RATS WON’T EAT IT, WHY SHOULD WE?

Imagine cooking your family’s evening meal and before you put it on the table, you bring in your pet rats for a taste test.  The rats sniff the food, turn up their noses and walk away.  You serve it to your family anyway.  Or, let’s go a bit further.  Let’s say the rats do eat it and immediately get violently ill.  You ignore them and proceed to put dinner on the table.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?  Actually, it’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.  Large biotech companies have been manufacturing GM (genetically modified) foods and integrating them into our food supply for over 15 years.  In his book, Seeds Of Deception, Jeffrey M. Smith reports that “mice avoid eating GM foods when they have a choice, as do rats, cows, pigs, geese, elk, squirrels and others.”1

In 1999, the Washington Post reported “that laboratory mice refused to eat the GM FlavrSavr Tomato.”2  That didn’t stop the biotech companies.  They used gastric tubes and stomach washes to force the tomato into the mice.  “Several (mice) developed stomach lesions; seven of forty died within two weeks.  The tomato was approved without further tests.”3

What is genetic engineering?  “Instead of relying on species to pass on genes through mating, biologists cut the gene out of one species’ DNA, modify it, and then insert it directly into another species’ DNA.”4  And it’s used by biotech companies for several reasons – all of which have a positive effect on the bottom line.  One of the uses for genetic engineering is to make plants and/or animals resistant to insecticides and herbicides (poisons) that are used to kill insects or pests that can impact the yield of a crop or herd.

Where is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and why aren’t they protecting us?  From 1979 to 1994, Henry Miller was responsible for FDA biotechnology issues.  According to Miller, “U.S. government agencies have done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do and told them to do.”5

It’s time to step away from the fairytale that the government is watching out for us and has our best interest in mind.  It’s time to become responsible for our own health and that of our family.  The first step in that process is to get informed about what we eat – not just the sugar, or carb, or calorie content of the food we eat - but are the foods we put on our tables genetically modified.

Even though our grocery store shelves are inundated with GM foods, there are still Non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) food products to choose from.  Jeffrey Smith offers a monthly newsletter at www.seedsofdeception.com .The website also details how to avoid eating GM foods.   The Institute For Responsible Technology, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to inform and educate about the negative impact of GMO-food, offers a free Non-GMO Shopping Guide on their website.4  Also buy locally as much as possible, especially from organic farms, and seek out organic produce in your supermarket.

Then when you put dinner on your table, you’ll know it’s something you really want to be eating.

1. Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Australia, 2003, Chapter 1
2. Rick Weiss, “Biotech Food Crop Raises a Crop of Questions, Washington Post, August 15, 1999; p. A1
3. Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Australia, 2003, Chapter 1
4. Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Australia, 2003, Chapter 2
5. Kurt Eichenwald, and others, “Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle.” The New York Times, January 25, 2001
6. See www.responsibletechnology.org