BLOG: The debate rages on over GMOs

No one disputes this fact: It takes tons of herbicides – hundreds of thousands of tons per year – to grow the genetically modified organism crops that end up in the world’s food supply, including in the food fed to the animals we eat. And all that poison doesn’t just go away. It ends up on our food, in our soil, in our water.

The “poster child” for this process is Monsanto. Monsanto’s recklessness is poisoning of our food and our planet. Genetically modified organism (GMO) crops should be exposed for what they are: an excuse for Monsanto to sell billions of dollars’ worth of poisons. While I’m sure that they have the best interests of our food supply at heart, it just doesn’t look that way.

Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is the most heavily used herbicide on GMO crops. In 2007, the last year for which we have reliable statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. farmers used 180 million to 185 million pounds of glyphosate. Allowing for no increases, that amounts to about 1.1 billion pounds of glyphosate dumped onto our food and into our soil and water in the past 6 years alone.

And that’s just in the U.S.

According to new, reliable studies, glyphosate is causing chronic, long-term health problems for all of us, but especially for our kids (think autism?) (Samsel et al.). In the words of Samsel and colleagues, the negative impact of glyphosate residues found in the Western diet “. . . is insidious and manifests slowly over time, as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.” Next time you buy a packaged product at the store, look at the list of “allergy” warnings; the list continues to grow.

Here are two more alarming facts. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency raised the limits for how much glyphosate is allowed to remain on your fruits and vegetables. And a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture opened the door for using even greater amounts of glyphosate by approving a new glyphosate-resistant canola, the first of several new glyphosate-resistant crops to be deregulated under a new, speedier review process (Federal Register).

Where does it stop?

When laws require that food products carry labels stating that they contain GMOs, consumers will find alternatives. When consumers stop buying foods containing genetically modified ingredients, food manufacturers will stop putting GMOs in their products. When consumers stop eating meat from animals fed GMO crops, farmers will stop growing GMO crops for animal feed.

Truth be told, I already know how to avoid buying foods that contain GMOs. You probably do, too. Buy food labeled 100% organic. The U.S. and Canadian governments do not allow manufacturers to label something 100% organic if that food has been genetically modified or been fed genetically modified feed. You may find that organic food is more expensive and different in appearance from conventional products. The problem really starts at the top – the Food Bill, which gives the corn and soy growers subsidies millions and millions to continue to grow food with GMOs.

I find it quite amazing to note how organic producers have to jump through tons of hoops and pay high fees to achieve the organic label. Meanwhile, GMOs have zero regulations and fees to be produced into food that people eat. Shouldn't it be the exact opposite? Yes, it should indeed. Meanwhile, GMO products are showered in caustic chemicals or harbor chemicals in their genetic makeup. If we think we can just take these GMO products home and wash the toxic materials off, think again. Washing does nothing more than get dirt or field grime off. Chemical residues don't come off; they get swallowed with every bite you eat. Instead, we make it difficult to near impossible for most well-intentioned farmers or food producers to find and grow organically produced foods through the high fees and rigorous standards meant to keep organics on the fringes.

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Because GMO standards are so lax, or realistically don’t exist at all, we have no way of tracking whether there are problems associated with GMOs. There are no databases or researchers following any groups of human beings to detect whether there are problems. So, when we hear that GMOs are completely safe for human and animal consumption and that there are no reports of any side effects from GMOs, we have the absolute right to say to ourselves and others that these GMO products should be more highly scrutinized and labeled so GMOs can be tracked more easily and parents can avoid limiting their child's life. It seems the ordinary citizen is being fed a platter of deceit.

But none of us can escape the danger GMO crops pose when the glyphosate required to grow them destroys the very foundations of a healthy, life-sustaining environment: soil and water.

We have the power and knowledge to dry up demand for Monsanto’s glyphosate by demanding GMO labeling laws. But do we have the will?

References:

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Federal Register.http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-05-29/html/2013-12687.htm.

Pesticide tolerances: Glyphosate. http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2012-0132-0009.

Samsel A, et al. Entropy. 2013;15:1416-1463; doi:10.3390/e15041416

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/pestsales/07pestsales/usage2007_2.htm#table3_4.