It should come as no surprise when a Monsanto product poisons the earth and our food. Our planet has never recovered from the forty-year Monsanto-led PCB contamination that was banned in the U.S. in 1977. To this day environmental PCBs continue to degrade into highly toxic furans and dioxins, wreaking all manner of human health problem. The new case in point involves several aspects: 1) the bizarre alteration of the nature of food itself by splicing viral, bacterial, and other life forms into the DNA of food (GMO seeds and crops), and 2) the massive increase in the use of glyphosate pesticide (Round Up), which is polluting the water, soil, and food across the globe. Both issues are extremely problematic to human health.
On September 21, 2009 a stunning shot was fired across the bow of Monsanto and its new legion of Frankenfood sugar beet growers. Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco said the Agriculture Department should have done an environmental impact statement as required by law. He said it should have assessed the consequences from the likely spread of the genetically engineered trait to other sugar beets or to the related crops of Swiss chard and red table beets. He said that the potential elimination of farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food constituted a significant effect on the environment that necessitated an environmental impact statement. The case is ongoing, with the next phase scheduled for October 30.
Meanwhile, Monsanto is attempting damage control during the second growing season of this genetic monstrosity masquerading as food. The judge hasn't banned the current year's crop or the sale of Halloween candy which is now full of GMO sugar. Of course, GMO sugar, like other GMO "foods," doesn't need to be labeled as such (because nobody in their right mind would buy it if it were). Half the refined sugar in the U.S. is from beets - and insiders say the industry has quickly converted to the GMO Frankenfood beets, estimating up to 95% of farmers are now using them. Beet sugar is often mixed with cane sugar, meaning that unless a product lists the ingredient as cane sugar or organic cane sugar then it now likely contains GMO mutant beet-derived sugar.
Only the biotech industry and its financially-associated friends believe GMO Frankenfoods are safe to eat. The despicable management at the FDA approved them, while squashing and hiding from public view the numerous safety objections of their scientific staff. Common sense will tell virtually anyone that having foreign organism DNA spliced into the essence of food is an atrocity.
Earlier this year the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid genetically modified foods and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks. They called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling. AAEM's position paper stated, "Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system...There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation."
All of these Round Up ready Frankenfood crops are leading to unprecedented use of Round Up (glyphosate). In 1994 glyphosate pesticide use was 7.9 million pounds. By 2005, with the widespread use of Round Up, that number jumped to 119.1 million pounds. This is breeding super weeds that require ever increasing amounts of Round Up, not to mention other new "super toxic" pesticides just to keep up with the war on weeds. The environmental impact of glyphosate overuse has been reviewed in an article published by Organic Consumers Association.
In August of 2009 French researchers reviewed the evidence showing how glyphosates disrupt human reproductive hormones (androgens and estrogens). Their data indicates that glyphosate-based herbicides residues in food, feed, and the environment should be considered and classified as carcinogens and reproductive toxins - not unlike the PCBs of years gone by. Once again Monsanto sits in the middle of the controversy with human health hanging in the balance. Does anyone trust Monsanto?
Avoid GMO food like the plague. Don't buy any product made with GMO food or any product made by a company that uses any GMO food. Demand that GMO food be labeled so that consumers have a clear choice. And look out for sugar, the latest food to undergo Frankenfood mutation.
