According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of American adults are obese.
With documentaries like “Forks Over Knives” and “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” exposing the link between diet and disease, Americans are re-evaluating the food they consume.
Unfortunately, the average consumer doesn’t realize that the FDA doesn’t regulate front-of-package labeling. Bread whose packaging says “whole wheat” may only contain a handful of wheat flour. Eggs marked as “cage-free” can come from birds that have never been outdoors, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
Over 40 countries require genetically engineered food to be labeled. The U.S. does not. California hopes to change this with Proposition 37, which would force retailers to label GMOs.
GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are plant or meat products whose DNA has been manipulated in a laboratory. Reasons for genetically modifying foods range from producing cheaper grains to creating insect resistant crops. An example of a GMO is Monsanto’s Bt corn. This type of corn has been modified by the donor organism, Bt Delta Endotoxin, which produces an insecticide.
Studies of animals that were fed GMOs showed intestinal damage, organ failure, cancer and death. Although Monsanto claims that the insecticides are destroyed inside of the human stomach, an independent study out of Quebec shows that 93 percent of blood taken from pregnant women and 80 percent of the blood tested from umbilical cords tested positive for Bt toxin and other genetically modified toxins. Sixty-nine percent of the non-pregnant women in the study had detectable traces of Bt toxin in their blood.
Despite this study, Bt corn is sold in American grocery stores as typical sweet corn.
Russia has banned the importation of genetically modified corn from the U.S. after a French study concluded that genetically modified corn posed extreme health concerns for animals and humans. In the study, mice that were fed genetically modified corn had a 600 percent increase in death compared to the control group. Mice that did not die developed seizure disorders and tumors.
Americans have had another recent food scare. Consumer reports tested various brands of rice and rice products to determine their arsenic levels. The results were alarming. Arsenic (both organic and inorganic) was found in nearly all of the 60 products that were tested.
Prolonged consumption of seemingly insignificant amounts of arsenic — merely parts per billion — can cause cancer, chromosomal damage, organ failure and heart disease. Because of this, arsenic has been labeled one of the most carcinogenic agents in our environment. Currently, the FDA does not regulate arsenic levels in rice.
We must pressure the FDA and retailers into transparent and honest marketing. Companies like Monsanto are more interested in cheap crop production than in the health of their consumers. The mice in these studies were unable to choose their fate, but we can.
We must demand that genetically modified foods be labeled and that products teeming with toxins and pesticides be made easily identifiable. If the federal government fails to protect us we must follow California and tell our state officials that we have the right to know what we are eating. We must purchase organic produce and meat and reward products that are Non-GMO Project verified. We must show companies like Monsanto that we will not be reduced to guinea pigs.
Contact the columnist at Cmjacks7@asu.edu or follow her at @JacksonCrista.
