Frankenfood
By Catherine Haug, Aug 28, 2017 (Photo, right, from Organic Consumers Association (14), used with permission)
By now we should all be familiar with herbicide ag chemicals like Roundup, and harm they can cause to the herbicide-resistant crops on which it is sprayed. But the harm they cause to humans who eat those crops, and the soil in which they are grown, is not as well known. For example:
- Roundup is a patented broad-spectrum antibiotic, which means that as the plant takes it up, it moves to the roots where it kills the soil microbiome that enable to plant to take up nutrients from the soil. This explains why after just a few plantings of the Roundup-resistant crops, they suffer root damage and do not yield a good crop. And other crops planted in the same soil likewise suffer root damage.
- Its antibiotic nature also means that if you eat any part of a Roundup-resistant plant, you are taking up this antibiotic which then kills/damages the microbiome in your mouth and gut, lowering your resistance to disease and interaction between your brain and your primitive brain (the gut), which can ultimately lead to inflammation in both organs. Inflammation in the brain can manifest as depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
And while the harm of existing GMOs is more broad than this one example, new GMO technology pose even more harm. With advances in ag-chemical research, genetic modification techniques are even more sophisticated, and can do even more harm to nature as a whole, including humans. To me, this is downright scary – even more so than the worst horror film you could watch.
The harm of existing and new GMO technology
Video: “Does the World’s top Weed Killer Cause Cancer?” (13) [NOTE: you can skip the add at the beginning after the first 5 seconds]
Mercola (1) has this to say about current GMOs:
- According to a recent United Nations (UN) report (2), pesticides are responsible for 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year, and chronic exposure has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility (3).
- In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization and the “gold standard” in carcinogenicity research, found glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world — is a probable human carcinogen (4,5). As of July 2017, glyphosate is listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65, (6) which means products containing glyphosate must carry a cancer warning label.
- Pesticides like Roundup also threaten the health of the soil, thereby threatening the very future of agriculture itself, as healthy soils are key for growing food (7)
- Corporate GMO propaganda is now also hitting the big screen. Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, the documentary “Food Evolution” examines “whether GMOs, despite their controversial reputation, are actually a safe and reasonable answer to the inevitable problem of feeding an overpopulated planet.”(8)
Mercola (1) has this to say about the new GMO technology:
In July, the EPA also approved RNAi corn for human consumption, which is based on a whole new kind of technology (9,10,11). RNAi stands for RNA interference. Noncoding RNA molecules have the ability to inhibit gene translation and/or expression by neutralizing target messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules. In other words, RNAi is “gene silencing” technology. Research suggests these RNAs can survive digestion, and may end up silencing genes inside your body as well.
Scientists are also considering using “synthetic biology” (aka synbio) as a tool in environmental conservation to eradicate certain invasive species while strengthening endangered ones. [But what can be the long-term consequences of such meddling with nature?]
As noted by Yale Environment 360 (12): “[M]any conservationists consider the prospect of using synbio methods as a tool for protecting the natural world deeply alarming. Jane Goodall, David Suzuki, and others have signed a letter warning that use of gene drives gives ‘technicians the ability to intervene in evolution, to engineer the fate of an entire species, to dramatically modify ecosystems, and to unleash large-scale environmental changes, in ways never thought possible before.’”
References:
- Mercola article, “Developments in Chemical Biotechnology Continue to Threaten Environmental and Human Health”: articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/01/chemical-biotechnology-threatens-environmental-human-health.aspx
- Global Research March 15, 2017
- Sustainable Pulse March 7, 2017
- The Lancet Oncology March 20, 2015
- Institute of Science in Society March 24, 2015
- Bloomberg July 13, 2017
- The Conversation April 3, 2017
- Munchies June 30, 2017
- Organic Consumers Association July 10, 2017
- The Atlantic June 23, 2017
- Collective Evolution July 20, 2017
- Yale Environment 360
- YouTube video by Bloomberg: youtube.com/watch?v=lXIF4ahPjrU
- OCA image: organicconsumers.org/images/bytes/frankenfood-250.jpg
