GMOs – Why Vincentians should be concerned ! ! ! ! ! !
As Vincentian organic farmers, living on a Permaculture farm – Chatoyer Gardens — with our two small children, we would like to bring Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to other Vincentians attention.
Are you a farmer, a parent, an individual who is interested in your overall personal health, that of others and/or that of the environment in which we live –our country; our land and waters? If yes, please read on...
AN ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
GMOs - A THREAT TO SEEDS
When these man-made genes get out into the wild, how are they going to interact with Nature? Nature evolves; “super weeds” and “super pests” are
As an organic farmer, I would like to be able to save seeds to replant crops yearly, to preserve and continue increasing plant varieties on our Permaculture farm. The
born. Nature keeps on finding ways to put up a resistance in order to survive.
Even though the biotech companies said that there would not be an increase in herbicides and pesticides usage, there has been a dramatic increase. Dr. Terry Vrain, former research scientist for Agriculture Canada, said that “super weeds” look like normal weeds, but they have become resistant to the technology. 38 different weeds have developed a tolerance to the herbicide Roundup in Canada. The ease of the magic chemical no longer performed and the farmers had to go back to weeding by hand.(4)
What is the biotech solution to “super weeds”? They have now introduced a much more potent herbicide, 2,4-D (abbreviation for Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, the herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War.(5)
How long will it be before a yet stronger herbicide, which will do more harm to the environment, is required? It is uncertain. Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception wrote, “unstable genes make accurate safety testing impossible. It also may explain some of the many problems reported about GM foods. For example, nearly 25 farmers in the US and Canada say that certain GM corn varieties caused their pigs to become sterile, have false pregnancies, or give birth to bags of water. A farmer in Germany claims that a certain variety of GM corn killed 12 of his cows and caused others to fall sick.”(6)
Why are we continuously poisoning our environment and ourselves with chemicals? GMO seeds are designed to be used with chemicals. When these seeds are brought into a natural environment, they may have a toxic or lethal impact on other living things. For instance, in India, civil society organizations in four villages in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh conducted a preliminary investigation saying that “at least 1,820 sheep were reported dead after grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton crops; the symptoms and post-mortem findings
GMO seeds are a threat to our organic seeds and local varieties in more than one way. “There can be no biosecurity with transgenics: they cause genetic erosion (loss of genetic diversity)” says Silvia Ribeiro, the Latin American director of the ETC Group (8). Not only will the seed be compromised because of the genetics, but that seed would now not be able to be saved and replanted because it has a patent on it by the biotech seed company –they could now charge the farmer for saving seed! Did anyone realize how devastating crosspollination could be? Dr. Mercola writes about cases of widespread contamination: in 2007 a “pollen drift from GM maize (MON810) fields were found to have contaminated hundreds of conventional and
organic farmers in Spain [...] A 2009 Greenpeace report documents the profound socioeconomic and human impacts the contamination has had; telling the stories of real people who have experienced losses not of their own making: “ There are no safeguards for MON 810 cultivation, and co-existence of GM and nonmodified crops is impossible.”(9)
Does a farmer know that he could loose export markets because of GMO contamination? It is happening all over the world. Dr. Terry Vrain speaks of Canada loosing their flax and canola export due to GMO contamination.(10) Certain Thai exports were recently banned due to threat of contamination by GMOs.(11)
What happens after a farmer cannot afford the seeds and the chemicals each year and his family goes hungry? He commits suicide. News articles released by CNN, the Huffington Post, the BBC and many more stated that over 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since 1997, around the time when the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. Vandana Shiva writes, “Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved [...] Corporations prevent seed saving through patents and by engineering seeds with non-renewable traits. As a result, poor peasants have to buy new seeds and what was traditionally a free resource, becomes a commodity. This new expense increases poverty and leads to indebtness.(12)”
presence of BT toxin in the blood of pregnant women and
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" –as
their babies, with possibly harmful consequences.(13)
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said.
Please learn about all aspects of GMOs before making
We must not forget that “unlike most other developed
In our looking at the GMO issue, we Vincentians are faced
any decisions. There is a lot of information on both sides:
countries – such as 15 nations in the European Union,
with a proposed bill on “biotech safety”, which is essentially
1) Research paid for by the US biotech industry through
GMOs - A HEALTH TREAT Numerous scientific studies are showing that GMO foods are linked to tumors, cancer, and birth abnormalities in organs and body parts of lab mice and rats. One such example released on September 19, 2012, by Scientists from France's University of Caen, published images of rats with tumors after they were fed a diet of GM Corn (1). Jeffery Smith, author of Genetic Roulette: The Dangers of GMOs, wrote that GMO foods have been “linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals”.
What are we eating? What are we feeding our children? Do you know? The average individual has no idea what GMOs are, nor do they know that 90% of all soy, 85% of all corn and 75% of the processed foods we are eating are GMO (2).
The Non-GMO Verified Project website states, “The sad truth is many of the foods that are most popular with children contain GMOs. Cereals, snack bars, snack boxes, cookies, processed lunchmeats, and crackers all contain large amounts of high-risk food ingredients.”(3)
Lana Asprey, M.D., author of The Better Baby Book, wrote “GMO food have become common only in the last twenty years. It’s no coincidence that during that time, the US population has suffered a 400% increase in allergies, a 300% increase in asthma, a 400% in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a 1,500% increase in other autism spectrum disorders. Food related illness doubled between 1994 and 2001. Soy began to be genetically modified in 1996. In 1996 alone, soy allergies increased by 50% and soy became one of the top 10 allergens in the nation.”
At Chatoyer Gardens, we do our best to incorporate Slow Food in our daily living –we harvest fruit, vegetables and herbs for our meals, and we take our time preparing them fresh. We enjoy knowing that our food is grown naturally, without the use of chemicals.
TO MY FELLOW VINCENTIANS
Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and even China – the U.S.
a bill to “supposedly” regulate the importation of GMOs and
some form of direct grant or “indirect” grant, through
has no laws requiring labeling of genetically engineered
LMOs (Living Modified Organisms). The bill was initiated in
local government agencies and academic bodies, such
foods.”(14) And as of October 2013, there were at least
2007, but to our understanding very few Vincentians know
as the University of the West Indies.
twenty-six countries that had total or partial bans on
anything about it.
2) There is also research done mostly in foreign countries,
GMOs(15).
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by foreign agencies or foreign universities, mostly in the
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EU and Russia.
Here in St. Vincent at Chatoyer Gardens, like in 64 countries
to say NO to GMOs and LMOs entering our blessed
It is more than suggested that one of the reasons that the US
around the world and the Slow Food movement, we support
islands! At the end of the day, it is our health and our lives
is so pro-GMOs is because of the lobbying power of these
required labeling of all products containing GMO
that we are dealing with. Think of your health, your children’s
biotech companies. The US government is not carrying out
ingredients, including meat and dairy products where
and future generations. Think of your country’s health.
long-term risks assessments and there are few objective
animals have been fed with GMO feed. Therefore, giving
Are GMOs worth the risk?
studies. For example, the built-in pesticide in BT Corn was
Vincentians the freedom to make a choice about what
not supposed to survive in the human body, that our saliva
they eat.
would eradicate it. However, scientific studies now show the
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We Vincentians, as a Christian Nation deserve the right
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Alexandra Paolino Punnett Chatoyer Gardens
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