God Move Over: GMO is here.
Jan 31, 2011 / 5:00 am
Edited on 03/03/2011
Heidi Osterman is adamant that researchers should not be ‘Rubik’s-Cubing’ life forms together for profit under the disguise of scientific advancement. (Photo: Contributed)
Forget about both divinity and natural selection. Man has taken hold of the wheel and is now steering the creation of new life forms. Can scientists really outsmart both God and Mother Nature? Can researchers create GMOs (genetically modified organisms) without negative and unforeseeable consequences? Either way, what will we call ‘nature’ when it is not natural anymore? If the biblical proverb has merit and “pride comes before a fall," is mankind about to take its biggest tumble ever?
Scientists have created very interesting combinations: Human DNA is experimentally injected into the embryos of cows and the calves are dying of ruptured ovaries. Researchers consider this a ‘learning curve'.
I think most people worldwide agree that human genes belong in humans, plant genes belong in plants and animal genes belong in the original animal. Researchers should not be ‘Rubik’s-Cubing’ life forms together for profit under the disguise of scientific advancement.
How did we get to this bizarre new reality?
In the past, only objects could be patented for profit. The issue of patenting LIFE has never been voted by the Canadian parliament or the US Congress. Now, ‘LIFE’ itself can patented for profit, like any other commodity. Life can be owned, bought and sold. It is the new gold rush. The rush is to buy and sell genes and create new life forms. Currently, a life-bending ‘free-for-all’ is taking place with all the bio-tech companies racing to be the first in line at the Patent Office to stake their claim.
The technology of gene-splicing is still a crude process. Researchers hack into one life form, remove genetic information and then transfer this data into another life form. It is called genetic modification or genetic engineering, which are terms that people don’t understand. Let’s just call it what it is: inter-species genetic rape.
Where are these types of genetic experiments going to end? The answer may be your dinner plate.
A genetically modified pig has been developed by Guelph University in Canada. The trademarked ‘Enviro-pig’ contains genetic material from a mouse and a sequence from E-Coli bacteria. Also proposed for our dinner plates is a genetically modified Salmon that has been re-created using eel genes. This GM salmon produces unnatural amounts of growth hormone. Another proposal is genetically modified apples that won’t brown after being cut or bruised. All of these new ‘foods’ are waiting for government approval. What about citizen approval?
This science is in its infancy, as computers were in the 1970’s. Why should we release this new technology into the environment and our food supply? The GMO hardware is programmed into life forms, which reproduce. There is no delete button and there is no going back. The changes to the existing plants and animals will remain forever.
This is not a sophisticated form of hybridization and is completely different from traditional breeding methods. Gene-splicing ‘mates’ completely different life forms together. Do you think that a tomato and a fish would ever swap genes naturally? Genetic manipulation breaks the natural species barrier.
David Suzuki, Canada’s trusted geneticist and environmental expert, does not think gene-splicing technology is safe as it is currently practiced. He has personally authorized these quotes for public awareness.
He says that all such genetic experiments “should be done under carefully monitored lab conditions, not out in the environment. I am a geneticist and I know some of these experiments will provide fundamental insights. I’m just against the rush to apply these techniques.”
Dr. Suzuki says, "What bothers me is we have governments that are supposed to be looking out for our health, for the safety of our environment, and they’re acting like cheerleaders for this technology, which is in its infancy and we have no idea what the technology is going to do.”
“Anyone that says, 'Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,' I say is either unbelievably stupid, or deliberately lying. The reality is, we don’t know. The experiments simply haven’t been done, and now we have become the guinea pigs. I am most definitely not in favor of release of GMOs in the food stream and given that it's too late, I favor complete labeling of GMO products.”
Dr. David Suzuki – Geneticist.
Most Canadians are unaware that GMO corn, for example, has already been re-created to produce its own pesticide internally. That toxin can’t be washed off. Another genetic alteration creates plants that can be sprayed with Roundup and other herbicides without being affected. All natural green plants will die, but not the GMO plants. The result is a field free of weeds and a crop loaded with extra toxins. This means more pesticide residue inside and on top of our food crops. Herbicides and insecticides are linked to cancer, Parkinson’s disease and are endocrine (hormone) disrupters.
Other countries, including all 27 countries in the European Union have laws that label GMO foods, as does Australia, Japan and even South Korea. The Canadian government has already voted down two separate labeling bills and therefore Canadians still don’t have the right to know what GMO food they are eating.
The USA started this technology and they have no labeling either. Strange that the two countries that are creating and promoting this ‘new food’ are so hush-hush about informing their own citizens.
North Americans have been eating genetically modified food for some time, mostly through processed foods. I am confident that most people would not have supported these changes to the national food supply had there been a vote. The political powers in charge have subsidized these radical changes without their citizen’s knowledge or consent.
Currently in Canada and in the USA, many farmers are growing genetically modified soy, canola, corn and white sugar beet (for making sugar). The USA also grows GMO cotton (used in many processed foods as cotton seed oil).
As consumers, we are concerned with the safety of what we feed our families. Buying organically grown food is a way to avoid being a guinea pig for this massive food experiment. As there is no labeling, I personally avoid processed corn products and derivatives, soy and canola derivatives and sugar (unless from cane sugar).
Corn syrup, corn chips, corn oil, soy infant formula, soy milk and canola oil are all examples of commonly consumed genetically modified food. Anything containing the ingredients corn, soy, canola, or sugar could be potentially modified.
Health Canada reports GMO crops are safe, but does not fund or conduct any health studies. Who says GMO food is safe? Like Canada, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) does not do any independent health tests. There are no human health studies, but independent animal studies show disturbing results, such as organ damage, pre-cancerous lesions, and problems with the liver and pancreas. Duke and Princeton University recently reported that HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) causes obesity and liver damage.
So who does the studies for human safety on the new GMO food? The companies that alter the seeds, patent the seeds, own and profit from the sale of the seeds (or animals), conduct their own testing which they refuse to show the public. Is that not like letting the fox guard the hen house?
Somehow, I think that this is not a good match for safety. "It’s safe," the industry answers. Didn’t we already hear that line from the tobacco industry? Remember pregnant women taking Thalidomide which was supposedly a safe drug according to the experts? Thalidomide was sold in a number of countries across the world from 1957 until 1961 when it was withdrawn from the market after being found to be a cause of birth defects in what has been called "one of the biggest medical tragedies of modern times".
"Trust us’ on GMO’s we are the experts,” says the food industry. Aren’t they the ones who thought that feeding dead cows to cows was okay, yet the brain wasting diseases like mad cow and Creutzfeldt-Jakob resulted?
Our natural (non GMO) farmers all over North America are being sued for using the GMO technology without a license after the wind blows corporately owned GMO seeds into their fields. Their crops then belong to the corporation. The natural farmers also lose their export markets when their crops are found to be contaminated with GMO’s. Can you stop the wind? No. The natural growers can’t either. Is this the end of organic food and regular non-GMO food?
Are we losing control of our food supply? The changes to the seeds through genetic modification are permanent and create a dependency on corporations like Monsanto that own most patents on gene-altered seeds. Currently, only a few food crops are genetically modified but the biotechnology corporations like Monsanto own over 14,000 patents.
Monsanto is the corporation that also introduced poisons and neurotoxins like Agent Orange, 2-4D, dioxin, PCB, DDT and the food additive Aspartame.
Where will it stop? If you haven’t seen the two documentaries ‘Food Inc’ and ‘The Future of Food', I urge you to do so.
'LIFE’ itself should not be a shiny new vehicle for profiteers to make money. Is nothing sacred? The food that has served mankind throughout the ages is good enough and gambling with the future of the global food supply via genetic modifications is an experiment which could go terribly wrong.
Say ‘NO to GMO!’
Written by: Heidi Osterman, CN
President of the True Food Foundation
true food foundation
E-mail: truefoodfoundation@shaw.ca
