Genetics and Survival

Its amazing to me how many people hate the agri-company, Monsanto, one of the leaders in GMO of food sources, but the idea of genetically modifying foodstuffs has existed for centuries. Cross-pollination of plants (and animals) to create new breeds is something that has been experimented with in laboratories and on farms for long enough that nobody is sure where or when it began.

Even so, that beginning is nothing when compared to the genetically modified varieties of food that are coming out of laboratories today.

The major difference between today’s GMO foods and those of the past is that in the past, genetic modification was limited to natural processes, cross-breeding plants through natural pollination.

It can be theorized that this prevented dangerous and unhealthy strains from cropping up. However, today’s GMOs are created in the laboratory, not necessarily ignoring nature (since everything on earth is based on "nature" and the "natural order of things" even when manipulated) to create plants that produce crops to the scientist’s specifications.

Nobody knows the full effects of GMOs, which is part of the reason that so many people are afraid of them. While GMO foods look and taste like good food products, there is no way of knowing the long-term affect they will have - yet!

Little to no study has been done as to the nutritional value of GMOs, to verify that they provide the necessary nutrients. Let's take corn for instance! We do you know the nutritional value of sweet corn for human consumption and that grown for everything else, including fuel. Its amazing that only 1% of the corn we grow today is sweet corn. So you can imagine that we are likely consuming more GMO based field corn that are basically empty calories, than naturally grown sweet corn just based on the availability.

One of the apparent side affect of these GMOs has been the killing off of our bee population. It is unclear whether bees are poisoned by the GMOs, or whether they starve to death because of the lack of nutrients in their diets. Nevertheless, hundreds of millions of bees have died, apparently due to eating from GMOs.

With the concern over these GMO food products, there are many who are switching to organic, or even growing their own produce, in order to have something that they know will provide them with proper nutrition.

This has given rise to an increase in sales of what are called heirloom seeds.

The top five GMO food products used today that you should be aware of are:

Animal Feed – Most animal feed used for commercial raising of animals is GMO, especially GMO soybeans, simply because it is easier. Nobody knows how much is passed on to the people eating those animals.

Corn – Almost half of the corn grown in the United States is GMO. This includes corn used for grain, corn used for animal feed and corn eaten as canned or frozen corn. This specific modification was created to kill off bugs that destroy the crops. It also kills Monarch butterflies. Nobody knows the effect that it has on humans.

Soy – For all of you that drink soy milk because you think it is better for you, over 85% of the soybeans raised in the Untied States are genetically modified. Since soy is widely used in the production of other products, such as cereal and baked goods, a lot of what the average family eats contains GM soy. In addition, the bulk of GM soy produced is used as animal feed.

Oils – The cooking oil we use for preparing our food is a product of GM foods. Most prepackaged foods are cooked with some oil, which in almost all cases comes from GM plants.

Golden rice – This is one of the oldest GM food products. Originally created to fight vitamin A deficiency, golden rice is eaten worldwide.

GMO is a complicated and controversial subject, nearly at the level of the difference between Clinton and Trump, and one every body should research and understand how it will affect the lives of their families. Read food labels and be picky in the foods you eat.

Be Well, DrJ

Dr. Gordon Jones is a serial entrepreneur with his creative work born through his innovation development company, Birddog.Ventures. Follow him above, connect with him on LinkedIn, and/or view all of DrJ's Pulse articles!