Genetically modified grains everywhere destroying the worlds crops
this is from the internet, educate yourselves on GM foods.
If we follow Srila Prabhupada and avoid processed foods and eat non
GMO grains and foodstuffs we will
be helping futures generations. Be actively involved in the future,
while chanting also do something
to make this planet a better place for our kids,
NJ JaegerNJ Jaeger is a veteran editor and writer for social issues,
green initiatives and food policy sites. She has contributed to dozens
of feature stories, and covered other beats including Olympic sports,
beauty and business.Posted on 10:33 am September 17, 2011
How Are Genetically Engineered Crops Affecting Foods?
Rose Aguilar, Your Call | Audio Interview
If you shop in major grocery stores, chances are you’re eating
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) with your breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. An estimated 70 percent of processed foods, including soup and
corn chips, contain genetically engineered ingredients, and over 90
percent of the world’s GMOs are owned by the biotech goliath Monsanto.
Listen to the Your Call show that explores the question: How are
genetically engineered crops affecting foods?
According to the Center for Food Safety, “a number of studies over the
past decade have revealed that genetically engineered foods can pose
serious risks to humans, domesticated animals, wildlife and the
environment. Human health effects can include higher risks of
toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and
cancer. The use of genetic engineering in agriculture will lead to
uncontrolled biological pollution, threatening numerous microbial,
plant and animal species with extinction, and the potential
contamination of all non-genetically engineered life forms with novel
and possibly hazardous genetic material.”
Thirty countries around the world, including Peru and Hungary, have
either banned or have plans to ban GMOs. Here in the United States,
you’re on your own. GMOs aren’t even regulated.
Monsanto has all of its bases covered in the US. Michael Taylor, a
former lawyer whose clients included Monsanto, worked as a policy
commissioner for the FDA from 1991 to 1994. While there, oversaw the
development of government policy. He then served as Monsanto’s vice
president for public policy from 1998 to 2001. In 2009, under the
Obama administration, he returned to his old job, becoming senior
advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. Over the past few decades,
several executives have moved back and forth between Monsanto and the
government, highlighting the ongoing problem with revolving door.
How did we get here?
In the must-see documentary, The World According to Monsanto, former
vice-president George HW Bush is shown touring the company’s
headquarters on May 15, 1987. During a conversation with Monsanto
executives about a request before the USDA to test genetically
engineered soybeans, he said, “Call me, we’re in the dereg business.”
Deregulation or no regulation at all continued through several
administrations.
In 1996, the Clinton administration approved genetically engineered
soybeans, the country’s first ever bioengineered crop to hit the
market. Since then, genetically engineered crops have spread far and
wide, now covering over 250 million acres of land in North and South
America.
The biotech industry and its proponents said genetically engineered
plants offer increased crop yields, enhanced nutrition, and protection
from infestations of pests and weeds.
Scientists and government officials who’ve disagreed with these claims
by raising questions and concerns have been silenced and even fired.
In the film, Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture under the Clinton
administration from 1995 – 2000, said when he was involved in the
regulation of biotechnology in the early years, there was a feeling
inside that government that if you weren’t marching lockstep forward
in favor of rapid approvals of GMO crops, you were anti-science.
“I had a lot of pressure on me not to push the issue too far. Even
when I opened my mouth in the Clinton administration, I got slapped
around a little bit by not only the industry, but also some of the
people in the administration,” he said. “I made a speech once saying
we needed to more thoughtfully think through the regulatory issues on
GMOs and I had some people within the Clinton administration,
particularly in the US trade area, that were very upset with me. They
said, how can you in agriculture be questioning our regulatory
regime?”
James Maryanski, Biotechnology Coordinator for the Food and Drug
Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition from
1985 – 2006, admitted in the film that regulation is based on
politics, not science.
In public, FDA officials used to say there’s a profound difference
between GMOs and non-GMOs, but FDA documents show the agency ignored
alarming safety warnings from their own scientists. In 1994, attorney
Steve Druker sued the FDA forcing the agency to declassify its
internal files on GMOs.
“We received over 44,000 pages from the FDA’s own files and they
revealed that the FDA has been lying to the world since 1992 if not
before,” he said in the film. “But they continue to lie. They are
still lying. They claim that there’s an overwhelming consensus in the
scientific community that genetically engineered foods are as safe as
their conventionally produced counterparts. They claim that there has
been sufficient data to back up this consensus. Both of those claims
are blatant lies.”
So where does this leave citizens? What does this mean for the future
of food? How are GMOs affecting our health, agriculture, and the
environment? In Europe, these questions are regularly explored in the
media. That’s not the case in the US.
This weekend in San Francisco, the California Biosafety Alliance is
hosting ‘Justice Begins with Seeds,’ a conference focusing on the
future of food and farming and how genetic engineering is affecting
farmers’ livelihoods and the global food supply.
Your Call invited Monsanto, the USDA, and several university
professors who advocate for the use of GMOs, to join our show, but
they all declined our interviews.
Guests:
Eric Holt-Gimenez, executive director of Food First and author of Food
Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice
Ignacio Chapela, associate professor of microbial ecology at UC
Berkeley
Mike Ludwig, Truthout reporter who covers the biotech industry
Jim Gerritsen, organic seed farmer in northern Maine and one of the
plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Monsanto.
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