Genetically Modified Food: The Future of Food

"I think this is probably the largest biological experiment humanity has ever entered into."

-Ignacio Chapela


Genetically Modified (GM) Foods are "organisms whose DNA has been modified through genetic engineering, unlike similar food organisms developed through the conventional genetic modification of selective breeding or mutation breeding."

After watching the movie The Future of Food, I am concerned that the integrity of our food has been compromised. The movie will make you think twice about the food you eat, U.S. government regulation, and potential health consequences. Following are a few highlights:

-Once it became legal to patent seeds, corporations now have the power to own and control species of the earth. In the 90's the pesticide industries bought the seed industries and now Monsanto, a large agricultural corporation, owns 11,000 patents...they own the marketplace.

-GM plants reproduce and when introduced into the environment, they cannot be contained. This means that birds or other animals can carry seed from one farm to another--or seed can blow off from a truck driving down the highway and corrupt all of the farmland that the GM seed falls into. Not only are the farmers losing the integrity of their plants, but they are being sued by the corporations that own the GM plant patents and being forced to burn their own seeds that they have used for hundreds of years.

-The GM process uses bacteria and viruses to invade the cells, leading to concern for health risks.

-There are three government agencies that oversee GM products:
Department of Agriculture (USDA)- is supposed to test the environmental impact of GM crops. The USDA did not require a single environmental assessment.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)- regulates insecticides. The insecticide BT is in every GM crop.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- is responsible for food and drug safety. They placed GM products in the category of "generally recognized as safe" and therefore do not require testing or labeling of GM food.

-Because GM food is not labeled in the U.S. there is no ability to trace the health consequences, thus reducing liability concern for the corporations and putting the public at risk. Twenty-five other countries require labeling of GM food, including all 15 countries from the European Union. Japan has stated that before using GM food, they will "watch the children in the U.S. for the next 10 years."

-Because corporations now own the patent to thousands of seed varieties, they can limit the number of varieties that are actually used. Limited variety leads to increased risk to the world food supply. If one food variety is compromised, it can wipe out a huge portion of the world food supply (remember the potato famine in Ireland?).

I encourage you to watch the movie. It's worth thinking about what we are putting into our body. Let me know what you think by posting a comment.

Movie Synopsis (you can watch at www.hulu.com)

THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.