GMOs

Genetically Modified Foods

You may have heard of GMOs, Genetically Modified Organisms. One of the main uses of this new technology is to trick plants into producing their own pesticides. This saves the cost and labour of applying pesticides. However, it has a major drawback. The pesticides are all through the inside of the food instead of on the outside just on the surface. You can’t wash them off. Farmers normally avoid applying ordinary pesticides a few weeks before harvest. With GMOs, the plants keep producing their own pesticides right up to the time they are picked.

Another use of GMO technology is terminator genes. The terminator gene makes the next generation of seed sterile. This makes it impossible for farmers to save seed, forcing farmers to buy from a shrinking number of seed companies at higher and higher prices each year.

Scientists put Arctic char fish genes in strawberries to make them resistant to cold and scorpion genes in tomatoes to make them resistant to pests. Unfortunately, the genes don’t stay put. The pollen spreads the genes to non-genetically modified food crops and wild plants with unknown consequences and no possibility of recall.

Unlike new drugs, a new GMO food is presumed safe until proven harmful, and almost no one bothers to test to see if it is harmful in the long term. One of the few tests done in the UK showed that genetically modified potatoes were unsafe — causing brain damage.

The big GMO companies such as Dupont and Monsanto have successfully lobbied the government not to label genetically modified food. We are forced to eat it whether we want to take the risk not. I think it time we put our feet down and demanded GMO food at least be labelled as such and be tested for long term safety.

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