I’m
sure most of you have heard about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), but as
I was myself up until recently, not many know what exactly are GMOs and how
harmful they really are. My dearest friend from way back in the day, Salma, who
recently started her own blog: Coconuts and Cocoa (all about eating healthy,
clean and keeping fit), asked me if I was familiar with GMOs and I only knew
the very basics. She was doing research for her next blog series dedicated to
GMOs, and I was interested in learning more about them so we decided to
collaborate together through posts on each of our blogs. Salma’s first post of
the series will introduce GMOs in detail while I will cover their impacts on
the environment and the different initiatives from around the world to get GMOs
banned/labelled. So here goes!
First
of all, what exactly are GMOs? For a simple answer, according to the World
Health Organization (WHO), GMOs are “Organisms in which the genetic material (DNA)
has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally”. But for more details
and a thorough (and beautifully-written) explanation, I suggest you read Salma’s
informative post here.
Now
onto the negative impacts of GMOs... How bad are they? And what exactly are
their environmental impacts?
Here’s
a rather short but informative video that summarises the ugly truth about
GMOs...
The
ecological impacts of GMOs still remain vague and the least understood, even
though ironically their impacts on the environment are the most consequential to
our plants, crops and generally our health and well-being.
However,
what is certain and confirmed is that the overuse of herbicide-tolerant GMO
crops has led to an increase in herbicide use (use of toxic herbicides like RoundUp
has increased 15 times since the introduction of GMOs) and resulted in an outbreak
of herbicide resistant “superweeds” and “superbugs”. Superweeds and superbugs
basically are those that adapt to resist herbicides, and can only be killed
with even more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). This
results in an overall more aggressive and increased use of herbicides.
Greenpeace
explain the impacts of GMOs brilliantly in this short and sweet video below.
Another
serious environmental impact of GMOs is cross-contamination. This is a problem
especially noted in the United States, where engineered crops covering around
half of all harvested cropland. With seed or pollen from those GMO cropland drifting
onto neighbouring plots, organic farmers are struggling to prevent
cross-contamination. Unfortunately, current industry standards for separating
GMO fields from organic cropland have proven to be inadequate as insects, wind,
floods and machinery spread seed and pollen over extensive distances. This is
especially problematic for farmers who aim to sell their crops to countries
that strictly regulate or ban GMO foods, as it harms their exports and profits.
Efforts to Get GMOs Labelled and Banned
The
topic of GMOs has been a controversial one worldwide, especially in the United
States. The reason for that is that all industrial countries besides Canada and
the US legally require that a food item is labelled if it contains genetically
modified ingredients. The European Union, for example, has very stringent GMO
regulations. In fact, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Luxembourg and
Bulgaria have placed bans on the cultivation and sale of GMOs. In contrast, in
the US, the food industry claims that GMO foods are not harmful and insists
they are perfectly safe. However, 92% of Americans think GMO should be
labelled and about 1.4m Americans have signed petitions to get GMOs labelled or
banned.
The most notable effort to get GMOs labelled is “Just Label It”. Watch the campaign video below, which features celebrities like Michael J
Fox, Ziggy Marley and many others voicing their support for GMO labelling.
If you're a US resident, make sure you check out Just Label It for more information
on how you can donate to the cause and take action.
More general petitions and worldwide initiatives:
Make sure you all are more aware of the food you consume;
find out exactly where it comes from, how it was cultivated and what toxins it
may contain. Remember, all that glitters is not gold! If it looks too good to
be true, too unnaturally appealing then don’t go near it. Your health is most
precious, guard it well and maintain it with naturally nutritious food. And
that right there is your stairway to the fountain of youth; natural all the
way!
P.S. keep checking Coconuts and Cocoa for more of Salma’s
GMO-related posts!
Anoud x
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