Mood:
a-okTopic: Musings
Food Definitions for the 21st Century
Or
Atlantis Revisited
By Brit Elders
We have to alter our identification of foods and expand our
vocabulary to incorporate terms that may seem un-foodlike.
The problem is defining what these 21st century terms really
mean. Food meanings and the undercurrent emotions they illicit
are dependent on which side of the fence you are on regarding
the serious topic of genetic engineering.
GMO - If you work for Monsanto GMO means money. If you are a
normal human being GMO stands for genetically modified organism.
This is a plant or animal that has been genetically engineered.
Many industries support the development and use of GMOs while
many consumers and organizations question their safety and have
called for adequate and independent testing of GMO products.
Transgenic - Sounds fancy, huh? Often, the label GMO and the
term "transgenic" are used to refer to organisms that have
acquired novel genes from other organisms by laboratory
"gene transfer" methods... at least according to the US Department
of Agriculture. It's an organism which has a foreign gene
(a transgene) incorporated into its genome. In other words
it has something in it that Nature didn't put there.
GM - It no longer stands for the car company. It now refers
to all human-designed changes in a plant or animal, whether
done through traditional breeding or genetic engineering.
Genetically modified and genetically engineered are sometimes
used interchangeably.
GE - This GE you won't see on a TV set. This is often an
interchangeable term with the labels listed above. So when
you hear GM, GMO, or transgenic food, you need to know that
it is produced using the genetic engineering process.
Monsanto - Monsanto Company is a multinational agricultural
biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer
of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as its flagship product,
Roundup. Numerous studies have shown that glyphosate is an
endocrine disruptor. Monsanto is also by far the leading
producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70% of a
100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto,
exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the
commercial market.
Roundup Ready Seeds - These are seeds that have been
genetically altered. Their DNA now incorporates one of the
world's most deadly and popular herbicides. Roundup Ready
Seeds were engineered so that farmers could spray their fields
with Monsanto's Roundup and the plant would survive while
the weeds died. There are only a few tiny problems with this...
When the plant grows up every cell contains Roundup. And in
order to get the Roundup into the plant the wall of the cell
had to be broken and a carrier used so that the cell would
not reject the Roundup. Guess what they use as the carrier?
They use viruses such as e-coli as the carriers. And they top
that of with a healthy dose of antibiotics. And that goes
on to dinner tables?
BT corn - A corn plant that has been developed though
biotechnology so that the plant tissues express a protein
derived from a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, which is
toxic to some insects but non-toxic to humans and other
mammals. But how would they know? It hasn't been tested!
A recent study from Cornell University in New York was
recently published in the science journal Nature and suggests
that pollen from Bt corn may have toxic effects on larvae of
the monarch butterfly. The caterpillar, or larval stage, of
this insect feeds on milkweed.
This and other GM foods are being carefully considered as the
source for the demise of the honeybee. Studies are underway;
no doubt the big 'Pharma' corporations that produce the GMOs
will conduct much of the 'fact based research'.
Irradiated food - There are several types of radiant energy
used to sterilize foods. Gamma irradiation is commonly used
to sterilize laboratory animal feeds. The amount of
irradiating energy is controlled to kill all microorganisms,
without affecting the quality of the food. The treat fresh
or processed foods with ionizing radiation that inactivates
biological contaminants (insects, molds, parasites, or bacteria),
rendering foods safe to consume and extending their storage
lifetime. Or so they say. Personally, I don't want people
irradiating my food with any form of energy other than Nature's.
The big problem in all of this is that you don't have a choice
of what you consume or even the knowledge of what product is a
genetically altered crop because there are no laws requiring
labels on GMOs. Congress won’t step up to the plate and demand
that we know what we consume. The FDA, EPA, USDA, and even the
Justice Department are so infiltrated with former Monsanto
employees that they should have a revolving door between those
organizations and the big biotech corporation. Bio Agriculture
is horrid under this administration, but it didn’t start there.
It goes back to Reagan and was floated by Bush/Quayle and then
by President Clinton, who spoke at the BIO conference last year
and said, "The biotech industry has a job do to."
Well, President Clinton, they are doing it... on us.
In his and other's views, biotech is critical to the survival
of the planet. I don't buy it. That's propaganda in it's
finest form, especially now with the world thinking green
and eco friendly. We are being used as laboratory rats. When
one examines the potential consequences to the health of the
planet and the health of mankind GMOs should be banned from
distribution until they have been independently tested and
shown to be safe. In fact, scientists at the FDA strongly
recommended that these studies be conducted before the altered
foods were shipped around the world. That hasn't happened.
There is one way to make certain you aren't a lab rat and
potentially damaging your health and the environment...
eat organic. Nature spent eons perfecting our food and keeping
it safe from cross contamination. In nature fish DNA didn't find
it's way into a tomato and human DNA didn't naturally occur in
rice, but they do now after the mad scientists altered DNA.
(Next time you have a tomato think about the fish you are eating,
too.)
So what is missing in this high-tech, 21st Century food chain?
How about a little tiny word with a great big meaning? God.
I don't usually editorialize in my newsletters, but I can't
help but wonder if this isn't the same thing that happened in
Atlantis when the scientists decided they were smarter than God.
We sure don't learn our lessons well and seem to have a
propensity to revisit them again and again.
As the old saying goes, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."
