Potential Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods

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By Stephen Lendman

This article discusses the potential health risks of genetically engineered foods (GMOs). It draws on some previously used material because its importance bears repeating. It also cites three notable books and highlights one in particular - Jeffrey Smith's "Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods." Detailed information from the book is featured below.

Genetically engineered foods saturate our diet today. In the US alone, over 80% of all processed foods contain them. Others include grains like rice, corn and wheat; legumes like soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, soft drinks; salad dressings; vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products; and even infant formula plus a vast array of hidden additives and ingredients in processed foods (like in tomato sauce, ice cream, margarine and peanut butter). Consumers don't know what they're eating because labeling is prohibited, yet the danger is clear. Independently conducted studies show the more of these foods we eat, the greater the potential harm to our health.

Today, consumers are kept in the dark and are part of an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. Yet, the risks are enormous, it will take years to learn them, and when we finally know it'll be too late to reverse the damage if it's proved conclusively that genetically engineered foods harm human health as growing numbers of independent experts believe. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps. There is nothing known to science today to reverse the contamination already spread over two-thirds of arable US farmland and heading everywhere unless checked.

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Compelling Evidence of Potential GMO Harm

In his introduction, Smith cites the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) policy statement on GM food safety without a shred of evidence to back it. It supported GHW Bush's Executive Order that GMOs are "substantially equivalent" to ordinary seeds and crops and need no government regulation. The agency said it was "not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way." That single statement meant no safety studies are needed and "Ultimately, it is the food producer" that bears responsibility "for assuring safety." As a consequence, foxes now guard our henhouse in a brave new dangerous world.

Baltimore Chronicle

[NoBorders]

1. I don't see why eating GM food is harmful

However, I do see GM crops as a potential hazard to naturally evolved biodiversity.

As for eating the stuff, it's not like you are incorporating the modified DNA into your own DNA or something when you eat it. The DNA, protein, gets digested. I suppose there's some odd chance that the biology of the food itself could pose a problem, but I agree with those who point out that some health trends would be obvious by now. Well, maybe GM food causes obesity?

[nebenaube]

2. the problem is now

these genetically modified foods are producing their own pesticide. It's a pesticide that no one can wash off, it has no half-life after application. There is no choice but to ingest the toxins they produce and in ingesting such tainted foods there is the probability of triggering allergies to the tainted food. I know too many people who suddenly can't eat gluten anymore.

[Two Americas]

3. not exactly

Your point about allergies is good.

"Pesticides" being included in foods is not quite right. It is the BT bacteria that is involved. It produces a substance that binds the intestines of Lepidoptera larvae. It occurs naturally and has no known hazard to humans, and is in fact approved for organic and has been widely used in Europe for a long time..

The heel of a shoe is an effective pesticide that carries little risk to humans.

I am not defending GMO food crops, by the way, quite to the contrary. Weak arguments can do more harm than good to the cause.

[Oldenuff]

4. I don't buy the argument that GMO food is ok to eat

The whole idea is to increase profit to Big Agrabiz.They could care less about your health,when there is profit to be made.

It wouldn't hurt to do a web search for info on topics such as this,before saying there's nothing wrong with gmo food crops.There are lots of links to explore on this topic.Here is the first one I read.

Wouldn't hurt to read it.

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/02gmsoy.htm


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Can GM Soy be Deadly?

An experiment to see whether genetically modified (GM) soy might affect the offspring of rats yielded disturbing results.

Rats were divided into several groups, one of which was given a diet to which 5-7 grams of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" GM soy flour had been added; the others were fed similar diets containing no GM soy. The diets began two weeks before the rats became pregnant, and continued throughout pregnancy and nursing.

Low Birth Weight

A number of offspring from the GM-fed mothers were born unusually small, and after two weeks, 36 percent of them weighed less than 20 grams, compared to about 6 percent from the other groups.

More Than Half the Rats Died

Within three weeks, more than half of the rats from the GM soy group died, compared to less than 10 percent from the other groups.

Roundup Ready GM soy's DNA contains bacterial genes that allow the soy plant to survive treatment with Monsanto's "Roundup" brand herbicide. Some 85 percent of the soy gown in the United States is Roundup Ready. Soy is present in the majority of processed foods sold in the United States, so most Americans eat Roundup Ready soy in some form every day.

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