Our Food!! GMO’s
I’d love to hear the “international view” of this topic. It’s about “GMO” food, and it’s a topic that I’ve been quite interested in lately. (GMO) stands for “Genetically Modified Organisms”. “Organisms” mean “living things”. ”Genetically modified” means that the genes (genetics) have been changed (modified). In this case, it’s essentially talking about fruits and vegetables that have been changed by scientists.
This is big business: HUGE business. There are several large multi-national corporations that are trying to change and control the food we eat. They hire scientists to play around with the natural genes in plants and some animals. They want to make fruit and vegetables that are bigger, more colourful, more difficult for insects to eat, better at growing in hot/cold weather…
That sounds great if that’s the whole story. Unfortunately, it’s not even close!
The reason I started looking into this topic was because I was doing some research on the types of foods that will make me healthiest. I want to change my diet to eat only the stuff that will make me look and feel the best, live the longest, and give me the most energy.
When I was researching this stuff, I saw a lot of information about how “big business” is controlling our food. I sort of knew they were doing it, but I recently found out that it’s MUCH worse that I thought before.
There are many problems with GM food. One of them is that the companies don’t test them for long enough before allowing the people to eat them. They don’t really know if these foods are healthy or not for us in the long term. They just “hope for the best” and only care about whether or not they are making money. It’s much easier to grow and sell GM foods, and big business is ONLY about making money.
To be honest, I don’t really care if some companies are playing “mind games” with us and trying to get us to buy an iPhone instead of a Samsung; it’s just a phone. What makes me sick, however, is the idea that they do this with everything, even the food we eat and the water we drink.
Another problem with GM food is that it’s horrible for local farmers. These companies own the legal rights to their seeds and they force farmers to grow and sell these foods. The farmers have no choice, because if they are growing a big field of rice or corn, they won’t have control if one little patented GM seed blows in the wind and onto their field. If this happens (which ALWAYS happens) the big company can take the little farmer to court and say that the farmer is cheating by stealing their seeds. This is even true if the farmer only has 0.01% GM food by accident. It’s sick!
Many people are starting to “wake up” to the problem with GM foods, but these companies are so strong and tricky. Just a couple weeks ago there was a big court battle about this topic. Of course, the rich companies won….. What happened was this: One state in the USA wanted to force people who grew GM products to put a GM label (a sticker) on the food. This was to let the people know what they were buying. That seems totally reasonable right? People should absolutely know if the food they are buying has been played around with by scientists or not. But the court said that the GM companies DO NOT have to put labels on the food. This is crazy, and this means that we don’t know if the food is GM food or not when we are shopping.
I watched a couple AWESOME documentaries about this topic. They explain about the whole modern farming industry and what is going on by these insane companies. They show what happens when mice eat these GM foods (It’s really scary and I hope this won’t happen to us later. Many mice get sick or get cancers from the GM food). They show how difficult life is for the farmers from all over the world. They interview one Canadian farmer who took the company to the biggest court in Canada. The company, Monsanto, tried to scare this farmer and this company does it to farmers all over the world. I’ve shown my friends and family these documentaries and they all thought they were awesome. I put BOTH full length documentaries here in the special VIP community for you guys to watch and discuss.
I’d love to know what you think or know about the topic of GM food. What is the news saying about this in your country? Do you believe it? What do you think we can do to fight for healthy food? Do your farmers have to grow this stuff? Be careful. I hope these large companies lose and they don’t control the world’s food. ”Google this” and do some research on GM food in your country and please share with us.
June 29th, 2013 at 11:25 pm
Hi..guys
nice topic as always..
i actually hate those who play with food.
nobody knows, in long terms view , what’s going to happen to those innocent people who enjoyed it.
we might be going to be weired GMO-ed people like in the movie.
scary things !!!
if i had certain power ,
i’d put those bad guys into the hell.
we should be natural in all aspect!!
thanks ///////////////////
June 30th, 2013 at 2:16 am
It’s an interesting topic. I live in Chile and here Monsanto have been lobbying the lawmakers since a time ago. And they are achieving their objectives because there is no transparency law (There was a bill about the matter, but as was to be expected nobody is really interested in change the status quo because many politicians finance their campaigns with money that came from big companies). And they are more interested in the next election rather than the health of the people.
June 30th, 2013 at 5:39 am
Even if we can get ppl to understand the horrible consequences of using these type of products, the authorities will always find a way to talk the “common mass” out. We are gullible and malleable creatures, you know!!!
June 30th, 2013 at 9:02 am
I only know that our lives are longer and longer, so…
June 30th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Hi, Andy.
In March 2005, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted one of the most restrictive laws on biotechnology in Europe. The law prohibits the manufacture, commercialization, field tests or research on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for three crops – tobacco, vines, and Damask Rose – considered by authorities to “strategic” crops that give Bulgaria a unique advantage. According to Atanas Atanassov, Director of Agro-bio-Institute (ABI), one of the leading organizations in the biotechnological research Bulgaria is the only country in the world that has imposed a ban on biotech research. The law also prohibits the production, commercialization and field testing of many other transgenic crops, such as wheat, cotton, vegetables and lasting fruit. Fines for violating these restrictions are severe, with penalties of up to 1 million lev (USD 657,000) for violating the ban on the cultivation of GM plants or fruit. This penalty also applies to companies that violate the ban by releasing antibiotic-resistant plants or seeds in the environment. Moreover, the law places severe restrictions on the cultivation of GMOs, as it must be approved by the Commission on Biosafety, the required buffer zone of 30 kilometers around the transgenic plants. This requirement is particularly burdensome given the small size of the country and the fact that only approximately 30% of land in Bulgaria is arable.
June 30th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Hi.Thank u for good Article.You made me aware of many facts about such fruits.I had a doctor who recommended me not to eat such fruits.
June 30th, 2013 at 7:15 pm
It’s an interesting and nice topic. Here in Egypt alot who want to earn alot and quickly grow and sell G m food which we consider it as business and unhealthy food
alot of farmers donot grow Gm food as they use their own seeds
the smell and the taste is not the same for the
so I myself grow my land my self
June 30th, 2013 at 11:45 pm
It’s quite beneficial article. I have gained a great deal of useful information from this article. No one can argue that the healthy food is one of the most significant concern for human beings. As a sequence it’s essential that governments put rules to prevent these companies which produce these crops.
July 1st, 2013 at 4:03 am
Hello guys, thanks you for this topic. You know I think that in this modern world a lot of people have heard about it. And they know that it’s might be dangerous, but they don’t know enough about product which they buy. Actually I really don’t know am I eating GMO product or not. And it’s really ridiculous, that GMO Company won this battle. I think that consumer should to know about is the product he buy consist GMO or not. It’s sad that we even can’t influence to this situation. And if I want to eat only health food without GMO it’s early difficult to do, because you might not be 100% correct whether or not this GMO food.
July 1st, 2013 at 9:41 am
In my country selling GMO seeds is allowed from 28.01.2013 so this is really current problem. A big plus is that the media inform people what exactly GMO is and what bad effects brings this food. GMO is really huge problem because, as you said the producers don’t have to put labels on the product. The concequences for customers are terrible- we don’t really know what we eat and we haven’t any choice!However, there is some way to protect yourself from this ugly food because most of GMO products are sold in big supermarkets. To have any control what we eating, we can buy vegetables, fruits and meat from local farmers. In Poland many people have little gardens to grow vegetables and fruits only for own family and friends. This products are smaller and not super perfect than food from supermarkets but for sure are healthier and tasting much better.
July 1st, 2013 at 12:23 pm
Thanks you, guys, for covering such an interesting topic. Here in Moscow I can see that common people do not really care about what they actually eat. After reading your current blog I’ve asked some of my co-workers and my friends what do they think about all that GMO thing, most of them answered like: Well, I know such a thing exists, I heard either good stuff about it or bad, but I don’t actually care, do they really sell GMO products in Russia?
Fortunately, we don’t grow GMO crops in Russia so far if what official statistics said is true, but still we do have GMO products on the shelves of our supermarkets as they have a lot of GMO food stuff imported into Russia.
The most embarassing point for me is that our food manufacturers or re-sellers are not forced by law to have special GMO mark on that frankenfood.
I also read on the Internet, that GMO fruit and vegetables are sterile: they grow and are eaten, but they don’t raise up seed.GMO growing farmers become sort of drug-addicts: first dose of seeds is for free, then you should pay license charge. Farmers can’t keep some of the seeds for the next year as they got spoiled by that time. If that’s really how the things are, farmers (or even countries in the worst case) become very dependable on GMO seeds’ sellers (it seem to be very little more of them in the whole world). It’s very dangerous from the economical and political point of view either.
I even heard that if a natural (not GMO) plant was fertilized by GMO blossom dust it even would become sterile.
I’ve found on the Internet that Brazilia and Argentina already lost their seed reserves of some crops for GMO seeds, I so hope that it won’t happen to my country!
July 2nd, 2013 at 6:19 am
Hey guys, nice topic!
It’s amazing – I’ve just recently read about this Monsanto company and about all the harm they’ve caused (that has been revealed) and I thought how horrible it is to treat food and products like another business and really not care about the concequences it may cause! I’m trying to be optimistic and think about all the government policies and measures that are (hopefully) done to prevent people form getting this terrible food (if we can call it “food”) – but more and more I see it’s not true. I shop carefully, always read the “back side” of the product – and not for the calories,but for the ingredients. Unfortunately, I take it – sometimes the GM ingredients aren’t there because the manufacturer didn’t write that information, of course they’ll try to conseal it. I want to believe that with this global uproar against GM products food industry will stop cutting costs on our health — what can be more precious than your own health?! — and start giving us food without the “organic” label. It should be organic without any further doubt.
July 7th, 2013 at 4:42 am
it’s not so often to talk about where the food is coming from or who mekes it. I think it’s time to began to worry about it because it’s our health which is at stake.
July 7th, 2013 at 5:30 am
It’s really informative.. Thanks alot.
July 10th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
our world is flooded by GM food, but what can we do? there are organic food around too but they’re very expensive and rare, its inevitable.