Europeans Fighting Back Against the GM Crop Blight 8/20/2006 8:55:44 AM
. Between 1999 and 2003, the European Union banned GM food imports. In 2006, the World Trade Organization ruled it a violation of trade rules. Last year, 500 French hectares were planted with GM crops, a figure that may soar to 10 times that amount by the end of this year. When French courts ordered the removal of a Web site listing the locations of GM maize fields across the country, protesters have begun marking the fields themselves. In late July, protesters in southwest France entered two testing fields growing genetically modified commercial maize, and destroyed 6 to 10 hectares of the plants. In another field in the same region, Greenpeace activists cut a giant version of the universal danger sign for "contamination" through the maize. They have threatened to continue doing so unless an official register of GM fields is made publicly available.
Contrary to the claims of industry proponents, GM crops have not been proven safe and are dangerous to those who have food allergies. The regulatory framework governing them was fatally flawed from the start to push the product on consumers; it was designed to expedite product approval at the expense of safety considerations. The approval of GM crops uses a principal called 'substantial equivalence,' which is intentionally vague and ill-defined. It gives companies complete license to claim that transgenic products are 'substantially equivalent' to non-transgenic products, and hence 'safe.' There have been very few credible studies on GM food safety, and what findings there are, already give cause for concern. In one of the few systematic investigations on GM food ever carried out, 'growth factor-like' effects were found in the stomach and small intestine of young rats that ate GM plants. There have also been other studies that raised serious safety concerns.
Much of what little protesting is being done about GM blight in America, however, flies under the consumer radar. Some food companies have shelved GM concoctions due to legal obstacles thrown their way by a few consumer groups. More needs to be done to keep the food supply safe all over the world. What is scary to the consumer is that GM products are in nearly 75% of the processed foods you'll see at a typical grocery store near you.
THINGS TO DO RIGHT NOW:
1. Reduce or eliminate all processed foods from your diet. If it comes in a box or prepared package, eliminate it immediately. There are many reasons why processed foods are not optimal for your health to begin with, and the obesity epidemic is the first sign something is wrong with our food supply. They often contain trans fat, acrylamide and little nutritional value. Avoiding them will not only help you to cut back on the amount of GM foods you are consuming, but probably medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc. A little common sense goes a long way.
2. Read produce and food labels. GM soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically modified crops. When looking at a product label, if any ingredients such as corn flour and meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine, and tofu (to name a few) are listed, there's a good chance it has come from GM corn or soy, unless it's listed as” organic.”
3. Buy organic produce only, though the cost is higher. Buying organic is currently the best way to ensure that your food has not been genetically modified. By definition, food that is “certified organic” must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs that play havoc with human biochemistry.
4. Look at produce stickers carefully. Those little stickers on fruit and vegetables contain different PLU codes depending on whether the fruit is conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically modified. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number nine, and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number eight.
It’s your health. Be informed. Protect it. Your life and your quality of life depends on it.
