It would be difficult to read through the news or flip through the documentary section on Netflix today without encountering the debate over genetically modified organisms, or GMO’s. It is even more difficult to find products on American supermarket shelves today that don’t contain genetically modified ingredients. Genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GM) foods have become very prevalent in our society, but are they actually good for you? What is a GMO? Are you consuming them without knowing it? Is it even possible to avoid them? These are all questions I hope to clarify for you in this article.
What are GMO’s?
Genetic modification is a relatively new concept to human history and involves transferring a desired gene from one organism to an unrelated organism [zotpressInText item=”{NUWWTM4C}”]. Biotechnology companies in the United States, the most powerful being Monsanto, have now engineered GM foods such as “Bt Corn”, which contains an insecticide gene from a caterpillar-killing bacterium. This and other similar engineering has been done for many stated reasons, such as producing more durable crops in order to increase food production domestically as well as in impoverished countries. However, when you look at the situation is those impoverished countries, it is clear that profit for the biotechnology companies is the primary factor driving their research and cutthroat business practices, and not the interest of the poor. In fact, it has been observed that impoverished countries typically cannot even afford to implement these new technologies [zotpressInText item=”{UNA8DCRE}”]. Initially, Monsanto claimed that GM foods were not harmful to humans, because we can choose what we eat and the new genes from these foods cannot assimilate into the human body once it is digested. Since the wide release of GM foods into the diet of many people, alarming studies have been done indicating otherwise.
In the GM food engineering process bacteria are used to amplify the desired gene and transfer it to the new species. There are also bacteria present in the human gut. It is now shown to be possible for the harmful, insecticide genes to insert themselves into our intestinal flora, creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can lead to un-treatable sickness, and insecticide-producing bacteria living inside our stomachs [zotpressInText item=”{UQ3XNQ32}”], [zotpressInText item=”{9JMQHZEK}”]. There are likely many other unknown effects of these new genes in our diet. Allergies to foods such as soy and peanuts are becoming quite prevalent and this is likely due to the DNA literally rearranging itself, after the initial transgene insertion, in ways that were not predicted before releasing these foods to the market [zotpressInText item=”{NUWWTM4C}”]. The engineers of these new foods do not know the side effects of what they are creating, since there are no long-term, in-depth studies done on the GM foods before they are released to the market. The ironic thing is that these GM foods grown with thousands of pounds of pesticides are now known as “conventional,” which means traditional or customary. I would consider these engineered foods far from traditional because as far as I know, the founders of this country and even our great grandparents did not assimilate carcinogenic and deadly pesticides and genes into the food they fed their children.
Have these foods been studied?
Numerous animal studies have been done showing shocking results. GM tomatoes that produce stomach bleeding in rats, GM soy that produces mis-shapen liver nuclei, GM corn that causes chickens to die twice as fast as chickens fed non-GM corn, and pigs and cows that died prematurely after being fed GM corn. These studies on cows and pigs were compared with the animals under the same conditions but fed non-GM corn instead, and they lived the expected lifespan [zotpressInText item=”{UNA8DCRE}”].
Several international studies have also recently shed some light on the issue. A study done by French researchers in 2009 found significant data suggesting the toxicity of GM corn fed to rats and compared it to studies carried out by Monsanto. Monsanto tested fewer variables, did not differentiate between male and female rats, and did not perform any long term trials on the rats fed GM corn. It also appears that they did not even attempt to determine if there would be side effects of eating GM food for an extended period of time. The French researchers, however, found negative effects especially on the kidney and liver, the organs responsible for detoxifying the body and therefore directly correlated to the animal’s diet [zotpressInText item=”{QFDTD99E}”].
One tactic used by Monsanto farmers is to use GMO seed that is modified to be unaffected by Roundup, a weed-killer widely used by consumers and industry alike. Roundup can then be sprayed liberally over entire fields all at once and it helps to kill everything except the GMO “Roundup-ready” crop, eliminating the need for large labor costs to carefully rid fields of weeds. Therefore, large amounts of this herbicide are consumed by animals and humans eating “Roundup-ready” crops regularly.
Some of the same researchers at the University of Caen in France as those involved in the 2009 study demonstrated in 2007 the toxicity of Roundup on human embryonic kidney cells [zotpressInText item=”{3HJT5UUR}”]. Roundup’s toxicity is due to its inhibition of a key component of the cycle that enables cells to make chemical energy from the food that enters the body. In case you’re dying to know, the molecule that Roundup inhibits is called succinate dehydrogenase, which I myself isolated from mouse liver cell mitochondria (the cell’s powerhouses) and tested in my cellular biology lab in college. It is a very well studied enzyme involved in two metabolic processes, the Citric Acid cycle and the electron transport chain, which are used to produce energy for the cell. I know from personal experience that it is a very crucial enzyme! The French study also found Roundup to alter the activity of the enzyme aromatase that plays a role in the body’s production of estrogen. These tests were done on cells taken from human placenta and equine testicles, and show that this herbicide, commonly found on GM crops today can have a direct impact on humans as well as animals. This reinforces other research that has been done to demonstrate that this and many other pesticides lead to the increasing infertility rates in our country [zotpressInText item=”{3HJT5UUR}”].
So, am I eating GM foods?
Unless you’re taking radical measures to not do so, you almost certainly are. As of 2012, the official USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported the following amounts of GM production of the following crops in the US, counting all biotech varieties (insect resistant, herbicide resistant, and stacked gene) [zotpressInText item=”{HPT9ZBA2}”]:
- Soybeans – 93%
- Corn – 88%
- Cotton – 94%
Processed and packaged food products are so likely to contain GMO’s, it’s no wonder the food industry recently spent millions of dollars convincing Californians not to vote the GMO labeling Proposition 37 into law last year. Think of all the products that would have to be labeled!
How can I avoid these foods?
- Buy non-GMO or USDA certified organic foods
- Especially avoid non-organic foods with ingredients derived from commonly genetically modified foods such as soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, soy protein, etc.
- Avoid non-organic dairy products
We will be revisiting this topic in a future article, when we explain the term “organic” and how it relates to GMO’s. In the meantime, check out the resources over at Organic Consumers Association if you’re looking for more detailed information to get you started on your journey in being a well-informed consumer.
Extra resources to check out:
http://geneticroulettemovie.com/
http://www.healingtalks.com/tag/prevalence-of-gmo-foods/
http://www.raw-wisdom.com/50harmful
