Thanks Todd - A lot of people don’t realize which foods are commonly GMOs or understand the complications of the GMO DNA once it’s inside the human body.
The
Food Democracy Now! website has an abundance of enlightening information [
www.fooddemocracynow.org]
Here’s one:
Tell the USDA to Keep Agent Orange GMOs Off Your Plate!
The first generation of biotech crops has failed. And failed badly. Now the biotech industry is stepping up the chemical arms race in an effort to make up for the failure of Monsanto’s Roundup. Excessive use of Roundup by GMO farmers has led million of acres of U.S. farmland filled with Roundup resistant superweeds.
To combat this, Dow Chemical is petitioning the USDA to approve a new GMO "Agent Orange" corn and soy to tolerate 2,4-D, a main chemical component of the Vietnam era defoliant linked to birth defects, cancer, and hormone disruption. On top of these horrific health problems, 2,4-D is widely known among farmers to be difficult to control during application, leading to drift onto neighboring farms, causing major crop damage and contaminating waterways.
These facts have greatly alarmed scientists and farmers alike, leading a former top Reagan USDA official to declare 2,4-D one of “the most dangerous chemicals out there.”
Tell the USDA to Dump Dow’s Dangerous Agent Orange GMOs! [
action.fooddemocracynow.org]
Dr. Mercola’s writers have collected a large amount of data on this topic at his website….and there are many, many more,,,go to [
gmo.mercola.com] for the directory of reports.
This clip is from
Institute for Responsible Technology:
GM plants, such as soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola, have had foreign genes forced into their DNA. The inserted genes come from species, such as bacteria and viruses, which have never been in the human food supply.
Genetic engineering transfers genes across natural species barriers. It uses imprecise laboratory techniques that bear no resemblance to natural breeding, and is based on outdated concepts of how genes and cells work.[4] Gene insertion is done either by shooting genes from a "gene gun" into a plate of cells or by using bacteria to invade the cell with foreign DNA. The altered cell is then cloned into a plant.
Widespread, unpredictable changes
The genetic engineering process creates massive collateral damage, causing mutations in hundreds or thousands of locations throughout the plant's DNA.[5] Natural genes can be deleted or permanently turned on or off, and hundreds may change their behavior.[6] Even the inserted gene can be damaged or rearranged,[7] and may create proteins that can trigger allergies or promote disease.
GM foods on the market
There are eight GM food crops. The five major varieties—soy, corn, canola, cotton, and sugar beets—have bacterial genes inserted, which allow the plants to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer. Farmers use considerably more herbicides on these GM crops and so the food has higher herbicide residues. About 68% of GM crops are herbicide tolerant.
The second GM trait is a built-in pesticide, found in GM corn and cotton. A gene from the soil bacterium called Bt (for Bacillus thuringiensis) is inserted into the plant's DNA, where it secretes the insect-killing Bt-toxin in every cell. About 19% of GM crops produce their own pesticide. Another 13% produce a pesticide and are herbicide tolerant.
There is also Hawaiian papaya and a small amount of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, which are engineered to resist a plant virus.
Growing evidence of harm from GMOs
GM soy and allergic reactions
• Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, soon after GM soy was introduced.[8]
• A skin prick allergy test shows that some people react to GM soy, but not to wild natural soy.[9]
• Cooked GM soy contains as much as 7-times the amount of a known soy allergen.[10]
• GM soy also contains a new unexpected allergen, not found in wild natural soy.[11]
Bt corn and cotton linked to allergies
The biotech industry claims that Bt-toxin is harmless to humans and mammals because the natural bacteria version has been used as a spray by farmers for years. In reality, hundreds of people exposed to Bt spray had allergic-type symptoms,[12] and mice fed Bt had powerful immune responses[13] and damaged intestines.[14] Moreover, the Bt in GM crops is designed to be more toxic than the natural spray and is thousands of times more concentrated.
Farm workers throughout India are getting the same allergic reactions from handling Bt cotton[15] as those who reacted to Bt spray.[16] Mice[17] and rats[18] fed Bt corn also showed immune responses.
GMOs fail allergy tests
No tests can guarantee that a GMO will not cause allergies. Although the World Health Organization recommends a screening protocol,[19] the GM soy, corn, and papaya in our food supply fail those tests—because their GM proteins have properties of known allergens.[20]
GMOs may make you allergic to non-GM foods
• GM soy drastically reduces digestive enzymes in mice.[21] If it also impairs your digestion, you may become sensitive and allergic to a variety of foods.
• Mice fed Bt-toxin started having immune reactions to formerly harmless foods.[22]
• Mice fed experimental GM peas also started reacting to a range of other foods.[23] (The peas had already passed all the allergy tests normally done before a GMO gets on the market.
Only this advanced test, which is never used on the GMOs we eat, revealed that the peas could actually be deadly.)
Continue: [
www.responsibletechnology.org]
Tell Coca-Cola: Stop fighting GMO-labeling efforts [
www.credomobilize.com]
GMO Critiques May Miss Another Danger Is a popular pesticide used with some GM crops a bigger problem than GM crops themselves?
6/3/2013By Craig Weatherby
[
www.vitalchoice.com]
GM Foods Linked To Alzheimer's Disease
Dear Reader,
While some may argue that genetically modified (GM) foods do no harm and protect the environment, the truth is far from the rosy picture Monsanto — the largest US manufacturer of GM foods and pesticides — is trying to make us believe.
The truth is, GM foods pose a real danger to your health. A case in point is a new study showing that you could be increasing your Alzheimer's risk with every single bite you take from GM foods.
The last Roundup
Nearly all GM crops are GM for one reason. They're genetically modified so they can be drenched with Roundup weed killer — coincidentally also manufactured by Monsanto.
The problem is that the weed-killing chemical in Roundup (glyphosate) saturates the crops. When humans consume those crops — either as plants or as ingredients in processed foods — our bodies absorb glyphosate.
That means that if you eat processed foods that include soy, sugar, corn or wheat you're eating glyphosate.
You could say that most people are on a glyphosate diet, but they never know it.
Now, there are all kinds of ways glyphosate could be doing us harm. But there are two ways that researchers warn us this poison could increase our risk of Alzheimer's...
1) Glyphosate inhibits an enzyme the body uses to get rid of toxins. This pumps up inflammation that damages cellular systems in your brain.
2) Glyphosate binds minerals, which impedes the absorption of zinc. Zinc deficiency is one of the key markers for Alzheimer's.
You can start reducing the risk of Alzheimer's by kicking GM foods out of your diet. It seems impossible but an easy first step is to avoid processed foods that contain the four key ingredients I mentioned above: soy, sugar, corn and wheat — and aren't labeled "certified non-GMO."
Source: Daily Health eAlert
Jackie
