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We Have All Been Eating GMOs Without Realising!

Posted on 21st June 2015

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This story on Fox New is very worrying.

Similarly to the situation with cheese (described here), it seems that we have all been eating Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) without even knowing it. Yet again, big business and our governments have done this without drawing attention to it, so that no public discussion has taken place, and consumers cannot make informed choices. Unsurprisingly, "People are outraged when they find out they are eating experimental products without their consent".

The figures are quite shocking: today, in the USA, the corn (maize) crop is 88% GM, soy is 94% GM, canola is 90% GM, cotton-seed is 90% GM and sugar beet is 95% GM. Don't kid yourself that living in Europe protects you, as US food products and ingredients (e.g. corn-flour) are widely exported.

Thorough testing of GMOs has not been done: according to Martha Grout, M.D., President-Elect of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, "We have not fed a group of humans GMO foods for their whole lives, and another group non-GMO foods for their whole lives, with sufficient numbers to determine statistically whether the two groups are different in their health status or development of illness".

What is especially worrying is that food safety testing is not even designed with the special risks of GMOs in mind. When a new strain of GMO is developed, not only does it need to be tested for safety, it also needs to be regularly retested to ensure that no mutations have occurred. Also, because a common technique for genetically modifying organisms uses plasmids. which are relatively easily passed between organisms even of different species (they can be carried from one species of plant or animal to another by bacteria), each new GMO should be tested to confirm that this will not happen "in the wild". This web-page discusses GMO testing, and concludes that GM food safety testing is currently “woefully inadequate”.

Given that the western world is suffering from so many health issues (increasing incidence of allergies, diabetes, heart and circulatory problems, various kinds of cancer etc.), maybe it is time to take a more serious look at GMO products for possible causes of these ailments; maybe they are not all 100% due to lifestyle and diet.