Post by Susan Audrey

Jeffery Smith

We recently caught up with non-GMO (non-genetically modified organism) proponent and renown author Jeffery M. Smith to get an updated look at genetically modified food production and what is being done–and not being done–to curb these food production practices proven to produce foods that cause health risks in animals and humans.
Jeffery, whose controversial and widely read books include Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, will be a featured speaker at this fall’s National Heirloom Exhibition coordinated by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and slated for September 13-15, 2011, in Sonoma County, California. (Visit www.theheirloomexpo.com for more details.)
Jeffery answers the following questions, providing answers that will hopefully provide a better understanding of genetically modified food and what we, the consumer, can do to stop these unsafe food raising practices:

1.) Our readers are proponents of growing pure, non-GMO, non-patented heirloom seed. For those who don’t know the “whole story” about why they are doing a good thing, please provide a brief Jeffrey M. Smith explanation for why they are making a good choice.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with genetically modified (GM) food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. The AAEM has asked physicians to advise all patients to avoid GM foods. These types of problems were actually predicted by the scientists at the Food and Drug Administration back in 1991 and 1992, when they looked at GMOs. Tens of thousands of documents later made public from a lawsuit revealed that they had repeatedly warned about toxins, allergens, new diseases, etc. and urged long term studies.
Today, the same biotech companies who have been found guilty of hiding toxic effects of their chemical products are in charge of determining whether their GM foods are safe. Industry-funded GMO safety studies are too superficial to find most of the potential dangers, and their voluntary consultations with the FDA are widely criticized as a meaningless façade.

Widespread damage, unprecedented risk
The genetic engineering process transfers genes across natural species’ barriers and creates massive collateral damage, causing mutations in hundreds or thousands of locations throughout the plant’s DNA. These changes have been shown to increase or introduce allergens, toxins, and anti-nutrients. In addition, the protein produced by the inserted gene may be harmful, the inserted gene may transfer to our own DNA or that of our intestinal bacterial (and continue to function), and most GM food has more herbicide residues.

Lab animals tested with GM foods had stunted growth, impaired immune systems, bleeding stomachs, abnormal and potentially precancerous cell growth in the intestines, impaired blood cell development, misshapen cell structures in the liver, pancreas, ovaries, uterus, and testicles, altered gene expression and cell metabolism, liver and kidney lesions, partially atrophied livers, inflamed kidneys, less developed brains and testicles, enlarged livers, pancreases, and intestines, reduced digestive enzymes, higher blood sugar, inflamed lung tissue, increased death rates, higher offspring mortality, smaller offspring, sterility, and hair growing in their mouths.

About two dozen farmers report that GM corn varieties caused their pigs or cows to become sterile, 71 shepherds say that 25% of their sheep died from grazing on Bt cotton plants, and others say that cows, water buffaloes, chickens, and horses also died from eating GM crops.
Filipinos in at least five villages fell sick when nearby Bt corn was pollinating and thousands of laborers in India report allergic reactions from handling Bt cotton. Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the United Kingdom, soon after genetically engineered soy was introduced; and one human subject out of the few tested showed a skin prick allergic-type reaction to GM soy, but not to natural wild soy. In the 1980s, a GM food supplement killed about one hundred Americans and caused sickness and disability in another five to ten thousand people.
The biotech industry claims that no adverse reactions have ever been found.

GM foods on the market
There are eight GM food crops. The five major varieties—soy, corn, canola, cotton, and sugar beets—have bacterial genes inserted, which allow the plants to survive an otherwise deadly dose of weed killer. Farmers use considerably more herbicides on these GM crops and so the food has higher herbicide residues.
The second GM trait is a built-in pesticide, found in GM corn and cotton. A gene from the soil bacterium called Bt (for Bacillus thuringiensis) is inserted into the plant’s DNA, where it secretes the insect-killing Bt-toxin in every cell.
There is also Hawaiian papaya and a small amount of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, which are engineered to resist a plant virus.

GM Corn

2.) How can home gardeners and small-scale farmers (who make up the majority of our heirloom seed fans) take their loyalty to non-GMO a step further? Using non-GMO seed, they are growing some of their food (or food for others), but how can they ensure good, healthy food choices beyond this, for themselves, their families, their communities and customers?

Buy local and Organic

We publish a Non-GMO Shopping Guide. It’s available online, as a download, or a pocket guide, at www.NonGMOShoppingGuide.com. It’s also an iPhone App called ShopNoGMO. Since most Americans say they would avoid GMOs if labeled, this is turning out to be a very popular portable labeling system.

3.) What can our readers do at a more worldly political level to stop GMO’s?

Unfortunately, the US government has been marching lockstep with Monsanto for decades. However, consumers control the future of food.
We know that even a small percentage of shoppers avoiding GM brands was enough to trigger a dairy industry cleanout of bovine growth hormone. A consumer driven tipping point a decade ago has kept GMOs out of the European Union food supply in spite of government approvals. We estimate that the critical number for US tipping point is as little as 5% of US consumers, 15 million health conscious shoppers choosing non-GMO brands.
I would like to extend a warm invitation to your readers to join us in a new network dedicated to create a tidal wave of non-GMO outreach and activism. Since we announced it in December, we have had nearly 1000 people jump on board, with over 200 volunteering to be on the leader teams.

The Non-GMO Tipping Point Network (TPN) is a collection of local and national Non-GMO Action Groups, along with support groups of experts and helpers.

• Local groups focus on community outreach in their areas, which can include targeting parents, schools, healthcare practitioners, religious groups, chefs, health-conscious shoppers, etc.
• Each of more than a dozen national groups focus on a single target, e.g. parents, schools, practitioners, etc.
• Members of the local groups who are involved in outreach to parents, for example, can also be a member of the national parent outreach group. That way every local campaign can benefit from everyone in the network who is focusing on that same channel.
• Support groups, which are not yet formed, will include experts and helpers that can be a resource for each of the groups, and to our network as whole. They will include experts in marketing and messaging, scientific and medical, legal, fundraising, etc.

We are also training speakers to present information on the risks of GMOs, particularly in the area of health. They will be extremely valuable for each group’s outreach program. Furthermore, their talks, and the organized “Activist Circles” that they will conduct at the end, will bring many more people into the network.

This month, more than 150 people will complete our 4-part webinar, bringing the total number of trained speakers to nearly 350. This will increase substantially, as we will give several more webinar and in-person trainings in 2011. See our site for the details, as they get scheduled.

In addition to the Tipping Point Network, in 2010 we put together a group of “distribution partners,”—organizations, websites, businesses, and publications, that distribute GMO educational materials to several million recipients each month. We expect to expand that number significantly this year. If anyone has a way to get the word out, we can offer dozens of free articles.

If you would like to join the Non-GMO Tipping Point Network, go to the enrollment page and fill out the form, indicating your areas of interest for outreach, and whether you wish to be a group leader.

4.) Is there a particular area in the U.S. or a country we can look to as a “role model” in saying no to GMO’s?

Northern California has long been a hot bed of anti-GMO activity, and Vermont and Hawaii have also been very active. But something has changed for the better in the past year, and now we have a national movement that’s about to erupt.

Within the first six months of last year, we witnessed more people in the US than ever before enthusiastically getting the word out about the dangers of GMOs. This was in part due to the huge internet distribution channels that have been getting articles and videos out to MILLIONS every month. And then there was the high profile media coverage of GE salmon and the sugar beet and alfalfa court cases. In spite of their bitter outcomes at the hands of the USDA, the prolonged alfalfa and sugar beet fights actually helped elevate GMOs on our personal and national radar screens.

Now MILLIONS of us are angry and outraged at the approvals by the USDA. That’s right, there are millions of us. And you can hear our frustration flying around in blogs, emails, press reports, petitions, etc. Do you remember the reaction just four years ago when GM sugar beets were approved for sale? There was nothing close to this response. It was hardly a blip. Where we have come in just a few years is a cause for celebration. And an unprecedented opportunity to throw our new weight around.
Please sign up for our newsletter at www.responsibleTechnology.org to find out details soon.

5.) What are some of your newest findings regarding the use of GMO’s in the raising of our food?

According to a Russian Academy of Sciences institute ongoing study announced in 2010, hamsters were fed GM soybeans over two years. By the third generation, most lost the ability to have babies, there was a four or five-fold increase in infant mortality, and many had hair growing in their mouths.

We also have new information about how Roundup herbicide is causing a catastrophe in agriculture and our food.

It has been linked to birth defects in humans and animals, it messes up our reproductive hormones, it can kill human placental cells, and it may cause cancer. Roundup is in MUCH higher residues in Roundup Ready plants, and its use is now skyrocketing, due to the emergence of Roundup resistant super weeds.

But that’s not all. Roundup doesn’t destroy plants directly. It rather cooks up a perfect storm of conditions that wipes out plant defenses against diseases and promotes disease-causing organisms in the soil that overrun the weakened plant. Its primary mode is as a chelator. The glyphosate molecule grabs vital nutrients and doesn’t let them go. When applied to crops, it deprives them of vital minerals necessary for healthy plant function—especially for resisting serious soil borne diseases.

Glyphosate (Roundup’s active ingredient) also annihilates beneficial soil organisms that facilitate the uptake of plant nutrients and suppress disease-causing organisms; it can interfere with photosynthesis, reduce water use efficiency, lower lignin, damage and shorten root systems, cause plants to release important sugars, and change soil pH—all of which can negatively affect crop health; and it promotes plant diseases found in the soil, which then do the killing. More than 40 plant diseases that are now believed to be on the increase in the US, due to glyphosate. Some of the plant disease agents, like fusarium, also create toxins that are poisonous to humans and animals.

Monsanto used to boast that Roundup is biodegradable, claiming that it breaks down quickly in the soil. But courts in the US and Europe disagreed and found them guilty of false advertising. In fact, Monsanto’s own test data revealed that only 2% of the product broke down after 28 days. Now it is found that its effects can last for years, hurting crops that are planted in a field long after Roundup was used.
Glyphosate ties up minerals for years, essentially removing them from the pool of nutrients available for plants, animals, and humans. The total loss could easily run into the hundreds of millions of pounds of unavailable trace minerals, which are essential for our health and that of our children.
The toll it is already taking may be incalculable.

6.) Any new books in the works?

Our focus is now on building the Non-GMO Tipping Point Network and raising the money that will allow us to quickly reach the tipping point of consumer rejection. This is taking most of my time, so we’ll have to visit more books or films later on.

Click here to join a Non-GMO Action Group

Susan Audrey is a Northern California writer, editor, photographer and artist. She can be reached at tosusanaudrey@gmail.com