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As Ivan and I decided to take back our health from the multi-billion dollar food industry, specifically processed, packaged, irradiated, genetically engineered and preserved foods, we did a lot of research to learn which processes were HARMLESS and which processes were HARMFUL to our bodies. In this blog, we want to focus on genetic engineering, also referred to as or GE foods or GMO (genetically modified organisms).
There is a lot of information and disinformation swirling around us about GE food. Most sources agree with this fact: the health risks from GE foods have not been clearly identified. They have been approved for human consumption without the benefit of years of study about how they will impact our health. We have a problem with that.
Another fact is that GE foods are not required to be labeled as such in the US. While we really wish that consumers were informed about which ingredients in our food are GMO and which produce in our stores are GMO, we are pleased that non-GMO labeling is now being used so that we can eat these foods, if that is our choice. We also like knowing that the certified organic labeling cannot be applied to any GE food.
When we asked our Misner Plan advisory board member, Eric Edmeades, what his position on GMO foods is, he made an argument for non-GMO food consumption which was so completely rational and logical that we were surprised no one else has been speaking out this way. We asked him to share his thoughts with our readers here:
People often ask me how I feel about GMO foods. This is such a simple argument in my view.
Evolution is, ultimately, about relationships. As the Cheetah got incrementally faster (only very slightly) in each generation, so did the gazelle. A genetically engineered gazelle that is either slightly faster, or has slightly higher fat content, could cause the extinction of the cheetah by avoiding predation or by providing too much fat content. Natural evolution happens in parallel and in relationship so that over time both parties to the relationship respond through natural selection to each party’s incremental evolutionary changes.
Thousands of years ago, when we started domesticating and breeding higher fat content “cows,” we commenced a slow march toward heart disease and other problems in human health that wouldn’t even surface for several thousand years. Genetic manipulation by selective breeding, while faster than natural selection, is still a relatively slow process — so the heart disease thing kinda snuck up on us.
Now that we can directly manipulate genes, we can cause “foods” to take a dramatic left turn away from our digestive evolution, so that we don’t have to wait thousands of years for the harmful impact to our health and our biosphere.
In other words, in natural selection, two species develop predation and defense skills in a terribly slow multi-millennial dance. In selective breeding, the prey species slowly moves away from that relationship and might, in the case of plants, become less digestible and more toxic to the predator over a number of generations. With gene manipulation, the prey species takes a dramatic left turn away from the predator species, leaving the predator with a food that is no longer a match for its digestive system; probably void of many of the micro-nutrients it requires, and more than likely quite toxic in a number of ways.
My conclusion: If humans end up being responsible for our own extinction it will probably be through the genetic manipulation of organisms. GMO foods are one of the worst developments in human history.
What Ivan and I find absolutely appalling is that possibly the planet’s largest scientific experiment of all time is being done on such a massive scale AND without the participants’ agreement (that’s you and me) and, in most cases, even our knowledge! When you take the time to really understand the dynamics of GMO foods’ impact on our health, you really cannot help but reject including these kinds of foods in your diet. That is how we feel about GE food. We do not eat any food which is genetically modified, if we can help it, nor do we eat foods with common GMO ingredients.
For more detailed information about how to approach this subject for yourself, we recommend this article from the George Matljan Foundation:
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=dailytip&dbid=345
When we began to look closely into what foods are commonly GE, we were surprised to learn how many commercially grown vegetables and fruits in our markets are genetically modified. It also bears noting that processed food contains many ingredients considered “invisible GM ingredients.” We encourage you to research this for yourself and become an informed consumer.
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