Genetically Modified Foods – GMO’s Their Dangers and Health Hazards

Scientific Studies have proven that Genetic Modification of foods can cause cancer and create Allergies, Toxins, Antibiotic Resistant Diseases, Carcinogenic, Anti-Nutritional and other Nutritional Problems. Monsanto and our government have opened a Pandora’s Box in our food Supply which can create serious Health Hazards for all who ingest these Genetically Modified products.Few people would eat Monsanto’s “genetically modified food” if they understood what it was or knew that they were eating it. President Obama and his family won’t eat it. Neither did the Bush family. Even a Monsanto employee cafeteria rejects it. This is no laughing matter! Your health and the health of your children and grandchildren are at stake. It seems more like a scene from a horror flick than something happening in modern day America.

Genetic Engineering (GE) or Genetic Modification (GM) of food involves the laboratory process of artificially inserting genes into the DNA of food crops or animals. The result is called a genetically modified organism or GMO. GMOs can be engineered with genes from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Most Americans say they would not eat GMOs if labeled, but unlike most other industrialized countries , the United States (U.S.) does not require labeling.

The people must know the dangers and what GMO or Genetically Modified Foods are to arm themselves with knowledge on protecting themselves and their familys. Many countries have banned the sale of GMO’s. There are good reasons that are scientifically proven.

Human Health Risks

Allergenicity Many children in the US and Europe have developed life-threatening allergies to peanuts and other foods. There is a possibility that introducing a gene into a plant may create a new allergen or cause an allergic reaction in susceptible individuals.

Unknown effects on human health There is a growing concern that introducing foreign genes into food plants may have an unexpected and negative impact on human health.

Environmental hazards

Unintended harm to other organisms Last year a laboratory study was published in Nature showing that pollen from B.T. corn caused high mortality rates in monarch butterfly caterpillars. Monarch caterpillars consume milkweed plants, not corn, but the fear is that if pollen from B.T. corn is blown by the wind onto milkweed plants in neighboring fields, the caterpillars could eat the pollen and perish. Although the Nature study was not conducted under natural field conditions, the results seemed to support this viewpoint. Unfortunately, B.t. toxins kill many species of insect larvae indiscriminately; it is not possible to design a B.t. toxin that would only kill crop-damaging pests and remain harmless to all other insects. 

Reduced effectiveness of pesticides Just as some populations of mosquitoes developed resistance to the now-banned pesticide DDT, many people are concerned that insects will become resistant to B.T. or other crops that have been genetically-modified to produce their own pesticides.

Gene transfer to non-target species Another concern is that crop plants engineered for herbicide tolerance and weeds will cross-breed, resulting in the transfer of the herbicide resistance genes from the crops into the weeds. These “superweeds” would then be herbicide tolerant as well. Other introduced genes may cross over into non-modified crops planted next to GM crops. The possibility of interbreeding is shown by the defense of farmers against lawsuits filed by Monsanto. The company has filed patent infringement lawsuits against farmers who may have harvested GM crops.

If you arm yourself with the knowledge we are providing you in this blog, you will be doing what we all should do to make our lives richer and healthier. 

Sewage and coffee related!!

E.coli bacteria is commonly used to evaluate and regulate the levels of fecal pollution of our water from storm water discharge, but because storm sewer systems collect surface runoff, non-human sources can contribute significantly to the levels that are observed," Sauvé explained. "Our study has determined that there is a strong correlation between the levels of caffeine in water and the level of bacteria, and that chemists can therefore use caffeine levels as an indicator of pollution due to sewerage systems."

The researchers took water samples from streams, brooks and storm sewer outfall pipes in Montreal, and analyzed them for caffeine, fecal coliforms, and a third suspected indicator, carbamazepine. Shockingly, all the samples contained these contaminants, which would suggest that contamination is widespread in urban environments. Carbamazepine is an anti-seizure drug which is also increasingly used for various psychiatric treatments, and the researchers thought it might be a useful indicator because it degrades very slowly. However, no correlation like that seen between sewage and caffeine was found.
Caffeine degrades within a few months in the environment and is very widely consumed. The presence of caffeine is also a sure indicator of human sewage contamination, as agriculture and industry do not tend to release caffeine into the environment. The team also noted that the data suggest that Montreal's storm water collection system is widely contaminated by domestic sewers. On the other hand, the researchers observed high levels of fecal coliforms but little or no caffeine in some of the samples, which they attribute to urban wildlife.
"This data reveals that any water sample containing more than the equivalent of ten cups of coffee diluted in an Olympic-size swimming pool is definitely contaminated with fecal coliforms," Sauvé said. "A caffeine sampling program would be relatively easy to implement and might provide a useful tool to identify sanitary contamination sources and help reduce surface water contamination within an urban watershed."