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the gut bacteria. each component had a negative impact and the
• Antibiotic resistant marker genes, used in most GM food crops, might actual harm to humans and animals eating GMOs
create super diseases, untreatable with antibiotics. may be due to the synergy of causes.
• GM papaya, zucchini and yellow squash have viral transgenes that
may produce viral proteins. More than one hundred studies show TIPPING POINT AGAINST GMOs RISING
that viral proteins can suppress an organism’s defenses against viral Although governments have not been fully
infections or have toxic effects. responsive to the mounting evidence of harm
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• The Bt gene might transfer from GM corn and convert our intestinal from GMOs, consumers are reacting in greater
flora into living pesticide factories. numbers. The impact can be significant and
world-changing. In Europe, after the media
This last risk may explain the publicized significant health risks
results of a study presented above. of GMOs in early 1999, a tipping
Recall that 93 percent of pregnant point of consumer rejection forced
women tested had the Bt-toxin in their the food companies to commit to
blood. The toxin is likely to wash out remove GM ingredients on that
of our blood fairly quickly; therefore continent. Now consumer rejection
the consumption of Bt-toxin would in the U.S. appears to be setting the
have to be very frequent to explain stage for the removal of GMOs in
this finding. But Canadians don’t eat this country as well.
corn products that often. (Although Consumer concern over GMO
Canadians and Americans eat a lot of health risks has driven unprecedent-
corn derivatives like corn syrup, the ed demand for non-GMO products.
Bt-toxin is destroyed in these highly In fact, 2012 sales of non-GMO
processed foods, so that would not be labeled products in the United States
the source of this blood contaminant.) increased more than any other health
The study authors suggest that and wellness category, according
the source of Bt-toxin—which ul- to 2012 Nielsen Health and Well-
timately came from Monsanto’s Bt ness Claims Performance Report.
corn—may have been acquired in milk An executive at the national food
and meat from animals fed the corn. store chain Whole Foods said that
This would require, however, that the when a product becomes verified as
protein remain intact both through non-GMO, sales increase by 15-30
the animals’ digestive process and the percent.
humans'. While this might be true, a A May 27th New York Times
more plausible explanation may be that article entitled “Seeking Food In-
the Bt-toxin was produced by the gut gredients That Aren’t Gene-Altered”
flora within the digestive tract, after conveyed the profound industry-
the flora acquired the genes from corn Massive multiple tumors wide ripple effect of the emerging
tortillas, corn on the cob, etc. in mouse fed GM corn. non-GMO consumer trend. The ar-
ticle highlighted the “March Against
OVERLAPPING CAUSATIVE FACTORS Monsanto” by more than two million people in
While these are just some of the ways that GMOs may cause harm, fifty-two countries; the more than two dozen
in reality, their effects may be due to a combination of causative factors. U.S. state legislatures introducing GMO labeling
In a French two-year feeding study published in 2012, for example, rats bills; hundreds of companies recently enrolling
suffered from multiple massive tumors, shorter life spans, and organ dam- products in the third-party non-GMO verifier,
age. The research design used several different treatment groups: those the Non-GMO Project; company executives
fed Roundup Ready corn that had been sprayed with Roundup, those who were worried that their supply of non-GMO
fed Roundup Ready corn without Roundup applied, and those fed just ingredients would be lost to newcomer brands;
Roundup with no added GMO corn. All three groups suffered from these and some companies that were already going
maladies to various degrees, while the controls fared much better. Thus, overseas to get their hard-to-find non-GMO in-
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