GMO ( Part 1)
Genetically modified food is something I have widely researched for nearly fifteen years. To be honest, I am mortified that gmos exist at all and I have absolutely nothing positive to say about them. I have spent a lot of time making a concerted effort to inform people about them. I had the perfect opportunity to do so while I was working as a licensed acupuncturist at a clinic in Santa Fe, NM for many years. I provided my patients with literature, shopping guides and informative brochures which I bought by the box and doled out like candy in my treatment room.
What I found when sharing information with my patients was that they were very open to learning; and once they did, they made deliberate efforts to avoid eating genetically modified food. I suspect that its this way with millions of people. Most people know the term and they know there is a lot of debate about it, but they don’t really understand the ins and outs, or anything of much detail.
I say this in full confidence, because anyone who truly knew how much havoc and devastation gmo food has caused to people, animals and the environment could not possibly be in support of it. However, because it is in nearly everything, no matter how well you eat , it is almost impossible to avoid it completely. Many people can not afford organic food. I would posit that if you take time to make the switch, you can find affordable ways to eat organic, but it does take creativity and effort.
For those who can not eliminate all gmo foods my suggestion is, at the very least eliminate non organic meat and dairy. Nevertheless, I am not here to tell anyone how or what to eat, I am here to share information about the industry of gmos.
Close your eyes and say the word agriculture. What image or images come to mind? I am willing to bet you do not think of a scientist in a lab editing genes, or a man wearing a hazmat suit as he sprays crops with petrochemicals. I am willing to bet that the image of a crop duster plane did not pop up in your head either. If you were going to grow a garden, would you use infertile seeds, or would you want to grow things that would produce seeds that you could harvest and plant again next year? Would you spray your garden with Round Up?
So why do major corporations grow crops that produce sterile seeds and why do they use petrochemicals? Great question! Let’s take a look at the history of gmo food. It all began with a company called Monsanto, who has since merged with a company called Bayer.
The History of Monsanto
1901: John Francis Queeny, a thirty-year pharmaceutical veteran, founded Monsanto as a chemical company. The company launched to produce Saccharin, the artificial sweetener sold to Coca-Cola.
1920’s: Monsanto expands into basic industrial chemicals and drugs. They become the largest maker of aspirin. This also marks the introduction of their Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PBCs were considered an industrial wonder chemical and are now found to be one of the gravest chemical threats on the planet. They were banned after fifty years due to their toxic nature, but even still, traces are found in just about all animal and human blood tissue cells across the globe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says, “PCB has been demonstrated to cause cancer, as well as a variety of other adverse health effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system and endocrine system.” Internal company papers show that Monsanto knew about the PCB dangers from early on.
During the Second World War, Monsanto began research on uranium to be used for the Manhattan Project’s first atomic bomb and continued to operate a nuclear facility for the U.S. Government until the late 80’s.
1940’s: Monsanto becomes a leading manufacturer of synthetic plastics, and uses its first hybrid seed corn to expand into toxic household products, such as detergents, soaps, and industrial cleaning products.
After the Second World War, Monsanto championed the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture. They created these pesticides using dioxin, which poisons the food and water supplies. It was later discovered that Monsanto knowingly failed to disclose that dioxin was used in many of their products.
1960’s: Monsanto produces dioxin-laced Agent Orange for use in the United States’ Vietnam invasion. Vietnam War Veterans in the United States filed a lawsuit against Monsanto following the contamination of 3 million Vietnamese civilians, 500,000 of them left dead, and a half-million babies born with birth defects. Internal Monsanto memos show that they were aware of the dangers of dioxin contamination of Agent Orange when it sold to the U.S. government, but still, no compensation has been paid to Vietnamese civilians because Monsanto was able to present studies that showed otherwise.
1960’s: G.D. Searle discovered the artificial sweetener Aspartame. Aspartame, also referred to as NutraSweet or Equal, laces more than 6,000 products and is added to diet versions of many of the most popular sodas. The FDA first approved aspartame in 1974, but one of FDA’s very own scientists, Adrian Gross, found internal research revealing that aspartame causes tumors and massive holes in the brains of rats before killing them. The FDA then initiates a grand jury investigation into G.D. Searle for knowingly misrepresenting findings and put the approval on hold. Here’s where it gets even more curios. At that time, Donald Rumsfeld was both the CEO of Searle and on the transition team for Ronald Reagan. After Reagan’s inauguration in 1981, Searle re-applied aspartame to the FDA for approval, at which point Reagan fired the FDA commissioner and replaced him with Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., who re-approved aspartame for dry products, despite indisputable research revealing its toxic effects. Two years later, after flooding the market, aspartame was approved for liquids. Soon after, Hull left the FDA to take a job at Searle’s PR firm.
In 1976, Roundup, Monsanto’s most popular pesticide and herbicide, was created. Roundup, a chemical weed killer used by farmers across the board, is designed to kill every natural thing it touches. Within a few years, Roundup was Monsanto’s most profitable product. The success of Roundup led Monsanto to shift its focus to agriculture and distance itself from the historical core of its business. Monsanto then developed genetically modified suicide seeds, or Roundup-ready seeds, that would resist the glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Roundup, so that farmers can still use the Roundup to blanket their fields and kill weeds, pests, and everything else. These GMO-ready crops are engineered to self-pollinate, so even if bees attempt to pollinate a GM plant or flower, they are poisoned and die. Do you really want to eat that? They even took it a step further and patented these seeds, so if you are a farmer who buys Roundup-ready seeds, you are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting. You are also prohibited from selling the seed to other farmers. In short, farmers are forced to buy new seeds and heavily rely on Monsanto. Monsanto sets aside a budget of $10 million to harass farmers over alleged improper use of its patented seeds, driving many small farmers out of business.
In 1985, Monsanto purchased Searle. Conveniently, a 1987 General Accounting Office report states that research on aspartame was ongoing in all areas except brain tumors. Furthermore, the FDA dissuaded the National Toxicology Program from doing further cancer research on aspartame. Yet, there a still many independent scientists and researchers showing aspartame’s toxic effects on the brain.
According to The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the known effects of aspartame ingestion are: “mania, rage, violence, blindness, joint-pain, fatigue, weight-gain, chest-pain, coma, insomnia, numbness, depression, tinnitus, weakness, spasms, irritability, nausea, deafness, memory-loss, rashes, dizziness, headaches, seizures, anxiety, palpitations, fainting, cramps, diarrhea, panic, burning in the mouth. Diseases triggered/mimicked include diabetes, MS, lupus, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, tumors, miscarriage, infertility, fibromyalgia, infant death, and Alzheimer’s.
As a major producer of both dioxins and PCBs, the reality that Monsanto was filling the world with persistent environmental pollutants that pose serious risks to environmental and human health was coming to light all at once. By the 1980’s Monsanto was drowning in lawsuits and environmental clean up costs, so there was a need to turn the company around, fast. In an effort to escape billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs and other liabilities, Monsanto sells itself to a new company called Solutia and re-launches itself as an agricultural biotechnology company. Solutia was ultimately forced to seek chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2018: German pharmaceutical company Bayer, who developed aspirin, acquires Monsanto for 63 billion dollars. Aspirin has killed more than 3,000 people per year. More information here.
2019: Monsanto/Bayer propose 8 billion dollar settlement over Roundup cancer claims. Read here for more information.
Another little tidbit is that Bayer has always been primarily a chemical and pharmaceutical company and unfortunately they have a very dark history to include ties with the Nazis. You can use a search engine ( preferably not Google ) to uncover more. You can find a short article here.
Gmos Are Making Us Sick
I recently found a clip online of Gregg Braden saying that he discovered that our DNA literally spells out the words “ God Eternal within the body “. You can find it here Some people say that GMO is an acronym for God Move Over. I couldn’t agree more. When humans start to play God with a creation that is perfect by design, it spells big trouble. To genetically modify our food chain is to genetically alter our bodies. If that weren’t bad enough, now add to the equation toxic, carcinogenic petrochemicals. Of course it makes us sick!
Nancy Swanson says “Since GMOs were introduced into the food supply the rate of chronic health conditions among children in the United States increased from 12.8% in 1994 to 26.6% in 2006, particularly for asthma, obesity, and behavior and learning problems. The rate of chronic disease in the entire U.S. population has been dramatically increasing with an estimated 25% of the U.S. population suffering from multiple chronic diseases.”Full article here
An abstract from a paper called “ Pathways to Modern Diseases” can be found here. It states “Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the “textbook example” of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.”
While they do use some expensive words and some scientific jargon that we may not be familiar with, the message is clear.
What Effects do GMOs Have on the Body?
An article found on Doctorsheathpress.com discusses the harmudul effects of gmos on the body. In a study discussed there, it states ,”The researchers found a correlation between many serious diseases and an increased use of genetically modified crops and the Roundup herbicide glyphosate.”
“Some of these health conditions were strokes, hypertension, diabetes, metabolic disorders, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, obesity, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and certain cancers, such as bladder, pancreas, kidney, liver, and thyroid.”
“Glyphosate has also been deemed safe by studies from Monsanto; however, other evidence links glyphosate to endocrine system disruption, human DNA damage, autism, Parkinsons disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.”
“ A 2004 study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers concluded that GMO DNA is harmless after the digestion process. There was a low level of DNA found in the digestive tract after consumption of GMO soy meal.”
“However, in another study, this time from 2014 and published in the prestigious scientific journal PLOS ONE, researchers found that large, meal-derived DNA fragments from genetically modified foods can be directly transferred into the bloodstream. A team of researchers from universities in the U.S., Denmark, and Hungary observed the GMO assimilation process of more than 1,000 human samples in an analysis from four independent trials.”
“One of the blood samples even contained higher plant DNA concentrations than human DNA. In other words, GMO DNA is not completely broken down in the digestive tract during digestion. The GMO pieces remained whole and did not degrade into smaller nutrients, such as amino acids.” Full article here
Paid For Science
In the advent of Covid, it became glaringly apparent to many ( if it weren’t already ) that science is dying to scientism. “Trust the science” became a major slogan in 2020. It was a hypnotic mantra inserted into the collective consciousness that served to make the masses feel comfortable. Those questioning the science they were supposed to blindly trust, were seen as a threat to society and still are to this day.
I like to think of these people as the collective immune system. Throughout history, governments, institutions and corporations have always used propaganda to support the outcome that brings about most efficient intended outcome - be it obedience or money. Remember when smoking was safe and even glamorized? Remember when fat was bad ( a ploy of the sugar industry to misplace attention ). We no longer have lead paint, and we no longer consider asbestos to be safe. You get the gist.
Behind every large corporation are a handful of people who want to make a lot of money at the expense of exploiting nature and people. Unfortunately big money can buy politicians, judges, law makers, scientists and anyone needed to help portray the image a corporation wishes to portray in order to make their money. Its a trick as old as the ages.
Here is one example , and I mean 1 out of thousands in their history. “A new analysis from the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Sciences Europe documents the diametrically different approaches the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization took when determining the cancer risk from exposure to Monsanto’s weedkiller glyphosate.”
“The report shows that the EPA ignored a large number of peer-reviewed independent studies that link glyphosate to cancer in humans, instead using research paid for by Monsanto to support the agency’s position that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.”
“In contrast, in 2015, after reviewing extensive U.S., Canadian and Swedish epidemiological studies on glyphosate’s human health effects, as well as research on laboratory animals, WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
“IARC’s evaluation relied heavily on studies capable of shedding light on the distribution of real-world exposures and genotoxicity risk in exposed human populations, while EPA’s evaluation placed little or no weight on such evidence,” wrote Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., the author of the new study.”
“As the new study details, the EPA relied largely on studies paid for by Monsanto and other agrochemical companies, ignoring the large and growing body of independent research connecting the chemical with genotoxicity.”
“Genotoxicity is the damaging effect a chemical can have on DNA, triggering mutations that can lead to cancer. IARC scientists reviewed 118 different assays and found strong evidence that glyphosate may cause genotoxicity.”
“The EPA’s assessment included fewer than half of these studies, allowing the agency to express its position that glyphosate is “not likely carcinogenic.”
“Since the IARC assessment, an additional 26 of 27 published studies have reported evidence that glyphosate can be genotoxic. In 2017, glyphosate was listed by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a chemical known to the state to cause cancer.”
“The fact that the EPA relied largely on Monsanto’s own research to reach the conclusion glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer could be turned into a skit on The Daily Show,” said Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., senior science advisor for children’s environmental health at EWG. “Allowing a company like Monsanto, with a long and damaging history of deception, to influence the EPA’s assessment of its own product is outrageous.” Source
I realize that is a whole lot of quoting. I am not here to reinvent the wheel, merely to share vitally important information. In this blog we have merely scratched the surface. I think by now it is abundantly clear that gmos have a very dark history and that they are not safe for consumption or even production.
Less gmos that is……..
Next week, we will discuss their effects on the environment ( including animals and insects ). We will also address how gmos have destroyed and continue to destroy biodiversity ( and what we can do about it) . And of course we must tackle soil ( and it’s connection to the gut microbiome), agricultural practices and nutrient content past and present. In addition I will share resources for further exploration, which you can share with anyone you like. We will also discuss the new largest owner of farmland in the U.S. - Bill Gates.
I will sing the praises of superSHEro Vandana Shiva who has single handedly done more than almost any other human to tackle these problems head on and face the bullies and giants in this horrendous industry. And I am sure there is more. Who knows - will it end up being a three part blog - only time will tell. By now I am guessing you have lost your appetite. When it returns, eat something organic! Which reminds me, we still need to talk about labeling. Nine is your number for organic. Those little stickers on your fruits and vegetables actually mean something.