My mother had to go to the hospital due to an allergic reaction to something she ate. This had never happened to her before as she had previously had no known food allergies. People have many digestive problems and other health issues of which they do not know the cause. I have three friends who have “crone’s like symptoms” that have surfaced in the last decade that the doctors cannot seem to find the reason for. Perhaps if people knew they were ingesting these foods, they would look to them when strange new sicknesses occur. However, without labeling, it is impossible to rule out GMO ingestion as the cause.

It is ridiculous to say people have been ingesting these foods “for a decade with no perceptible effects.” Basically, due to the lack of labeling, any potential problem that has occurred in humans who have ingested GMOs without their knowledge could have been caused by ingestion of those GMOs. There have been no independent studies done on humans still to this day, except for the one that was done in Europe with the colostomy bags, which showed that genetic material actually did survive digestion, contrary to what the biotech industry claims about the Bt pesticides engineered into their corn (not a good thing for consumers of GMOs).

Besides, the concept of genetic engineering was based on a now disputed theory check out this article from The New York Times: I guess these scientists are all a bunch of “Luddites!” Give me a break!

A Challenge to Gene Theory, a Tougher Look at Biotech

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/business/yourmoney/01frame.html

Here is a link for many scientists, lawyers and doctors who have written of the dangers of GMOs:

http://www.saynotogmos.org/scientists_speak.htm

The companies in charge of our food supply deserve a closer look as well; here is a link to an article about Monsanto Company and the great things they did in Anniston, Alabama (poisoning the residents and lying about it for THIRTY YEARS!!!). Yeah, let’s have the folks who brought us Agent Orange and PCBs in charge of the world’s food supply! Fabulous idea!

Monsanto’s PCBs to be here a long time The damage spreads beyond our borders

http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2001/as-editorials-0329-0-vd291478.htm

Let’s allow the offspring from cloned animals into the food supply as well! Isn’t our nation rich enough so that we don’t have to resort to these measures? Why do we really need tomatoes with fish genes or corn with human genes? Oh, and what do these companies use as promoters for their new genes? Why viruses, that’s what! I just salivate thinking of my dinner tonight filled with viruses, bacteria and other species’ genes. Yum yum!

Seriously, safety issues aside, this stuff is just gross, and I should not have to eat corn that is classified as a pesticide by the EPA or papaya that has a virus gene genetically modified into it. It’s like something from Soylent Green.

Even the third world does not want the stuff. Zambia rejected GMO corn from the US years ago during a massive famine. THEY SAID THEY WOULD RATHER STARVE THAN ACCEPT IT!

None of these organisms have been proven to be more nutritious (unless you eat twelve bowls a day of Golden Rice) or to increase yield. In fact, Monsanto had to pay millions to cotton farmers in Mississippi for loss of yield for Bt Cotton. On Molokai, Monsanto has used up more than 80% of the water for the entire island, and it is asking for more to be pumped. How is that helping the environment? Name one crop that has been commercialized that is drought resistant, yield increasing, or better tasting/more nourishing. The papaya industry in Hawaii is continuing to tumble due to the fact that Japan and the EU have strict regulations on GMOs. The crops may have survived, but if no one wants to buy them, what good are they?

People around the world have been rejecting these organisms for as long as we have been eating them unknowingly, so it is not just a few hippies in the US who are concerned about them. If you want to trust scientist who work for a company with millions at stake if these foods are rejected, then you go ahead and eat your fish gene tomato or pesticide containing corn. I’ll buy those few items organic until we can get a labeling system in this country. Bon appetit!