Photo (cc) by Flickr user dbking

Recently, a judge dismissed hearing a case regarding organic agriculture versus Monsanto seeds. Disappointed by the fact that the court did not even want to hear the case, I decided to dig a little deeper. I wanted to learn why, and more importantly, to determine how to improve our food system’s long-term viability.

While doing my research I was reminded of quotes from three famous and honorable men in history. The first is President Thomas Jefferson. “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.”  We must educate ourselves about the food we are eating. It is imperative to understand how we produce and grow our food. Failing to do so leaves us vulnerable to food filled with capitalistic efficiencies rather than nutrition.

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Before I begin, I am not a lawyer, and I’m definitely not going to argue against any large biotech firm’s legal team on whether GMOs are safe. But, I am very interested in this issue and am trying to shed light on a great question.

Photo by crystaljingsr

The answer, however, is more difficult and involves asking more questions. Are GMO foods safe for people? For animals? In the short term? What about the long run? How do you trace an illness to a GMO? Could a disease take a long time to develop? (The last question is a great discussion in a smoke-free coffee shop).

Here is what Monsanto says on their website: “Yes, food derived from authorized genetically-modified (GM) crops is as safe as conventional (non-GM-derived) food. There has not been a single substantiated instance of illness or harm associated with GM crops.”¹

That’s great, but sometimes we state things we believe to be true only to find out later we were wrong.

Here is an article from Time Magazine from April 24, 1950.  “…DDT is practically harmless to humans who get it on their skins or breathe it into their lungs. The two officers examined military personnel and laborers who had been working with DDT for as much as five years. In no case did they find an ailment traceable to DDT.” ² (Please read the article.)

Let’s go back to Bt Corn. (What is Bt corn?) StarLink corn has a genetically modified gene that produces a protein that is toxic to insect pests. Therefore, this corn makes its own pesticide. StarLink received governmental approval for domestic animal feed and biofuels, but not for human consumption.³ The reason was because this toxin protein that killed insects was found to be an allergen to humans. Two years after its release, it was found in taco shells made by Taco Bell.  StarLink corn was discontinued.

Currently, there are no human trials being conducted by any large biotech firms. Here is what Monsanto says on their site: “It is impossible to design a long-term safety test in humans, which would require, for example, intake of large amounts of a particular GM product over a very large portion of the human life span.” I disagree — read my first post on GMO foods.

We don’t know the answer to this question because this technology has only been around a few decades. The building blocks of the human body are proteins. Proteins we have been ingested for centuries. Now, we are consuming new proteins that have only been tested in animals for less than one generation.

We will continue this conversation here on our blog and touch on many more issues surrounding GMO foods.

We encourage you to participate in our conversation. Do you think genetically modified food is safe? Do you think there should be a label that identifies GMO foods?

Tell us your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter, and as always, your comments are welcome below.

¹ http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/food-safety.aspx#q1

² http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812248,00.html

³ http://www.epa.gov/oppbppd1/biopesticides/pips/starlink_corn.htm#proposal

Photo by Diego Cantalapiedra

The biggest experiment in human history is occurring right in front of our eyes, and nearly everyone participating doesn’t even know it is happening.

Yes, we Americans are the guinea pigs for testing something called genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

What is a GMO? We will provide two definitions.

According to Monsanto, a biotech seed producer, GMOs are the result of the following process:

Biotechnology, or genetic engineering, is the process of inserting a gene from one species, like a plant or a bacterium, into another species. Typically the gene inserted will express an advantageous characteristic in the plant, such as the ability to tolerate environmental pressures, like insect resistance or drought tolerance.¹

According to The Non-GMO Project:

GMOs are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology. This relatively new science allows DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a laboratory, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.²

For centuries, humans have been manipulating the traits of plants and animals using crossbreeding techniques. But there are significant differences between crossbreeding and engineering GMOs.

Crossbreeding is the ‘crossing’ of closely related species to produce new desirable properties. Dogs are an example of this. Breeders take the trait of  a certain dog and cross it with another to get the desired results. For example, you take a bulldog and cross it with Shih Tzu and you get … (I couldn’t resist). The key point here is that crossbreeding can take place naturally.

GMOs are the result of injecting the gene from one species into another completely different species through scientific human intervention. It’s like taking a gene from a jelly fish that glows in the dark and putting it in a zebra fish. The GMO is a GloFish® (notice the trademark).³ This cannot occur naturally.

Photo by Cindy Seigle

GMOs are commonly used in food production. Let’s look at one in particular. Corn. I grew up in Princeton, Ill., which is surround by corn.  The next time you fly in a plane over the Midwest, look out the window, and you’ll see endless rows of corn. In 2000, the corn fields in Illinois contained 17 percent genetically modified corn.  In 2010, over 85 percent of all that corn was genetically modified.⁴ Wow! OK, but who eats that corn? We all do. From Los Angeles to New York City.

In 10 years, nearly all of our corn has changed from natural to genetically modified. And this is just one small part of this important topic. Why are we writing about GMOs? Because Americans are the test subjects, and I think it is prudent for us to learn about this experiment and its implications. Hence our series on GMOs.

Does your understanding of GMOs affect the way you shop for food? Leave a comment below and let us know.

¹ Monsanto

² The Non-GMO Project

³ GloFish®

⁴ USDA