What Do You Actually Know about Genetically Modified Foods?

Are GM Foods a long range technical solution and improvement to the world’s food supply or a great, big, uncontrollable mistake?

More and more it becomes evident that going organic and switching to raw food recipes as a mainstay of the diet - not just an occasional raw meal - is essential. We are beginning to transition permanently with the goal of achieving a 75-80% raw food ratio in our diet.

There are lots of reasons why and we’re going to do a series all about organic foods. And I would like to point out that I am a big fan of technology - it’s cool stuff. But ever changing rapid growth is creating a parallel level of unprecedented exponential growth in ethical responsibility.

This is that the magnitude of any potential problem is so much more prevalent because of the technology.

I’m addressing this issue with Boomers because as a group, we have clout and the potential to get something done about this. There are 77+Million of us and collectively we have a lot of buying power. From that perspective - as an organized body - the powers that be will listen to us because we can impact them both economically and politically.

To me, GM Foods are a really good reason to go organic.

If reading a recent Mercola newsletter article “This company may be the biggest threat to your future health” doesn’t give you the “willies”, either you’re in denial or you haven’t read the article and watched the video.

It scares me…

Before you classify me as a ranting and raving food whacko, watch the video and decide for yourself.

And if Mercola’s article doesn’t have you convinced, read this one: My God What Have We Done? When you get to the page, scroll down to: “Have you heard of the nightmare condition called Morgellon’s Disease?

Pictures of Morgellon’s Disease at the foundation website.

The idea that we have created a disease as a result of gene splicing or mutated or cross linked DNA is really a classic theme for a sci-fi flick, but not a good idea in your family or your neighborhood.

The really scary part of this is that there is no known human enzyme that has the potential to process and breakdown these fibers once they are in the body. The human body is incapable of dealing with this unnatural condition and material.

Here is a quote from Mercola.com:

As of February 2007, more than 10,000 reports of the mysterious disease have been reported on the Morgellon Foundation’s website - up from 2,000 reports a year earlier. Many of you probably don’t understand just how ubiquitous GM foods are in the food chain. The fact is that genetically modified foods are so prevalent in the United States that if you randomly pick an item off your grocery store’s shelves, you have a 75 percent chance of picking a food with GM ingredients. This is because at least seven out of every 10 items have been genetically modified.

GM (genetically modified) foods make me nervous. It took thousands of years for man to figure out what DNA was in the first place.

How did we become expert enough on the subject of the double helix - so quickly - to decide that we have enough knowledge and understanding to modify the fundamental components of life on this planet without making a mess out of things?

The fact is that we really don’t understand what mutations are - at least not well enough to know what the potential long range implications are if we create unnatural dna combinations or mutations - inadvertently - while we are “creating superior foods”.

Superior to what?

Nature? God?

Give me a break…

And what if some of the gene splicing we do in a lab has a long term effect that will not be evident for - say 30 years?

If the clowns in Washington can not:

• manage a budget correctly
• or implement a solution to educating our children
• or create a health care system that actually gets people well
• or develop a fiscally viable transportation system or energy policy

Why should we allow these same people to authorize companies, scientists, or special interest groups to potentially meddle with the balance of nature and the fundamental structure of life?

We can recover from economic mistakes but what happens if something goes wrong with this?

Who is culpable? And who is going to pay for it? Who the hell knows what can happen?

Oh well, sorry. We goofed. Not !!!

This is not a little thing. It has the potential to be an irreversible global catastrophe.

What makes you think that the people interested in promoting this technology are smart enough and focused enough on your well being (and the well being of your grandchildren) to allow them to modify nature without first being very, very clear of the outcomes?

Why are they so qualified?

The burden of proof is on them to prove this - not on the public at large to prove their incompetence after a potential disaster. Who are these “experts” anyway? Are they experts because they say so and do they really have a handle on the implications of their research?

I’m skeptical to put it mildly and I want to know why I should believe what they say.

If science truly understood mutations, we’d have a full blown cure to cancer tomorrow. We don’t.

And these people have the audacity to declare their science creates less of an environmental impact on agriculture than prior methods. From what we are beginning to see, how dare they say that?

They dare because nobody is holding them accountable. The fact is that most Americans do not have the facts.

Personally any crop that can withstand a direct application of “Round Up” and survive is not something I want to ingest. And if I did, what kind of nutrition would be left in a food so resistant to that type of chemical assault?

Simple question for my “simple mind”:

If that plant can withstand that type of punishment - and survive - how could my body possibly digest it?

I simply do not understand how this can be good for my body?

Or - even more important - for the body of an infant or young child that is still developing muscle tissue, organs and a skeletal system? I’m pretty tough and have a well developed immune system because I have made it my job to do so over the last 35+ years.

They haven’t.

I simply do not understand the answer to these questions.

Do you?

The fact is that we all need to know about this stuff and what’s going on behind the scenes.

This may be the most important issue of our time and I’m not exaggerating when I say this. It is our duty as as citizens in a free society (the stock holders of our government - so to speak) to hold these guys accountable in every media venue, to shed light on the darkness and put a halt to this madness before it is too late or at least until we know for sure what we are doing.

Get informed and talk to your friends and neighbors about this - and your sphere of influence. Get involved.

• Email, write and call your representatives on a local, state and federal level and let them know you are concerned.
• Email, write and call the local food service and produce distributors that provide foods to your local community and let them know how you feel and that you are not going to buy products where they use GM foods and encourage them to stop selling GM products. They are in the phone book or you can get the names of the suppliers from the local grocery stores and restaurants.
• Email, write and call the regional offices of the grocery stores you patronize and deal directly with regional management - not the PR people or the filters - the management.
• Tell them you want answers and want this entire process halted until we have definitive proof that it is safe.
• At the very least, demand full disclosure - and labeling - of all GM (genetically modified) and irradiated food at the grocery stores and in all packaged foods so you can choose for yourself if you want to buy GM foods or not - and to know if you are already consuming them or not.
• Buy stocks of food companies (producers, processors, distributors, grocery stores and restaurant chains) that do not utilize GM foods in their processing and manufacturing
• Sell stocks that do.
• Stop buying all forms of genetically modified foods - just in case they are not safe
• Read the labels of any packaged food you buy so you know what you are going to put into your body and your children.
• Buy organic produce from local farmers, support organic agriculture and buy from the local farmers markets.
• Tell the manager at all the grocery stores you patronize that you want more organic produce and frozen organic fruits - and then support them when they stock it.
• And last but not least, start growing an organic vegetable garden wherever possible - on a local level - so you know what you are eating. Start a garden with your neighbor, grow organic tomatoes in a pot on your porch or deck.

This is a big deal. It seems like a much more important agenda for Congress than hearings on “steroids in baseball.”

What do you think?

If you think this is going to go away on its own, you’re kidding yourself. The only way it will go away is if we make it go away. There’s money and power at stake.

My final comment:

I’m not militant about very many things. Except two:

1. Don’t mess with my kids, my family and the people I care about. If you hurt them or threaten them, you will have to answer to me personally.
2. Don’t dare to tell me what I can do with my body. If you think the Boston Tea Party was a big deal, wait until the US population has had enough. This is the real “health care crisis” in this country - and worldwide for that matter, not the price of “generic drugs” and whether insurance will cover Chinese medicine or not.

We need - instead - to focus our science, technology and economic strength on developing methods for becoming the largest producer the most nutritious NATURAL foods in the world. We should set the standard as the world leader for constructive innovation with the largest and most beneficial impact on health and nutrition ever in the history of mankind.

We have the tools, the resources and the technology. Creating synthetic food that looks like real food is a generally bad idea and I don’t want to eat it. From here out I’m growing my own. It’s pretty clear to me that the government is not going to provide for my health, it’s up to me to do that - just like it’s up to you.

We have to take responsibility for our own health - and our family’s - nobody else will.

It’s time for our leadership to wake up and grow spines. If you want to get the attention of politicians and corporate management, use your political and economic vote to support things that make sense to you.

• Believe me, they will follow the money. 1 Million phone calls, email, letters and votes make a big difference. Out of 77 Million, that’s only 7.2% of Baby Boomers.

Healthy Wealthy Boomer: What Do You Actually Know about Genetically Modified Foods?

In this case, what you don’t know CAN hurt you.