Monsanto announced that Europe will increase its
genetically modified crop area by 50,000-100,000 hectares per year over the next decade, which will bring GMO's to "the point of no return," according to Monsanto's director Michael Duhamel.
French farmers have sown 25,000 hectares of GMO maize, modified to resist insect pests. This despite the fact that French consumers are fiercely opposed to modified crops.
Duhamel is quoted as saying, "Consumers receive false information on what GMO crops are, so they are afraid. But I'm sure that within ten years they will have accepted them."
Let's hope not.
Independent studies are cropping up, showing the potential for
devastating effects of GMO's on the human biology, such as the case of the
pest-resistant peas that were found to cause lung damage in mice.
In
another study, more than half of the rats fed with our
U.S. grown modified soy died within three weeks, and six times as many pups with below average birth weight were delivered, compared to those fed a non-GMO diet.
The list of nerve-racking
health hazards goes on... I recommend staying away from GMO produce as much as possible, which is not necessarily an easy task, considering the lack of labeling. There are some things you can do to reduce your risk, however:
- Reduce or eliminate processed foods.
- Read the labels. If ingredients like corn flour, corn meal, dextrin, starch, soy sauce, margarine and tofu are listed, it's a good chance they're GMO's.
- Buy locally grown, organic produce.
- Look at the produce PLU code stickers. The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit has four numbers, organically grown has five numbers prefaced by the number 9, and GM fruit has five numbers prefaced by the number 8.
Scotsman.com June 26, 2007