Worldwide resistance to GM foods continues to build as ample evidence has shown negative health effects, crop contamination, and species degeneration that suggests we should tread lightly while attempting to alter the design of nature. Likewise, consumers are making it known that if GM food does enter the food chain that it must be clearly labeled.
The GMO industry has suffered negative press, but scientists and proponents of GMO appear undeterred. They have been steadily building a case for the benefits of GM food that go beyond simply what they can defend against, and aim to convince consumers of outright health benefits and even disease prevention.
Tomatoes were the very first target of genetic modification and came to the market in 1994. But after just four years they disappeared when it was discovered that the removal of the enzyme that leads to ripening was not the flavor enhancer (Flavr Savr) it was intended to be. Worse, after the FDA approval for human consumption, evidence was presented that showed an increase in stomach lesions as well as the possibility that altered genetic sequencing could lead to new forms of virulent viruses.
Despite a monumental failure from the beginning, genetically modified tomatoes once again have taken center stage. This time it is not merely the promise of better flavor, or more durability in transport between farm and shelf; now GM tomatoes can apparently be “fortified” to reduce the risk of cancer and protect against other diseases.
These claims have been building since at least 2008, when British scientists bred a purple “super tomato” that modified the concentration of antioxidants the same as those found in blackberries and cranberries.
Now scientists have gone a step beyond and have isolated the natural antioxidant Lycopene within the tomato itself and have genetically modified it to be three and half times more plentiful. This discovery led professor Avtar Handa of Purdue University’s horticulture department to say:
This discovery built upon a similar one by Spanish scientists which doubled the amount of Lycopene and led to the creation of the Moruno tomato, which was then successfully introduced to the UK marketplace.
Now that the precedent has been set, Marks & Spencer just announced that it will be selling tomatoes that are fortified with the mineral selenium, because UK scientists have determined that it is lacking in the UK diet. Marks & Spencer equates this “benefit” to their customers’ health as no different than vitamin-D enriched milk, or other products that address deficiencies.
[Ed. Note: Selenium was once considered toxic but now essential in minute doses. Selenium toxicity can result in ” significant hair loss, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, joint pain, fatigue, fingernail changes, and blistering skin,” according to the Centers for Disease Control. Tomatoes that have been enhanced with selenium should be regulated like any drug, and prescribed according to the individual’s specific health condition.]
Will the appeal to consumer health be the silver bullet that finally legitimizes GMO? Can we actually trust these genetic engineers to now care for our health? Or could this be no more than a backdoor to soften the GM market as a whole?
Food Freedom 
“Can we actually trust these genetic engineers to now care for our health? ”
In a word no!
I don’t care what they say or claim their creations will or will not do… they are known liars. I trust very much in what nature already offers. If they wanted to do something for the world that was good, they might have just started out doing just that… they claimed to, but they lied. So, why believe them now? Aren’t they just re-polishing the same old turd? I believe so.
There is substantial evidence that too much of any mineral, vitamin or other so called beneficial compound within the human or animal diet is even more harmful to human and animal health than too little. As has been mentioned already too much selenium can cause all manner of serious health problems.
The suggestion that it is essential that we get these enhanced foods down our necks is merely a sales ploy to increase profits for the producers and sellers by playing on peoples paranoia about a healthy diet. Instead of additives the people in power should be looking to educate the masses sensibly about what constitutes a healthy and natural diet not what they can go down to the supermarket and buy off the shelves. Teaching people to grow their own food and how to prepare it themselves would do more for human health and welfare than any number of professed beneficial government interventions. It is high time the governments and the corporations were well and truly brought to heel. They are getting far too big for their boots.
We do not need GMO’s. It is not going to feed the masses and it is not going to cure all our ills. It is in fact going to lead to corporate control of all aspects of our lives. Simply put we need food and if the corporations gain total control over our food then we will be in their grip. We will have to do precisely what they say and pay exactly what they demand if we are to eat and survive. And when we fall ill, which we will after eating the GM garbage, we will find that we have to pay the ‘other’ corrupt corporation that doesn’t give a damn about us either. I’m talking about ‘Big Pharma’, ‘Big Ags’ brother in arms.
And why would you fall ill anyway? Well as I have already said (and contrary to the propaganda being spread around about how human beings will benefit from GMO’s and how they have all been investigated) there still is not one shread of proof that GMO’s are safe for humans or animals to eat and they are certainly not beneficial in any way to the environment. It is in fact proven on more than one occassion to be extremely harmful to laboratory rats, mice and hamsters. One of my friends mentioned to me recently about the robust nature of rats and how they were dying from kidney and liver failures caused by eating GMO food in laboratory experiments. When you consider that rats have evolved to survive in the most dire of environments, the sewers, with all manner of toxic and highly dangerous pathogens, it will come as a surprise to many to learn that they are dying in laboratory experiments from eating the same GMO food that the insane scientists want us to eat. Now if it is killing the rats what is it doing to us in nations that have been suckered into allowing their people to eat it? And why would any genuinely caring government condemn their people to such a damnable end? There are thousands of examples of these adverse effects and only a handful of ‘manipulated’ papers to the contrary. Yes that’s right folks. Monsanto has been found out manipultating scientific data from its own experiments because the results did not present the product as beneficial and they were and still are desperate to introduce their products onto the open market. They are reckless beyind reason. In fact the entire batch of corporations are reckless to the extreme with yours and my health and welfare.
The bottom line is they don’t give a damn about you and me so long as they make a profit. So don’t believe the hype if you want to survive. Go organic or grow your own using permaculture techniques. The planet will thank you for it in the end.
PS The link I was given to the EU research papers is still being read. So far there is still not one paper that has involved any human feeding trial of GMO food. I will report more when I have finished reading it. 268 pages takes some time to evaluate.
For those who may be interested here is the link to the EU document. It is basically propaganda to promote GMO technology asap so that the EU can keep up with the Jones’s. Like Professor Jonathan Jones who is responsible for the GMO potato trials in the UK.
The rally takes place this weekend:
http://www.stopgm.org.uk/gathering-momentum.html
Apology for the missing link. The EU document link is below:
Click to access a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf
I am sorry I missed the memo that said it is beneficial to rip ANY NUTRIENT OUT OF IT’S FRUITFUL OWNER. in other words, tell me how is it okay to take nutrients out of food then replace it with chemicals? to make it last longer? to make it fresh? is this the TWILIGHT ZONE?
As itsonlyausername has so aptly put it how can we trust the track record of the companies like Monsanto and government agencies involved when their track record is so corrupt and I would add Fascist. They are pushing exceptionally hard at this time before enough people become aware to help us put the brakes on. I just read in Natural News that the USDA has given the green light to Scotts Miracle-Gro GMO grass seed in 2012 so consumers can spray as much Round-Up as they like on their lawns to treat for weeds http://www.naturalnews.com/033022_Scotts_Miracle-Gro_GMO_seeds.html the article has a link directly to Scots to email them. It is all about “I have a GMO product I need to get out and sell before the public gets wise and shuts off the tap” and our government bends over backwards to help them out and be dammed with the public and environmental health.
Doc Blake
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