It’s not clear how many of these projects are being done or are in the planning stages at this point. Their claims of the potential of GMOs are mostly made by big business with a lot at stake. Some GMO projects have been done. Others may be fantasy and hyperbole. Large corporations don’t wish to save to world, but to look pretty while making money.
One biggie in the GMO universe is the well-known Monsanto, which previously brought us PCBs and bovine growth hormone. Monsanto told us they were safe. They weren’t. GMOs are closely linked to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, making legislation to ban or merely label GMOs a more difficult proposition.
Genetic engineering of crops is about mutations, which have the potential to go awry. Subjective studies sponsored by the corporations themselves claim better crop yields, but the detractors say this isn’t true, citing the Union of Concerned Scientists’ 2009 report “Failure to Yield.” GMOs have been accused of causing organ damage and ills of the gastrointestinal and immune systems (from animal studies). Since they were introduced there has been a jump in diseases and an increase in food allergies, along with more autism and other disorders. Is there a connection?
The built-in pesticides of some crops are blamed for the colony collapse disorder that has been catastrophic for bees and all the things they pollinate. The herbicides used on GMO crops are said to eliminate the habitats of monarch butterflies and to be detrimental to the ecology of the seas, the air and the earth.
The big corporations are accused of suing small farmers for patent violation when their GMO seeds blow into non-GMO fields nearby (eleven farms per year for Monsanto, according to their website). Mass suicides in India were reported after farmers spent all their money to grow crops that had no yield at all (Monsanto addresses both issues on its website). Some worry that we are all guinea pigs treading unknown waters with irreversible effects whose scope we can’t yet know.
So what to do, what to do? The foods that contain GMOs constitute a highly mutable list. Many products labeled GMO-free are not. Steering as clear from processed foods as possible is a good bet, as is buying foods labeled as “organic” or “made with organic ingredients.” To be labeled as such means they cannot contain GMOs. Phone apps have guides, as do several websites. Some of the common places to find GMO foods are aspartame, corn and corn flour, soy and soy flour, canola, papaya, sugar beets, ascorbic acid, citric acid, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, maltodextrins, molasses, monosodium glutamate, textured vegetable protein (TVP) and xanthan gum.
Do you remember the Flavr Savr tomato of the mid-Nineties? That was our first GMO product, and it died out due to problems with its flavor and shipability. No tomatoes on the market are currently GMO.
A GMO potato called NewLeaf appeared briefly a little later. There was also a short-lived program called Enviropig, which failed as well.
Clearly it would be easier to avoid “frankenfoods” if they were labeled. While their manufacture and research is either banned or labeling mandatory in 64 countries, we have yet to be able to make it happen here. Change is afoot, though. We were able to reduce the use of bovine growth hormone, and we are getting vocal about GMOs.
Legislative bills are on the table here in New York and in many other states to require labeling. Vermont and Connecticut are very close to adoption, with bills passed recently, although some time will pass before enactment.
For more information look at gmofreeny.net, and you may wish to look at www.monsanto.com to get the other side of the story.
