GMO products aren’t as remarkable as biotech companies would have you believe: Biotech companies Monsanto and DuPont sell “trans fat-free” soybeans, an entirely superfluous invention with a “healthy” veneer. GMO Golden Rice is genetically engineered to contain beta-carotene, and is marketed as a way to save malnourished children in developing countries. However, beta-carotene needs to […]
It is often claimed that the presence of GMOs in our food chain decrease costs for citizens and help to alleviate the effects of poverty—that GMOs will feed the world. This is simply not true. • In 2009, the World Bank and the United Nations published a 590- page report concluding that GMOs have no […]
While purveyors of this technology, like Monsanto, reap incredible financial rewards, studies indicate that small farmers are being squeezed out of the industry or are forced to be little more than sharecroppers, perpetually in debt to the large companies that hold their crops hostage: • In 2013, Monsanto sued 500 farmers for patent violations. Farmers […]
The biotech industry claims that GMO crops deliver higher crop yields. The facts, however, do not bear this out. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists: Only one kind of GMO corn (corn that has been genetically altered to express the bacterial Bt toxin, which is poisonous to certain insect pests) has […]
The ability of conventional and organic farmers to produce GMO-free food, as well as the ability of consumers to buy GMO-free products, is being threatened by the biotech industry: GMO seeds can drift and contaminate organic crops. More than 30% of farmers seeking to grow organic crops reported that unintended GMO presence has been found […]
GMOs are not environmentally friendly, and have not lessened the use of toxic chemicals—in fact, they’ve increased it. Many crops are genetically modified to withstand the use of extremely toxic herbicides like Roundup. However, weeds are becoming increasingly tolerant of Roundup, creating “superweeds;” so much so that a new generation of crops is being engineered […]
The biotech industry would have us believe that genetic modification is “natural,” and the same as crossbreeding (which farmers have undertaken for thousands of years). However: Natural breeding usually only takes place between closely related forms of life—mixing genetic material from different organisms is not “natural.” Take, for example, salmon with antifreeze DNA and tomatoes […]
Some experts suggest that even edible, everyday mushrooms should be cooked. We consider some evidence. Dr. Andrew Weil says that all mushrooms are essentially indigestible if eaten raw because of their tough cell walls, and that to release their nutrients, they must be cooked. More importantly, he says, certain mushrooms contain small amounts of toxins, […]
Invoking the risk of famine as a justification for GMOs is “a deceitful strategy, no different from…Russian roulette,” according to the report. Action Alert! Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a scholar, statistician, Wall Street analyst and advisor, professor at New York University, and the bestselling author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan: The Impact […]
Invoking the risk of famine as a justification for GMOs is “a deceitful strategy, no different from…Russian roulette,” according to the report. Action Alert!