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WHY YOU DON'T WANT GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS-HIDDEN IN EVERYDAY FOODS-AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
Imagine engineers manipulating common food crops and making them produce their own insecticide or making them resistant to chemical herbicides that kill other plants. These sound like scenarios you might see in a scary futuristic sci-fi movie, yet they have already happened, and many of us are unknowingly eating foods that are genetically modified in one of these ways - or both of them - every day.
In genetic engineering, genes from bacteria, viruses, animals, and other sources are inserted into plants (and animals such as salmon that are not yet in our food supply) to create a genetically modified organism (GMO) that would never occur in nature. Despite warnings of health dangers from its own scientists, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided to allow genetically modified (GM) foods on the market without labeling and without safety testing, and commercial planting of these never- befo re- used seeds began in 1996. Now most of the four major GM foods - soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton - are genetically modified.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 93 percent of all soybeans, 78 percent of all cotton, and 70 percent of all corn grown in the United States in 2010 were genetically modified to be herbicide tolerant. Some GM foods, such as corn, are increasingly "stacked" - genetically modified to be both herbicide tolerant and insect resistant. It is estimated that most Americans, including many health food shoppers, are eating GM foods without realizing it because the most common GM foods, such as soy and corn, are in most convenience foods, and GM foods are not labeled. In other countries, GM foods are labeled or they're banned.
The Health Risks of GMOs
What you didn't know you've been eating may be harming you. Based on animal research with GM foods, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), an international organization of physicians, says that there are serious health risks associated with eating GM foods, including infertility, immune system problems, accelerated aging, disruption of insulin and cholesterol regulation, gastrointestinal problems, and organ damage. "There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation,"...