Are genetically modified foods creating an impact on the modern world?

This blog posting will be examining the pros and cons of genetically modified foods, and the
concerns that it is imposing upon the modern world.


     I hope to provide information on the pros and cons, and provide a clearer understanding of genetically modified foods, while bringing awareness of the information that every consumer should understand, so they can make wiser choices about their health, and possible changes for their future.  Weighing the pros and cons of genetically modified foods should be a concern so people can have a clearer understanding of what we are imposing through the use of Genetically Modified Foods around the world.

      GM Food and feed have been linked to death and sickness.   According to Jeffery M. Smith (July 2009) investigations were conducted in Haryana, India and the results found the buffalos that ate GM cottonseed had problems such as early deliveries, abortions, sterile, and prolapse of the uteruses.  There were a large number of calves that died.  In the United States, many farmers reported that thousands of pigs were becoming sterile because of the GM corn they were ingesting.  Other pigs gave birth to only empty bags of water.  Cows and bulls have also become sterile when they were fed the exact same corn.

      According to Renata Brillinger (September 2006) There was serious concern in 1989
during an outbreak of a new disease contracted by over 5000 people that was traced back
to a batch of L-tryptophan food supplement produced with GM bacteria.  Even though it
contained 0.1 per cent of toxic compound, 37 people died, and 1,500 were left permantly
disabled.  The American Center of Disease Control stopped counting after 1991.  We have no way to explain when the there are no food labels that identify GMO’s.  It proposes the thoughts that we are no longer in control of the very food we eat for our survival.  We can’t detect whether we are ingesting GMO’s verses organic.

Smith, further concluded that studies were applied to humans and some of the participants had Roundup Ready gut bacteria.  There was only one study that was  published on GMO’s.  Scientists found bacteria growing in a waste dump area and the organism had a special gene that was able to thrive and not die.  The scientists came to the conclusion that it would be added to the food supply.  It was given the name Round Up Ready.  There were humans that ate the GM soybeans and the DNA was transferred into their intestinal tracts and the bacteria continued to function.  There is a concern that if you continue to manufacture Bt-toxins that is could turn the intestinal tract into a pesticide factory.  Canada is conducting studies on this subject and are showing results but there is nothing that has been published so far on this study to my acknowledgment, as they are still carrying out the study to date.  I would be interesting to see the reports and the impact it could have on Genetically Modified Foods.

     According to Smith (2009) If the living pesticide factory is conclusive we have to
question the thought of GMO’s.  If they are able to bust the intestinal tract of insects and
destroy them, further questions are considered as to whether the corporations that
manufacture GMO’s have ignored the peer reviewed published evidence proving that Bt
toxins bind with mice and monkeys in the intestinal tract.  They have denied the claim of
being harmful to mammals, even though the tests are proving something far different. 

      In the conclusion of (Smith’s) studies and statements, he further addressed that if the Bt toxins were spreading the bacteria inside the digestive tract of North Americans, we will see the increase of gastro intestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and possible child hood learning disorders.  Smith stated since 1996, when Bt crops were introduced into the market that Physicians have stated they are seeing increases in these dilemmas.  We need more scientific research on the safety of GMO’s and the Bt toxins in particular.

     According to Jaan Suurkula (May 1998) There is also clear concern of the hazard of
viruses from GMO’s.  The most widely common virus that is used in Genetic engineering is
the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus.   Research and studies has confirmed the risks of combination
with unrelated viruses is now greater than previously understood.  The research has proven 
that CAMV has a hotspot recombination, which makes it susceptible to break up DNA chains
and join them together.  Angela Ryan a modular biologist and molecular biologist and also
Joseph Cummins, geneticist, have published a paper warning for the use of CAMV in crops.
This gene virus can reactivate dormant viruses, or create new ones in all species that it is
transferred to.  Cancer is also a potential consequence.  (Suurkula), further concluded that
practically all genetically engineered crops contain genetic material from viruses created in
this way may be more infectious, and may cause a greater number of alarming diseases,
and may have the tendency to cross species borders.

 Around the world, there are many concerns not only for our health, but also the insects that needs to thrive for our survival as well.  According to Andrew Barron (Jul/August 2011), he brings the question about what may be killing the bees.  They to are affected new forms of pesticides, genetically modified crops (GMO’S) expressing toxins, parasitic mites, fungal diseases, intensive agriculture.   To a greater and lesser degree, all of these things are pushing the onset to the decline of the honey bee. Barron also stated:  “Pesticide exposure or insufficient diets from floral monocultures may weaken bees’ immune systems.  As the global trade in bee stocks has spread major bee pest and disease are almost everywhere in the world, it is extremely hard for immune-compromised bees to survive”.  We have also seen a huge concerning decline in the monarch butterflies that may be dying off because of genetically modified foods according to Deborah B. Whitman (April 2000)

      Genes are now being patented ruling against the natural laws of nature.  Because of the
patent laws, many farmers are being sued by major corporations that have patented these
seeds.  There is nothing to stop the wind from blowing the crop onto their properties ,and
then the larger corporations suing them and seizing their crops along with huge fines.  It
has destroyed the farming the way we once knew it before.  In an article found on the web
site  www.banGMfood.org  10 Reasons why we don’t need GM foods there was some
interesting information about the patent on the seeds.  There is evidence that these GM
companies cannot be trusted.  They have a history of toxic contamination and also the
deception of the public.  The patents of the larger corporations monopolizes the world food
supply.  They have harassed farmers and intimidated them for the crime of patented seed
or stealing patented genes, even if those genes got into the farmers’ fields through
accidental contamination or insects.

      According to an article written by E. Ann Clark Ph.D (Fall 2001)  Percy Schemeiser was a
farmer that was sued by Monsanto for growing canola that had been contaminated with the
Round up Ready gene.  He was found guilty for having Monasanto genetics on his land.  He
wasn’t found guilty of brownbagging or obtaining the seed fraudulently.  All of those
allegations were dropped due to lack of evidence.  The farmer was in his 70’s and practically
destroyed his family financially all because some of this seed fell or blew onto his land and
grew there.  This is a sad account of what many farmers have had to face today.  As Clark
concluded, “GM technology will necessarily make food more expensive-and particularly-but
not solely-for those who have chosen not to grow GM crops”.

      There are many objections and also controversies over the importance of GMO’s and I have researched both pros and cons.   According to Deborah Whitman (April 2000) “the world population growth is over 6 billion and is predicted to double in the next 50 years.  Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come”.

     ( Witman) concluded that, GMO’S are pest resistant because they are a pesticide.  Crop losses from insect pests can result in total financial loss for farmers and starvation in developing countries.  GMO’s are herbicidal tolerant.  For many crops it can be a very expensive process to destroy weeds and time consuming and the herbicide doesn’t harm the crop.  Monsanto created an herbicide product Roundup.  Farmers can grow soybeans and it only requires one application of weed killer instead of repeated herbicides.  There are many viruses that cause diseases of plants and plant biologists are working to create plants with resistance to these diseases.  These GMO’s are also cold resistant.  They implanted an anti freeze gene into plants like tobacco and potatoes.  With these genes the plants can tolerate colder conditions.  The GMO’s are more tolerate to drought conditions as well.  We also have countries that are malnourished.  They were creating GMO’s to have more nutrients than the commodities of other countries where they had no access to nutrients apart from there market of trade. There are disadvantages that I have found in the conclusions of my research that far out weigh the advantages.  We do not understand the magnitude of the GMO’s or what we will be seeing down the road.  Through all of the discoveries and knowledge collected, it is very plain that until more scientific research and testing occurs with these GMO crops, it has occurred to me that the public is very much like a ginny pig and not really having a choice over what they select in their diet.  I believe it will take a great deal of awareness and education in the public stream before changes will come over these problems. 

     GMO’s are affecting our world in every way, with the insects that we need for the environment and also the healthy state of our bodies and being able to have the freedom to choose what you are eating from the grocery markets.  Labels should be stated to the GMO products and that gives the consumer the option to choose what they decide to put into their bodies.  Without the labeling it could take years to be able to track or know for certain the outcome that we will all be facing.   I truly believe nature was a gift unto us and to enjoy the organic things from the earth and I feel we may be crossing boundaries that our children’s children will have to pay and endure.  I hope maybe something can be done before we no longer understand the nature of anything organic or created by the hands of God.

REFERENCES:

Barron, A. (July, 2011) Death in the Hive. Australasian Science Vol. 32, I-6 p. 4

Bergeron, B.; Chan, P. (2004) Biotech Industry: A Global Economic and Financing Overview   

     p.104, 239

Clark, A.E. (May, 2011) The Implications of the Percy Schmeiser Decision.

Crane, J. (June, 2011) World in Motion: The Globalization of the Environment Reader-

     Journal of World History, Vol.22, I-2, pgs 426-429

Schubert, D. (July, 2002) The Risks of GM Food.

                                                                                                                       
Smith, J.M., Seeds of Deception-www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Home/index.cfm

Smith, J.M., Everything you have to know about dangerous genetically modified foods.

     Spilling the Beans Newsletter

Suurkula, J. MD The Virus Hazard http://www.saynotogmos.com/virus_hazard.htm

(Genetically modified food and health- a cause for concern? Irish Doctors Environmental

     Association ( IDEA)

http://www.ideaireland.org/gmfoodshealth.htm

Whitman, D. (April 2000) CSA Discovery Guides; Genetically Modified foods: Harmful or

     helpful? Pages 1-12

Are you being your child's parent or best buddy?

Teenagers are difficult no doubt.  They are going through one of the most critical periods of there lives.  They aren't little children, nor can they have a clear judgement about there lives and there decisions always.    I have learned many things about the feelings of wanting to have what you think you want.  Sometimes for an adolescent this is not always sound judgement.  When I was 13 life at home was very dis functional and I wanted to always be somewhere else.  My friends were an escape and they had a great influence on many things that I did.  Because of the confusion at home very often I would ask to go somewhere and more times than not It was agreeable.  In other words, because of the confusion at home, thoughts weren't focused on what I was doing when I left home.  Not to say that my parents didn't love me, but very often when we are dealing with our own problems at home we loose focus, because of the stress in our own lives.

Should we be our children's best friends?  I think not.  Many kids today are watching everything we do.  Whether we are smoking, drinking or not dealing with our problems.  They know every detail.  We model so many things in there lives.  Children project what they learn into there own lives.  I remember wanting to be away from home because of alcoholism or fighting many times at home.  I wanted to be any place but home.  I babysit my brothers and sisters and sometimes even felt as though they were my own kids.  I was the oldest out of 7  and had a great deal of responsibility because so often there was so much dysfunction going on there was a great deal of distractions of what we were doing at kids.  We could wonder off for miles and there was never a problem with that because we could do what we wanted and as long as we were home before bedtime It was all good.

At 13 I left to go and live with my Dad and he was going through a divorce at the time and resowing some of his oats and was very liberal in what he would allow me to do.  I of course had been sneaking around for a year before with cigarettes and I was caught smoking.  I was amazed at how this seemed like it was really know big deal to him.  He started buying me cigarettes and I felt very uncomfortable about it, but I pursued this because I was very young and didn't have a clue about judgements and how they could damage my life.  It didn't seem to worry my parents at the time.  Through this process, drinking was added and also I was allowed to drink.  This was a critical time and it was so easy to do rebellious things or daring things because it was easily available.  I moved in with my dad at the time because of the fighting at home which seemed unbearable at times.  I was however not allowed to smoke or drink at home, it was a lack of supervision and not a great deal of focus on me because my mother was greatly distracted by her own problems.

I stayed with my dad and I thought he was the greatest at this time because he would let me do these things.  I thought this was loving by allowing me to have my way.  I can remember being dropped off at the corner hang out by my Father and he never questioned me or worried that my life could be in danger.  I wasn't mature enough at the time to care because teenagers just wish to have there way and can't discern these things for themselves.  Distant from my mother for several years I moved to Virginia with my Father without consent from my mother.  My mom later discovered I was out of state and she went into a mode of panic.  At this time I felt a huge emptiness and there was no God to direct my paths or nurturing from these harmful things that were happening.

My mother was insist ant that I come home.  She sent for me a plane ticket and I flew back to my mother when I was 15 years old.  I will never forget the feeling of seeing her run to me as I got off the plane.  She grabbed me up and hugged me tighter than I ever remembered before.  It was one of the best feelings that I can remember between us.  I felt she truly cared.  She had found out about the marijuana and was very concerned that I had became addicted on drugs.  That was not the case but I had certainly lost a great deal of innocence of what I had become with open doors that allowed me to walk through them with little resistance.

     At 16 barely shy of 17 I became an unwed mother.  I had one boy friend and that was one from high school.  Again I was allowed to date at an early age and very little restrictions placed upon me besides a 12 o'clock curfew.  I was following suit in some of the other girls around me that had steady boyfriends.  I was totally and literally as lost as a goose.  My oldest daughter Erica descended into the world and an entire new experience came about.  Even in the midst of hardship and being a young mother I knew I would do all I could to protect her.  Thinking in the mind of a 17 year old.  Still very immature but the best of intentions.

My point to this all is when my daughter came into her preteens, I knew I didn't want to be her best friend.  I wanted to do what was best and protect her from the drug culture and would not allow her to drink in my presence and would teach her things about God that I had learned over the years.  She went through her trials as well and rebellions.  She to ran to places maybe she could be further acquainted with getting her way.  It may have seemed like I was a prude, but did not want these things to happen to her life.  My daughter is 29 now and she has children too.  She told me recently in a conversation along with another teenage girl going through some problems her self.  Your mother can't be your best friend growing up.  I never knew why my mom wouldn't allow me to do certain things in my teenage years and you never really appreciate that type of care until you see the eyes of your own child.  It is not important to be your child's best friend or to allow your vices to fall upon them.

There is a scripture that always brings me back to a sobering thought.  Train up a child and when he is old he will not depart from it.  Reading this if you look closely it says when he is old.  God knows the young have rebellious hearts.  These are the reasons he blessed children with parents to guide and steer them in the right directions.  We didn't always go to Church but I did attempt to teach them the rules of walking a line of correction and consequences to bad decisions and cared enough to discipline and correct them when they made poor decisions.  So many parents are dealing with these issues today, and we do not do our children justice when we put them in vulnerable positions and they watch our every moves and how we live our lives.  They still look to us when they are grown and examine our true selves to what we teach to them.  If it is hypocritical, when they see you doing these same things, they will bring it to your remembrance.  Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is older he will not depart from it.  Your teenager is not going to understand your rules but they definitely understand whether you are allowing them to be put in dangerous situations.  They will reflect back and one day question why you allowed them to go through those doors.

We must never give them all of there desires.  They are learning and want to have there way about it all.  They can not discern having safe judgements without our guidance or concern.  Your kids may not like you for it but they will love and appreciate you much in every way in the end.  Care enough to tell them no.  Care enough to check on them.  Don not let them wonder off in a place that is very unknowing and unsafe for them.  Communicate but do not compromise there lives for the sake of pleasing them apart from your better judgement.  God bless, a lesson well learned from experience.