Friday, May 28, 2010

GMO Foods May Make You Sterile

Well--not you specifically but quite possibly your grandchildren. The evidence is mounting around the world but you won't hear about it in the US--at least not from the government.

Russian Scientists found problems related to fertility, birth weight of offspring, and infant mortality among animals raised on GMO soy. for two years, one group of hamsters was fed a normal diet without any soy whatsoever, a second group was fed non-GMO soy, a third ate GM soy, and a fourth group ate an even higher amount of GM soy than the third.

Using the same genetically modified (GM) soy that is produced on over 90 percent of the soy acreage in the US, the hamsters and their offspring were fed their respective diets over a period of two years, during which time the researchers evaluated three generations of hamsters.

The second generation raised on GMO-soy had fewer pups and infant deaths were 5 times higher.

The third generation was sterile.

Other studies using rats had similar results except that the sterility occurred in the second generation rather than the third. In the rat study the testicles of the rats eating GMO-soy changed from pink to blue along with changes in the sperm themselves. There are also plenty of reports about pigs, cows and other livestock having reproductive problems when fed genetically modified feed.

You and your children are eating GMO foods now but you've only been eating it for 14 years--not even one generation. The effects of GMO soy will not appear until after 2016 and the sterility problem in your grandchildren would not be apparent until 2036.

The US government has conflicts of interest that prevent the science behind GMO crops from reaching your grocery store. Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto attorney is in charge of US food safety and Clarence Thomas, also a former Monsanto attorney, sits on the US Supreme Court.

Monsanto is behind GMO crops and Roundup, a prominent herbicide.

Your government will not protect you from harmful foods, it's up to you to educate yourself and end GMO-foods with your pocketbook.

Remember there are eight genetically modified food crops:
  • Soy
  • Corn
  • Cottonseed (used in vegetable cooking oils)
  • Canola (canola oil)
  • Sugar from sugar beets
  • Hawaiian papaya
  • Some varieties of zucchini
  • Crookneck squash
Avoid any GMO varieties of these foods and their derivatives. The easiest way to avoid ending up with GM foods in your shopping cart is to do some pre-planning using the free non-GMO shopping guide, available at www.NonGMOshoppingGuide.com.

The Institute for Responsible Technology has also created a free iPhone application that is available in the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications.

The shopping guide lists the various derivatives of each crop to be avoided, and even better, it lists hundreds of brand products in 22 food categories that are non-GMO, so if you’re still buying processed foods, at least you can easily select a brand that does not use genetically modified ingredients.

Getting into a shopping habit of continually avoiding GM food products will create pressure on the marketplace, without which there is little hope. So take this one step! Download the shopping guide, and make note of which brands to buy and which ones to avoid like the plague that they are.

You can find loads of additional information about GMOs on the site www.ResponsibleTechnology.org.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron