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TOPIC:
"Do You Know What GMO Is?"
Do You Know What GMO Is?
You’ve likely seen this term popping up on food labels in the last while, but there’s no need to feel embarrassed if you don’t know what it means, because apparently 78.4 per cent of respondents in a marketing poll said they didn't know what GMO stood for despite increased media coverage of the topic in the last few years.
This same survey found that only 12.8 per cent of respondents knew its meaning. What is its meaning?
GMO stands for “genetically modified organisms”.
Perhaps you’re more familiar with the term “genetic engineering” in the sense of cloned sheep, etc. However, the term “genetically modified organisms” is an agricultural term which involves splicing a gene from one organism into another plant or animal to give it certain desirable characteristics such as improved resistance to insects or droughts.
The reason the term GMO is becoming more prevalent on food labels is because of pressure put upon grocery chain stores to label any food source that has been genetically modified. This is because you and I are going to be eating this food and as the consumer have the right to know what’s in the food or how it’s been processed or altered so that we can make an informed decision about whether or not we choose to eat a genetically modified food.
So far there’s no good system for dealing with the labeling of GMO’s simply because the science of genetically
modifying organisms is incredibly complex. Because of this, developing a system of
labeling that the average, non-scientific public can comprehend is a challenging prospect that has yet
to be addressed.
Until someone comes up with a viable labeling solution for GMO’s, the best we can do as an informed consumer is insist that at the very least the acronym “GMO free” or “no GMO’s”, or “contains GMO’s” etc. becomes part of the
labeling process because you and I have the right to know what’s in, or been done to, our food.
Look for the 8's: There is one thing I know you can check
with respect to GMO labeling when you're next at the grocery store
- fruit stickers. No doubt you've noticed those annoying little
stickers on almost all fruit that you have to remember to
diligently peel off before you chop them into your fruit salad.
Those stickers contain bar codes for the check-out person, but
more importantly, they also contain a secret that the store might
not want you to know.
Nutritionist, Karma Metzgar, of the University of Missouri writes
that these tiny stickers also tell you if the fruit is organically
grown or genetically modified. On conventionally grown,
non-organic fruit, the sticker has only 4 numbers. Organically
grown fruit will have five numbers, beginning with the number 9.
However, if the fruit is genetically modified, it will have a five
number code on the sticker, beginning with the number 8.
For instance, a regular banana would have a sticker that reads
4011, an organic banana would have a sticker reading 94011 and a
genetically modified banana would have a sticker that reads 84011.
So watch for the 8's and if you'd prefer your banana the way
Mother Nature intended it to be, avoid any fruits or vegetables
with 5-digit codes beginning with the number 8.
As of yet, the store where you shop isn't required to tell you
which fruits and vegetables are genetically modified, so check
those little labels yourself.
Is genetically modified food dangerous? Is this genetic pollution of our food source? You decide.
One of the keys to good health is good, unpolluted food. Although
it’s still possible to purchase real, unaltered, organic food in this
country, with the increasingly high incidence of genetically modified organisms hidden in our food sources, the future doesn’t appear to provide that option.
For instance, did you know that genetically modified foods didn’t exist prior to 1995? That just a short 8 years ago. Now research shows that 90% of the money spent on food in North America is spent on processed foods and 70% of processed foods have genetically modified organisms in them.
What’s even more shocking is that no studies have been carried out on humans with respect to what happens when you consume genetically modified foods. It’s obvious just how much the FDA really cares about the health of the population when they simply
assume that genetically modified foods are equivalent to the original food and therefore never required any studies to have them approved.
Any semi-intelligent human might think the simple fact that the technology which permits us to genetically create food sources that would never exist in nature and that have never existed at any time before in the history of the world would warrant a little research before secretly unleashing them upon the unsuspecting
world!
The mere fact that these foods cannot exist naturally in our world is certainly a big enough red flag for me. Most every time humans mess with nature, the outcome is inevitably disastrous somewhere down the road.
Many scientists are now warning that GMO’s could pose a threat to human health and the environment because our understanding of what will happen when we alter the DNA is incomplete and so may have unintended and unexpected effects on the cellular processes of the altered organism.
Apparently the imprecise techniques used for inserting DNA into the altered organism prevents scientists from knowing which of the altered organism’s regulatory functions might be affected.
Anyone care to take a guess at what will happen to OUR regulatory
functions when we eat this genetically modified food?
What first comes to mind would be increased allergic reactions, higher toxicity levels or altered nutritional values. Genetically modified organisms may also exhibit mutations or errors that can occur in the sequence or reading of the DNA when it’s spliced into an organism where it was never intended to exist.
Altering regulatory functions of an organism may create totally new components which your body would consider as an invading force. Altering the function of an organism may also alter or mutate levels of previously healthy components.
All these risks are compounded when a GMO product is released into an uncontrolled environment, such as the complex biological structure of the human body or a natural ecosystem. The mere nature of genetic modification of even the simplest organism is so complex that it’s impossible for scientists to predict the long-term implications of releasing them into our already complex world.
In one experiment, scientists thought they had created an improved soil bacteria, but once in the ground, the new bacteria produced unexpected and negative results, causing the death of beneficial fungi. Many more experiments have resulted in many more harmful outcomes.
Before genetic engineering, for thousands of years, humans have taken advantage of naturally occurring genetic variation within species to selectively breed organisms with desirable traits through selective breeding. However, because breeding can only take place between individuals of the same or closely related species, these breeding programs are limited in the genetic combinations they can make and the results they can achieve.
What’s so different (and therefore potentially dangerous) about genetic engineering
or modification is that it involves the transfer of genetic material between organisms that would never be able to breed in any natural or laboratory setting. This means that vast evolutionary boundaries can now be crossed, such as those separating the plant from the animal kingdom.
Human beings now have the ability to mix the genetic composition of organisms that have been on separate, distinct evolutionary paths for thousands or millions of years.
For example, we have placed genetic information from humans into mice, and scorpion genes into corn and fish genes into tomatoes, etc.
The question remains, just because we now have the ability to mix up any number of new genetic cocktails, should we?
An old saying comes to mind: “You should never fool with Mother Nature”.
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