OMG GMOs!

Just came across this video: Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!  It's kind of a cute way to share the story on why GMOs were started by big food corporations, but ultimately, GMO crops can't be the solution to solving world hunger.  The nutritional value of GMO crops are just not proven and the results so far as we look across the USA, Americans have access to so much food, yet they are starving for the nutritional value that they need, and obesity is the result from what I am calling the 'GMO starvation'.

This summer, we did a little experiment, and the results were scary.  We tried growing crops by a field that was sprayed with pesticides for the corn on the field.  I have walked through this corn field, and nothing grows on the field except for this pesticide resistant GMO crop.  Not even one tuff of grass - just dirt and corn (the pesticides kill everything else).  We planted some of our precious non-GMO squash seeds a few feet away from the field.  The squash plants started to grow in early summer, but right after the fields got the pesticide, all the squash plants started to grow stunted, none flowered, and none developed fruit.  The squash plant looked like it was dieing from non-natural causes (it didn't look like it was dried out by no water or yellow from no sun).  It looked mutated and stunted.  If this is what pesticides are doing to real, natural plants, then my question is, what is it doing to our bodies??!!  And, think about the GMO crop that seems to thrive with the pesticides, what is it really?!  I can't believe this is what food corporations are calling food.

It's this kind of stuff that gets me riled up.

Pando House Rock: OMG GMOs!

 

You Are What You Eat

We have heard of old time "You are what you eat." Recently, I read an article that actually takes this down to the gene level.  At Nanjing University in China, a study testing for the presence of microRNAs (building blocks of genetic material that prevent specific genes from giving rise to the proteins they encode) from corp plants, such as rice, wheat, potatoes and cabbage in blood samples of 21 volunteers.

The different microRNAs from commonly eaten plants were found in the subjects' bloodstream.  They also found that a rice microRNA could control of activity of receptors controlling removal of LDL ("bad" cholesterol).  The findings support co-evolution, a process in which genetic changes in one species trigger changes in another. 

This leads me to question, if genetic changes of plants show up in people's bloodstreams, then genetically modifying foods cannot be an isolated event.  These genetic changes to plants will show up in those who eat them.  Could this contribute to more genetic problems that we pass down to the next generation including allergies, diseases, cancer, you name it?  Cancer existed 50 years ago, but was just not as prevalent as it is today.

One thing to do that combats genetically modified food is to have your own garden.  And, to make sure that the seeds you use to grow your food are non GMO (not genetically modified).  The more non GMO we use, the more chance there is that these good seeds will be preserved and really bring what we need to fight disease and improve wellness of life for the people we love.


More on genetically modified foods, previous post: Someone Wants to Control Your Food
Source: Scientific American

Someone wants to control your food

I have found neither food nor love today as I watched an incredible movie on hulu called The Future of Food.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food

This is a must see - extremely informative, and it has given me new information in making food decisions. The food you and I consume do not come from a "variety" of sources. Monsanto, along with other large agri-companies, has developed and "owns" via patents the seeds used to grow food in the U.S. These companies have been patenting these genetically modified seeds so that every time a plant grows with these genes, they own it (therefore, you may have to pay them royalties if their GM seed blew from your neighbor's yard into yours). Life multiplies on its own, and Monsanto wants to own every life form that the GM seed contaminates. The consequence? They own your plants and your food. They alter your health due to the "biotechnology" they have or have not figured out. They have taken away biodiversity, nature, health, freedom...

They claim genetically modified food (GM) is "substantially" comparable. It is not the same -- down to the molecular level. The food will not react to your body the same, just as it reacts to pesticides differently. Today, GM food fills our supermarket shelves and produce sections in the United States.

We need to work for consumer's choice - clear labeling and explanation of genetically modified foods. Give people choice on whether they want to risk their health in eating GM food as opposed to making people buy and eat it with no choice, explanation or responsibility.