GM Food?: food for thought in a new book

Do you know your food? How much do you know about genetically modified food? Many people not only don’t know what genetically modified, or GM foods are but they also don’t realize that they have been consuming them almost every day as ingredients in many of their favorite meals. The original intention of genetically modifying food was to create a world in which people would be protected from food scarcity; drought resistant, flood resistant, disease and fungus resistant foods that can be grown on less land and in shorter amounts of time. Many of these crops are herbicide resistant too, and are sprayed multiple times during the growing season with herbicides. Some of the original pest resistant GM foods had built in pest resistance which allegedly began killing off important pollinators along with pests.

It can be argued that most GM companies have put their bottom line ahead of the consumer’s best interests. Besides the obvious dangers, there are many among the scientific community who are not convinced that genetically modified food is as safe for consumption as we have been led to believe even though the Food and Drug Administration has deemed GM food safe. Altered genes, Twisted Truth, by Steven M Druker; a public interest attorney and founder of Alliance for Bio Integrity puts 15 years of amassed evidence, information from the nearly 44,000 documents the FDA was forced to hand over together with nearly 100 footnotes, a primer on molecular biology and a lot of good science to show the reader how flawed and quite possibly dangerous eating and even creating GM foods is. This book is suggested reading for anyone who wants to know the truth about what they are putting in their mouths. In the meantime, most states have no laws that require labeling of Genetically Modified foods and these GM foods tend to sneak into your meals as soy products, sugars from corn and beets, corn meal, rice and wheat not to mention as raw or processed fruits and vegetables.

If you aren’t sure how you feel about GM food, but want to err on the side of caution, regulations forbid certified organic foods from containing any GM ingredients or GM by-products and are therefore safe to eat. If you feel strongly that GM food is not healthy for humans or for the planet as I do, I would strongly urge you to contact your state representatives and demand that they take steps to require labeling of all GM food, GM ingredients and GM by-products and then urge your social circles to do the same.