, now over 80-90 percent of some of the United States’ largest agricultural crops, such as corn and soybeans, are genetically modified. You can’t simply avoid whole unprocessed foods either as many of them become ingredients in an array of everyday products.
The issue of GMOs is a discussion of the uncertain, as the implications of their use are officially unknown. Nonetheless, it involves environmental safety, human health and politics.
The most recent development in the GMO debate was on March 26 when the president signed a bill that contained Section 735, now dubbed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” This action was taken to avoid a government shutdown and the bill was primarily intended to be a short-term budget resolution.
Unbeknownst to many of those supporting it, the act was reportedly a last minute addition collaboratively written with Monsanto itself. Monsanto is one of the nation’s largest producers of GMO products, and many of its former employees now work in government organizations that regulate GMOs. It is said by the agribusiness industry that the primary function of Section 735 is to protect biotech companies from fluctuations in supply.
Opponents of biotech companies maintain that it instead removes the court’s authority to regulate these companies and allows GMO crops to be planted regardless of future environmental or health consequences.
Though the realistic impacts of this bill are debatable, as it has only been in effect for six months to a year, the implication of GMOs in society in general requires our consideration. Too few know what GMOs are and too few know the possible implications.
The environmental and health ramifications are currently unconfirmed; this in itself should encourage people to be cautious of consuming GMOs. These biotech companies are in effect utilizing the public as lab rats. This should be disconcerting to the average consumer, for all we know, there may be disturbing health implications to consuming GMOs.
According to an article on Alliance for Natural Health website, pesticide-producing, genetically modified corn has been shown to weaken stomach linings and cause leaky guts in humans. GMO’s have also been attributed to the recent rise in allergies and diseases caused by inflammation.
The herbicides used to treat these crops are also known to diminish the ability of plants to absorb vital nutrients causing a cycle of deficiency that impacts humans. One study that was published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences reported that rats fed GMO corn developed massive tumors, organ damage and premature death.
Perhaps we should listen to the advice of Geraldo Rivera, who said “Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she’s going to come around and whack you.” These life forms were never intended to be so intimately manipulated. The earth was never intended to be so dramatically exploited. For the 300 days of sun that we all get here in Colorado, that is certainly not how I desire to repay the earth I live on.
If Americans choose to not support GMO foods they will be removed from the market. We have a responsibility to facilitate that. Empower yourself. Mom isn’t buying your groceries anymore, so you need to recognize this responsibility to yourself and to your environment and take the initiative. In the words of a young boy from a health documentary called “Genetic Roulette”: “Stop doing the GMOs and start doing the good food.”
