genetically modified food and shopping

Buy certified organic or GMO-free labeled food products; know the GM ingredients likely to be in foods—and stay away from them!

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How do foods become genetically modified? In the traditional cross-breeding process, two varieties of, say, tomatoes might be crossed for a more robust fruit. But today’s technology inserts out-of-species genes, often from bacteria and viruses, into the DNA of plants like corn, soybean, cotton, and canola, introducing genetic matter into our food that’s never been there before. The process allows conventional growers to douse even larger amounts of poisonous herbicides onto the modified plants without killing the crop. That introduces more chemicals into the groundwater and waterways near the farm, but it also increases the amount of chemical residue on the foods. Some crops have even been modified so the plant produces its own pesticide.

Smith reports that GM foods are being blamed for allergies, new toxins, and immune problems. For instance, Smith says soy allergies rose by 50 percent in the United Kingdom after GM soy was introduced. In animal studies, feeding mice GM foods has caused digestion problems, smaller livers, reproductive problems, and infant mortality. Livestock that have grazed on GM cotton fields have died abruptly, too. And Smith points out that if pesticide genes transfer into the bacteria in our gut—as the only human study on the subject suggests they can—we’re in for some serious changes in our bellies. “They might turn our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories,” he says.