GOING AGAINST GMOs

Headnote

October is Non-GMO Month a perfect time to interview our Food Matters columnist Melissa Diane Smith, author of the new book Going Against GMOs: The Fast-Growing Movement to Avoid Unnatural Genetically Modiñed Foods " to Take Back Our Food and Health

Why did you decide to write your new book?

I felt there was a strong need for an easy-to-understand consumer's guide on genetically modified organisms {GMOs} in our food. The book covers basics most consumers have missed and offers practical information on how to avoid GM foods, including shopping and eating out advice and more than 45 recipes.

What are GMOs and why do we need to "go against" them?

GMOs are created using genetic engineering techniques. Engineers insert genes from one living thing-say, a bacterium- into the DNÀ of another living thing-say, a type of corn-to confer new traits, such as pesticide production in a crop.

The FDA doesn't conduct safety studies on GM foods; it leaves that up to the companies that make them. But animal research points to serious health risks from eating GM foods, including infertility, immune system problems, gastrointestinal problem^ organ changes, and tumors.

Plus. GMOs threaten our environment, food security, and agricultural system. Most genetically modified crops on the market are sprayed with large amounts of herbicide, which pollute our land and water and get into our food. Chemical companies have been purchasing more of the world s seeds, genetically modifying them, and patenting them, so a handful of companies control our seed and food supply-and farmers can no longer save and pass down those patented seeds.

There are many health, environmental, farmers' rights, and food security reasons to avoid GMOs. Perhaps tops on the list are that GM foods benefit the chemical companies that make them, not us. and the only reason most of us have been eating them is because we didn't know we were!

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