Russian scientists have proven
THE HAZARDS OF GMOS TO HEALTH
Infertility, degradation and mutation -
these are the possible consequences of eating genetically modified foods made using genetically modified
organisms (GMOs).
The results of an independent Russian study on the impact of GMOs on mammals have been published. The results of a study conducted by the National Association for Genetic Security (OAGB) in conjunction with the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after. A.N. Severtsov RAS (IPEiE RAS) in the period 2008-2010 indicate a significant negative impact of feed containing GM components on the reproductive functions and health of laboratory animals.
According to the Deputy Director of the IPE&E RAS, Doctor of Biological Sciences. Alexei Surov, it is this kind of feed that is now widely used in breeding birds, pigs and other farm animals. Therefore, the data obtained by scientists is extremely relevant for farmers.
On April 14, in Moscow, the leaders of the OAGB presented the results of an independent study on the effect of feed containing components of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on the biological and physiological parameters of mammals.
“Animals were found to have a lag in development and growth, a violation of the sex ratio in litters with an increase in the proportion of females, a decrease in the number of cubs in the litter, up to their complete absence in the second generation,” notes A. Surov. “A significant decrease in reproductive abilities was also noted males".
The main result of the influence of GM feed, which was discovered during the study, according to the President of the OAGB Alexander Baranov, was the absence of a third generation from animals from the experimental groups. "The main conclusion of our study is the discovery of the fact of a biological ban on reproduction," A. Baranov said. "Nature has put an end to the genetic prospects of animals that feed on GM feed." GMOs are life-threatening.
The test also brought another surprise. “We don’t want to sow panic, but, while studying hamsters from the third generation, whose litter was obtained with great difficulty, we found that they have hair growing in their mouths. the fact is the place to be," they say in the association.
According to Alexander Baranov, scientists cannot yet determine the mechanisms that trigger the destructive program of GMOs. "So, there is only one way to neutralize the effects of GMO consumption - to refuse further consumption of GM products," he sums up.
Ecologists note that such experiments are catastrophically few. The latest world-famous independent studies of the effect of GMO consumption on animals were carried out at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2005), at the University of Caen (France, 2006).
The CIS Biosafety Alliance believes that governments should constantly allocate funds for such activities. “Unfortunately, this happens extremely rarely. At the same time, in Russia, budget money is spent not only on the creation of GMOs, but in fact, fashionable areas are financed “without looking back”, in particular, the introduction of new materials based on nanotechnology, academic degrees are generously distributed. However, this question even less studied than the creation and functioning of GMOs,” comments Victoria Kopeikina, Secretary of the CIS Alliance for Biosafety.
Another pilot study was conducted on a laboratory population of Campbell's hamsters (Phodopus campbelli), chosen because they have a rapid generational change, which allows tracking long-term effects. Married pairs were formed from the same age sexually mature individuals, which were divided into 4 groups of 5 reproductive pairs in each.
The first group (Soy-0) received animal feed supplemented with pure non-transgenic soy. The second (GM-soy-1) and third (GM-soy-2) formed groups differed from each other in the quantitative content of GM-soybean in the feed, which was added to the animal feed. The control group received vivarium food without any additives.
During the experiment, general biological and physiological indicators were recorded, such as the number, size, deaths, development and other parameters, the state of broods of different generations in each group. From the resulting broods, new reproductive pairs were formed to obtain subsequent generations, which continued to be fed with the same food.
As a result of the experimental studies of three generations of Campbell's hamster, according to general, physiological and pathological parameters, it was established according to general biological:
A lag in development and growth was found;
Violation of the sex ratio in broods with an increase in the proportion of females;
Reducing the number of pups in the litter, up to their complete absence in the second generation of animals of the GM-soy-1 and GM-soy-2 groups, compared with the control and the pure soybean group.
According to physiological and pathological anatomical:
Reproductive system development disorders were revealed in males and females in the groups of GM soybean 1 and GM soybean 2 in comparison with control individuals.
Today it is no longer a secret to anyone that genetically modified foods are dangerous to the health of people and all living organisms on the planet.
They have a particularly negative effect on the immune and genitourinary systems. The immune system is responsible for resistance to pathogenic bacteria and viruses, and the genitourinary system is responsible for procreation. In one of his lectures, Nikolai Levashov, for example, said that transgenic products in the third generation would lead to the complete sterility of the nation.
Thus, nature protects itself from the reproduction of mutants. And thus it will lead to the complete extinction of mankind. Russian psychic Sergey Lazarev mentioned in his lecture that cockroaches have already begun to disappear, due to the GMO food, the leftovers of which they consume. If cockroaches are dying now, how many years are left for people to live?
The influence of GMOs has not yet been fully studied, but there is a danger that they can lead to the complete death of all living organisms on the planet.
Alien DNA, entering the human body with food, is absorbed from the intestines into the blood, and from there it is able to penetrate into any cell of the body and change (mutate) its DNA. In addition, according to research data, the transgene has a strong resistance to antibiotics.
Products containing GMOs
Back in September 2002, the Sanepidnadzor decree came into force, obliging to label products containing more than 5 percent of GM sources, but so far the lines “contains genetically modified sources” or simply “GMI” appear on products extremely rarely. According to estimates of consumer organizations, there are now 52 types of products on the Russian market that contain more than 5 percent of GMOs (organisms), BUT not labeled. These are, first of all, meat products - sausages and boiled sausage, sometimes containing more than 80 percent of transgenic soybeans. In total, more than 120 names (brands) of products with GMOs are registered in Russia, according to voluntary registration data and a special register of products imported from abroad.
Manufacturers whose products contain GMI include:
LLC "Daria - semi-finished products", LLC "Meat-packing plant Klinsky", MPZ "Tagansky", MPZ "KampoMos", CJSC "Vichyunai", LLC "MLM-RA", LLC "Talosto-products", LLC "Sausage plant "Bogatyr", OOO "ROS Marie Ltf"
Unilever manufacturing company: Lipton (tea), Brooke Bond (tea), Beseda (tea), Calve (mayonnaise, ketchup), Rama (butter), Pyshka (margarine), Delmi (mayonnaise, yogurt, margarine ), "Algida" (ice cream), Knorr (seasonings); Nestle manufacturing company: Nescafe (coffee and milk), Maggi (soups, broths, mayonnaise, Nestle (chocolate), Nestea (tea), Neseiulk (cocoa);
Kellog's manufacturing company: Corn Flakes (flakes), Frosted Flakes (flakes), Rice Krispies (flakes), Corn Pops (flakes), Smacks (flakes), Froot Loops (colored cereal rings), Apple Jacks (flake rings with apple flavor), Afl-bran Apple Cinnamon/ Blueberry (bran with apple, cinnamon, blueberry flavor), Chocolate Chip (chocolate chips), Pop Tarts (stuffed cookies, all flavors), Nulri grain (filled toast, all types) , Crispix (cookies), All-Bran (cereal), Just Right Fruit & Nut (cereal), Honey Crunch Corn Flakes (cereal), Raisin Bran Crunch (cereal), Cracklin "Oat Bran (cereal);
Hershey's manufacturing company: Toblerone (chocolate, all kinds), Mini Kisses (sweets), Kit-Kat (chocolate bar), Kisses (sweets), Semi-Sweet Baking Chips (cookies), Milk Chocolate Chips (cookies), Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (peanut butter), Special Dark (dark chocolate), Milk Chocolate (milk chocolate), Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup), Special Dark Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup), Strawberry Syrup (strawberry syrup);
Mars manufacturing company: M&M "S, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Nestle, Crunch (chocolate-rice flakes), Milk Chocolate Nestle (chocolate), Nesquik (chocolate drink), Cadbury (Cadbury / Hershey" s), Fruit & Nut;
Heinz manufacturing company: Ketchup (regular & no salt) (ketchup), Chili Sauce (Chili sauce), Heinz 57 Steak Sauce (meat sauce);
Coca-Cola manufacturing company: Coca Cola, Sprite, Charry Cola, Minute Maid Orange, Minute Maid Grape;
PepsiCo manufacturing company: Pepsi, Pepsi Cherry, Mountain Dew;
Frito Manufacturing Company - Lay / PepsiCo: (GM components may be contained in oil and other ingredients), Lays Potato Chips (all), Cheetos (all);
Manufacturing company Cadbury / Schweppes: 7-Up, Dr. pepper;
Pringles Procter & Gamble: Pringles (Original, LowFat, Pizzalicious, Sour Cream & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Cheezeums flavored chips).
List of imported products containing GMOs:
1. Hershey's Cadbury Fruit & Nut chocolate products
3. Snickers
4. Twix
5. Milky Way
6. Cadbury (Cadbury) chocolate, cocoa
7. Ferrero
8. Nestle chocolate "Nestle", "Russia"
9. Chocolate drink Nestle Nesquik
10. Soft drink Coca-Cola "Coca-Cola" Coca-Cola
11. Sprite, Fanta, Kinley tonic, Fruittime
12. Pepci-Co Pepsi
13. "7-Up", "Fiesta", "Mountain Dew"
14. Kellogg's breakfast cereal
15. Campbell Soups
16. Rice Uncle Bens Mars
17. Knorr sauces
18. Lipton tea
19. Parmalat cookies
20. Seasonings, mayonnaises, Hellman's sauces
21. Seasonings, mayonnaise, Heinz sauces
22. Baby food Nestle
23. Hipp
24 Abbot Labs Similac
25. Yoghurts, kefir, cheese, Denon baby food
26. McDonald's (McDonald's) fast food restaurant chain
27. Chocolate, chips, coffee, baby food Kraft (Kraft)
28. Ketchups, sauces. Heinz Foods
29. Baby food, products "Delmi" Unilever (Unilever)
Domestic, and produced jointly with other companies, products, in the technology, the preparation of which uses GMOs:
AOOT "Nizhny Novgorod oil and fat plant" (mayonnaises "Ryaba", "For the future", etc.).
Products "Bonduelle" (Hungary) - beans, corn, green peas.
CJSC "Baltimore-Neva" (St. Petersburg) - ketchups.
What are transgenic plants?
These are hybrids with a modified set of genes. Changes are made in order to give the plant some useful properties: pest resistance, frost resistance, yield, calorie content, and the like. So, in China back in 1992, tobacco was grown, which was “not afraid” of harmful insects. But the beginning of the mass production of modified products was laid by the United States, when in 1994 tomatoes appeared that did not deteriorate during transportation. And off we go - genetically modified products began to appear one after another. In the United States, transgenic soybeans have replaced common soybeans, and transgenic corn has appeared. A species of potato resistant to the Colorado potato beetle has been developed by introducing a bacterium gene into it.
So what makes transgenic foods different? Tomatoes - external glossy flawless look and endless shelf life. Bananas - medicinal properties (produce a vaccine against polio). Potato - "extraordinary" resistance to pests and increased yield. Bread with the addition of genetically modified enzymes does not go stale for a long time. Tobacco becomes resistant to pesticides.
Despite the fact that almost every family eats modified foods in the United States, Europe is still thinking about it - after all, the question of the effect of such foods on human health has not been fully studied. In Russia, the mass production of transgenic plants is still prohibited. And yet, each of us almost daily encounters transgenic products in the store, sometimes without even knowing it. For example, buying sausages, which often contain genetically modified soybeans.
GMOs - harm or benefit?
Academician of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, head of the research center "Bioengineering" Konstantin Skryabin considers transgenic crops a chance for mankind to save from hunger. He argues that transgenic plants are no more dangerous than sugar substitutes and insulin, which have long been considered medicines. In addition, scientists carefully analyze all the studied plants for signs of changes in the stability of the genome.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Director of the Institute of Plant Physiology Vladimir Kuznetsov is a representative of the camp of opponents. In his opinion, man has violated one of the basic laws of evolution - the ban on the exchange of genetic information between far distant species. Intervened in natural processes, and must bear a huge responsibility for this. It is worth remembering that in the US and Europe, transgenic products are sold separately and carefully labeled. Yes, and they are much cheaper. But in our country they are not always labeled, they are sold together with the usual ones and cost exactly the same. It is necessary to remember about the side effects of the use of such products - allergic effects, changes in the body.
In the Russian Federation, it is still not allowed to commercially grow any transgenic plants. In recent years, according to the decision of the Ministry of Health, mandatory registration of food products with transgenic components has been carried out. But these components themselves: one type of American soybean, registered after a five-year check in the Russian Federation, three registered varieties of corn and rapeseed, from which oil is made. And sugar beets.
At the moment, independent scientists have already come to the conclusion that the active consumption of GM foods is associated with significant risks. Firstly, the introduction of transgenic food into the human food chain can lead to the spread of new pathogenic bacteria: when “beneficial” genes are inserted into a certain DNA chain, various technological “garbage” can also get there, for example, a gene for resistance to antibiotics. As a result, widely available drugs will simply be powerless against "mutated" bacteria. The transformation of living organisms can be accompanied by unpredictable changes and contribute to the accumulation of toxic substances in the human body.
This is exactly what happened in the United States, where 37 people died and about 1,500 more were left disabled after they consumed tryptophan, obtained from transgenic bacteria, as a dietary supplement. This GM substance caused an acute disease - eosinophilia-myalgia, accompanied by muscle pain, airway spasms, and even sometimes leading to death. The consumption of GM food can also cause severe allergies, since foreign proteins synthesized by transgenic organisms are potential allergens. In particular, GM soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup, produced by the US company Monsanto, are known to cause severe allergies.
The seriousness of these risks indirectly confirms one circumstance: in the United States, which are the main lobbyists for transgenic food in the world, more and more people refuse to eat GM foods.
The insecurity of transgenic crops has been actively discussed since the end of 1998. First, British immunologist Armand Putztai announced in a television interview that he had found reduced immunity in rats fed modified potatoes. The study was published, and the topic was quickly picked up by journalists in Europe, and then in the US and Canada. Soon, an article appeared in the authoritative journal Nature, the authors of which concluded that crops of transgenic corn could threaten populations of the protected species of monarch butterflies. The pollen proved to be toxic to their caterpillars.
Such an effect was not intended by the creators of corn - it should scare away only insect pests. It was not long in coming and the message that living organisms that feed on transgenic plants can mutate. According to research conducted by German zoologist Hans Kaaz, the pollen of the modified Shrovetide turnip caused mutations in the bacteria living in the stomach of bees.
These reports have caused almost a trade war between Europe and the United States - the largest producer of transgenic agricultural raw materials, a large part of which is exported. A number of European companies, such as Heinz and Gerber, have abandoned the use of modified components. The European Union has introduced a moratorium on the distribution of new types of transgenic crops.
modified products
A complete list of GMPs is available online. By the way, none of them indicate that they contain proteins of genetically modified organisms or that these products are produced using GMI. Most often, genetically modified components are found in soybeans, potatoes, tomatoes and corn. Modified components are found even in baby food.
Today, 14 types of food products obtained using transgenic technologies are registered: 3 soybean lines, 6 corn lines, 3 potatoes, 1 rice line and another sugar beet line for sugar production. There were cases when suppliers (both ours and foreign ones) declared the absence of GMOs in the product, and the examination showed the opposite. Then the suppliers are required to amend the label.
survival algorithm
Unfortunately, we cannot advise you to carefully read the labels. Labeling has not become a practice for our manufacturers. Rospotrebnadzor has compiled a list of more than 100 items of food products and raw materials obtained using genetically modified organisms. This is what we most often have to deal with.
List of products where GMOs can be:
1. Soy and its forms (beans, sprouts, concentrate, flour, milk, etc.).
2. Corn and its forms (flour, cereals, popcorn, butter, chips, starch, syrups, etc.).
3. Potatoes and their forms (semi-finished products, dry mashed potatoes, chips, crackers, flour, etc.).
4. Tomatoes and its forms (paste, mashed potatoes, sauces, ketchups, etc.).
5. Zucchini and products made using them.
6. Sugar beet, table beet, sugar produced from sugar beet.
7. Wheat and products made using it, including bread and bakery products.
8. Sunflower oil.
9. Rice and products containing it (flour, granules, flakes, chips).
10. Carrots and products containing them.
11. Onions, shallots, leeks and other bulbous vegetables
Whose products contain transgenic components:
Kelloggs (Kelloggs) - manufactures breakfast cereals, including corn flakes
Nestle (Nestlé) - produces chocolate, coffee, coffee drinks, baby food
Heinz Foods (Hayents Fuds) - produces ketchups, sauces
Hersheys (Hershis) - produces chocolate, soft drinks
Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola) - Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Kinley tonic
McDonalds (McDonald's) - a network of "restaurants" of fast food
Danon (Danone) - produces yogurts, kefir, cottage cheese, baby food
Similac (Similak) - produces baby food
Cadbury (Kadbury) - produces chocolate, cocoa
Mars (Mars) - produces chocolate Mars, Snickers, Twix
PepsiCo (Pepsi-Cola) - Pepsi, Mirinda, Seven-Up
GM food additives and flavors
E101 and E101A (B2, riboflavin) - added to cereals, soft drinks, baby food, weight loss products.
E150 (caramel);
E153 (carbonate);
E160a (beta-carotene, provitamin A, retinol);
E160b (annatto);
E160d (lycopene);
E234 (lowlands);
E235 (natamycin);
E270 (lactic acid);
E300 (vitamin C - ascorbic acid);
from E301 to E304 (ascorbates);
from E306 to E309 (tocopherol / vitamin E);
E322 (lecithin);
from E325 to E327 (lactates);
E330 (citric acid);
E415 (xanthine);
E459 (beta-cyclodextrin);
from E460 to E469 (cellulose);
E470 and E570 (salts and fatty acids);
fatty acid esters (E471, E472a&b, E473, E475, E476, E479b);
E481 (sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate);
from E620 to E633 (glutamic acid and glutomates);
from E626 to E629 (guanylic acid and guanylates);
from E630 to E633 (inosinic acid and inosinates);
E951 (aspartame);
E953 (isomaltite);
E957 (thaumatin);
E965 (maltinol).
Danger to nature
According to many scientists, in addition to safety for human health, the question of what potential threat biotechnology poses to the environment is being actively discussed. While there is no absolute certainty that they do not pose any danger to other insects. Plant-acquired herbicide resistance can also go awry if transgenic crops spread uncontrollably. Some of them - alfalfa, rice, sunflower - are very similar in characteristics to weeds, and their arbitrary growth will not be so easy to manage.
A similar problem would arise if herbicide resistance genes were passed from cultivated plants to related wild species. The possibility of transferring genes encoding proteins that are toxic to pests is also not ruled out. Weeds that are able to produce their own insecticides will have a huge advantage in controlling insects, which are often a natural limiter to their growth. There is a concern that all these effects in the long term can cause disruption of entire food chains and, as a result, the balance within individual ecosystems.
GM products in Russia
As already mentioned, the use of GM foods in Russia is not officially prohibited. But their impact on human health has not yet been studied. Therefore, in European countries, a person can buy GM products, but at the same time he receives information about the risks associated with their use. And in the conditions of competition with “normal” producers, suppliers of GM products are in a deliberately disadvantageous position: few people want to risk their health and the health of their offspring.
However, in Russia there is no legal framework to regulate the sale of GM products, which makes our country especially vulnerable to attacks by suppliers of genetically modified products, primarily from the United States. True, it is unlikely that it will be possible to solve the problem only legislatively. Unlike the Europeans, the Russians are still too calm about this issue, so the state also needs to carry out purposeful work to form the right public opinion regarding GM products.
Compared to Europeans, Russians are still in an information vacuum regarding the potential dangers of GM foods. And this frees the hands of irresponsible producers and exporters of products. The fact is that Sanepidnadzor allows the use of up to 5% of GM sources in products. “But today it is practically up to the food producers themselves whether to register or not to register whether a product contains genetically modified sources or not,” says Sergei Batkaev, head of the consumer rights protection department of the Russian Antimonopoly Policy Ministry.
ADDITIONAL DATA:
How is the sale and production of GMOs regulated in the world?
Today, there is no accurate data in the world both on the safety of products containing GMOs and on the dangers of their use, since the duration of observations of the consequences of the use of genetically modified foods by humans is scanty - mass production of GMOs began quite recently - in 1994. However, more and more scientists are talking about the significant risks of eating GM foods. Therefore, the responsibility for the consequences of decisions regarding the regulation of the production and marketing of genetically modified products lies solely with the governments of individual countries.
There are different approaches to this issue in the world. But, regardless of geography, an interesting pattern is observed: the fewer producers of GM products in the country, the better protected the rights of consumers in this matter. Two-thirds of all GM crops in the world are grown in the United States, so it is not surprising that this country has the most liberal laws regarding GMOs. Transgenes in the United States are recognized as safe, equated to ordinary products, and labeling of products containing GMOs is optional. The situation is similar in Canada - the third largest producer of GM products in the world.
In Japan, products containing GMOs are subject to mandatory labeling. In China, GMO products are produced illegally and sold to other countries. But the countries of Africa for the last 5 years have not allowed the import of products with GM components into their territory.
In the countries of the European Union, to which we so aspire, the production and import into the territory of baby food containing GMOs, and the sale of products with genes resistant to antibiotics, is prohibited. In 2004, the moratorium on the cultivation of GM crops was lifted, but at the same time, a cultivation permit was issued for only one variety of transgenic plants. At the same time, each EU country today has the right to impose a ban on one or another type of transgene.
In some EU countries, there is a moratorium on the import of genetically modified products. Any product containing GMOs, before entering the EU market, must go through a single EU-wide approval procedure. It essentially consists of two steps: a scientific safety assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and its independent review bodies. If a product contains GM DNA or protein, EU citizens must be informed of this by a special designation on the label. The inscriptions “this product contains GMOs” or “GM product such and such” should be both on the label of products sold in the package, and for unpackaged products in close proximity to it on the store window.
The rules require that information about the presence of transgenes be indicated even in restaurant menus. The product is not labeled only if the content of GMOs in it is not more than 0.9% and the relevant manufacturer can explain that we are talking about random, technically unavoidable GMO impurities.
In Russia, it is forbidden to grow GM plants on an industrial scale, but some imported GMOs have been state registered in the Russian Federation and are officially allowed for consumption - these are several lines of soybeans, corn, potatoes, a line of rice and a line of sugar beets. All other GMOs existing in the world (about 100 lines) are prohibited in Russia. GMOs allowed in Russia can be used in any product (including baby food) without restrictions. But if the manufacturer adds GMO components to the product, he must indicate this on the packaging.
GMOs in Ukraine - baby food with GMOs is sold without labeling
In one of the “Quality Mark” programs of the Inter TV channel, a study was conducted on Nuetoilon Soya infant formula, intended for infants who do not absorb milk protein. According to the results of the analysis, genetically modified soybeans were found in baby food, the presence of which the manufacturer “forgot” to indicate. Despite the unprecedentedness, this fact did not receive any publicity, it did not cause any consequences. On January 15 of this year, employees of Ukrmetrteststandart made a control purchase of products in supermarkets in Kyiv and examined them for the presence of genetically modified organisms.
The results of the analyzes are shocking: out of 42 studied samples of boiled and smoked sausages, sausages, ham, dumplings in 18 products, the content of GMOs far exceeded the maximum allowable rate in Europe of 0.9%. And not by a couple of percent, the figures went way beyond 5% - it is likely that they could reach up to 40-50%, but the purchased tests simply were not designed for such numbers.
An interesting nuance is that on exactly half of the samples in which GMOs were found, the labeling did not contain information about the content of soy protein in the product, which was genetically modified. Naturally, there was no trace of any labeling about the presence of genetically modified components in the products. Although it would seem that the main law for manufacturers, the Law of Ukraine on the Protection of Consumer Rights, obliges labeling products containing GMOs, in which this rule is clearly spelled out.
Moreover, according to the law in Ukraine there should be no products containing GMOs at all - according to the "Temporary procedure for the import, state research, registration and use of transgenic plant varieties in Ukraine" dated August 17, 1998, all GMOs used in our country must be be registered, but as of today, not a single GMO has been registered in Ukraine. That is, the use of genetically modified components in food production is generally illegal. Despite this, GM components are being actively shove, whoever can and wherever possible, but no one wants to label products with GMOs.
Producers refer to the fact that at the moment there is not a single by-law in Ukraine that regulates the minimum content of GMOs in a product, under which this product must be labeled. When, from November 1 last year, the Cabinet of Ministers was going to regulate this issue and introduce mandatory labeling of products containing more than 0.9% GMOs, this caused fierce resistance.
You will laugh, but one of the most active opponents of the introduction of labeling of GMO products was the one who, according to his official position, is obliged to protect the right of Ukrainians to natural and healthy food - Minister of Health of Ukraine Yuriy Gaydayev. His department refused to endorse the corresponding resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers for various reasons eight times! The result of the struggle for a healthy nation was the initiative of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to cancel the mandatory labeling of products containing GMOs, which was done. What made the officials of the Ministry of Health forget about the Hippocratic Oath? The answer, as always, is banal - money. Very big money, which are ready to lobby their interests at all levels.
Who benefits from hiding from us information about what exactly we eat? Firstly, the abolition of labeling is beneficial for Ukrainian producers who use GM components in their production - mainly meat, meat and sausage products, chickens, eggs, dairy products, biscuits, sweets. If we trace the connection between Ukrainian politicians and the food workers, we get the following picture. 70% of the chicken market, eggs, as well as a significant share of the meat market are controlled by representatives of the "orange". Representatives of the Party of Regions have interests in dairy and confectionery production.
It is not surprising that the positions of eternal opponents suddenly coincided on the issue of abolishing the labeling of GMO-containing products. The second lobbyists for the promotion of genetically modified organisms in Ukraine are transnational corporations - the owners of patents for most of them. Suppliers of GMO raw materials and Ukrainian business exist in a very mutually beneficial alliance - the former expand the sales market for their products, the latter save on raw materials and other costs. For example, a ton of wheat without GMOs costs $300, with GMOs - only $40-50!
Modified soybeans can cost two to five times less than natural soybeans. According to Russian experts, the use of GM raw materials in sausage products reduces its cost by 25%. Taking into account the volume of the Ukrainian market of semi-finished meat products, which is about $850 million, the issue price for this segment alone is more than $200 million. all over the world, there is always a price difference between these fundamentally different types of products. Not surprisingly, by making super-profits, GMO producers have managed to interest lobbyists for delabelling. After all, if there was such a label, then most Ukrainians would either not buy products with GMOs at all, or would buy them only if their price was significantly lower compared to non-GMO products.
Naturally, in this case, we are no longer talking about superprofits. The talk that after the introduction of mandatory labeling of products with GMOs, manufacturers will have additional costs for analyzes that reveal the presence of genetically modified components in products, and this, in turn, will lead to an increase in the price of the final product, does not stand up to criticism. After all, the cost of analyzes is no more than 600 hryvnias per sample for all products, and, for example, a study on the content of GMOs in soybeans costs 380 hryvnias, in corn - 340 hryvnias.
It turns out that not even the WTO, which Ukraine recently joined, became the culprit of the abolition of the labeling of products with transgenic components. After all, the countries of the European Union, whose legislation is very strict and unambiguous in relation to transgenes, are also members of the WTO - as we see, one does not interfere with the other. Apparently, there are no other reasons except for the desire of Ukrainian business, tightly fused with politics, to continue to receive super profits, alas. Albeit at the cost of a potential threat to our health, and quite possibly the future of the genotype of the Ukrainian nation.
Patents for more than 90% of all GM seeds in the world belong to three giant companies: Syngenta (Syngenta, Switzerland) and its division Syngenta Seeds (France), Monsanto (Monsanto, USA) and Bayer CropScience ( Germany). Other major GMO companies include Du Pont and Advanta. GMOs are used not only for food production, but also for medicines. Moving away from the negative associated with GM experiments, the largest American biotech transnational corporation (bioTNC) Monsanto, which develops new varieties of grain and vegetable crops using GMOs, has teamed up with the Swiss group Pharmacea and Upjohn.
As a result, the merged Pharmacia Corporation, under the leadership of Monsanto Chairman R. Shapiro, uses the names Searl, Pharmacia, and Upjohn for the sales divisions, while the Monsanto name remains only with the autonomous agricultural branch. That is, trade in GMOs can go behind the scenes under other brands. Monsanto is also practically a monopolist in the transgenic development of agriculture in Ukraine, so we will tell you more about this company. Since the 1990s, Monsanto has bought up major seed companies and now offers the farmer a whole system of products and technologies for growing critical crops.
About 90% of the biotechnology market in agriculture is occupied by Monsanto products. Most of Monsanto's patented seeds are GMOs, according to Greenpeace. Recently, Monsanto has also been aiming to become a global monopoly in the breeding of GM animals. In particular, in February 2005, Monsanto tried to get a patent for a new GM pig breed that has less fat, grows faster, and consumes less feed.
GMOs in Ukraine appeared on an industrial scale in 1997, when Monsanto began planting GM potatoes of the Novy List variety on experimental fields in the Volyn, Rivne, Cherkasy and Kyiv regions. In 1999, bioTNK received approval from the Ministry of Health for the "New Leaf" as a safe product. Monsanto even wanted to make Ukraine its foothold in Europe and a global exporter of potato seeds. But in June 1999, the Ministry of Agrarian Industry issued a negative opinion, and 1300 tons of GM potatoes were buried on the lands of the collective farm named after. Shevchenko Cherkasy region.
From time to time loud scandals arise around Monsanta and its products. For example, in January 2005, the cultivation of Monsant's GM corn MON810 was banned in Hungary, as it can interbreed with other crops. That is, "contaminate", displace natural species. In 2005, a scandal erupted in Indonesia when Monsanto representatives were accused of bribing local government officials as a "thank you" for canceling the environmental impact assessment of GM cotton.
In June 2005, experiments were carried out in Germany on rats fed Monsant's GM corn variety MON863. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the GMO corn diet caused changes in the composition of the blood and weight loss in experimental animals. Other studies have shown that cow injections with Monsant's hormone rBGH, which increases milk yield by 30%, increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer in people who consume this milk by up to 500%!
However, other bioTNCs have also been found to provide deliberately false information about their hybrids and the consequences of their use. For example, Monsanto's rival Syngenta Corporation deliberately swapped the results of a harmless Bt11 GM corn variety with a dangerous Bt10 variety that contains an antibiotic resistance gene. By the way, in the EU countries, the sale of GM products that contain genes resistant to antibiotics is prohibited.
Anti-GMO experts say they pose three main threats:
· Threat to the human body - allergic diseases, metabolic disorders, the appearance of gastric microflora resistant to antibiotics, carcinogenic and mutagenic effects.
Threat to the environment - the emergence of vegetative weeds, pollution of research sites, chemical pollution, reduction of genetic plasma, etc.
· Global risks – activation of critical viruses, economic security.
GMOs have a negative impact not only on humans, but also on plants, animals, beneficial bacteria (for example, gastrointestinal bacteria (dysbacteriosis), soil bacteria, decay bacteria, etc.), leading to a rapid reduction in their numbers and subsequent disappearance. For example, the disappearance of soil bacteria leads to soil degradation, the disappearance of decay bacteria leads to the accumulation of undecayed biomass, and the absence of ice-forming bacteria leads to a sharp decrease in precipitation. What the disappearance of living organisms can lead to is not difficult to guess - to environmental degradation, climate change, rapid and irreversible destruction of the biosphere.
Almost all studies in the field of GMO safety are funded by customers - foreign corporations Monsanto, Bayer, etc. Based on such studies, GMO lobbyists claim that GM products are safe for humans, and often GMO safety studies are incorrect and biased. Of the 500 scientists working in the biotech industry in the UK, 30% said they were forced to change their results at the request of sponsors, according to data published in the Higher Education supplement to the British newspaper Times. Of these, 17% agreed to distort their data in order to show the result preferred by the customer, 10% said they were "asked" to do so, threatening to forfeit further contracts, and 3% reported that they were forced to make changes that make it impossible to openly publish the work.
Moreover, farmers who buy GM seeds give a signature to the company that they do not have the right to give them for research to third parties, thereby depriving themselves of the last opportunity to conduct an independent examination. Violation of the rules of agreements leads, as a rule, to a lawsuit by the company and huge losses for the farmer.
In our country, for unknown reasons, there are practically no scientific and clinical studies and tests of the effect of GMOs on animals and humans. Attempts to conduct such studies are met with great resistance. But the impact of GM products on humans is still completely unexplored, the consequences of their wide distribution are unpredictable.
In 2005, Irina Ermakova, Doctor of Biology, an international expert on environmental and food safety, studied the effect of GM soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup (RR, line 40.3.2) on the offspring of laboratory rats. They showed:
increased mortality of first-generation rat pups;
underdevelopment of some of the surviving rat pups;
pathological changes in the organs of fed rats, including the appearance of tumors reaching sizes up to 15% of the rat's body weight;
lack of a second generation, i.e. infertility.
According to O. A. Monastyrsky and M. P. Selezneva (2006), over 3 years, imports to our country increased 100 times: more than 50% of food products and 80% of feed contain grain or products of their processing (GM soybean, rapeseed, corn), as well as some types of fruits and vegetables. Currently, genetically modified sources, according to experts, can contain 80% canned vegetables, 70% meat products, 70% confectionery, 50% fruits and vegetables, 15-20% dairy products and 90% food mixtures for children. It is possible that a sharp increase in the number of oncological diseases in Russia, especially of the intestinal tract and prostate gland, a surge in leukemia in children, according to the "Medical Information Agency", is associated with the use of genetically modified components in food products.
On June 8, 2012, there was a news report that Rospotrebnadzor proposed the use of GMOs in agriculture. Motivated by this innovation Gennady Onishchenko that supposedly is good for health! And this despite the fact that all honest scientists from all over the world are shouting that GMO- is an cause of infertility, oncology, destruction of immunity, allergies and many other terrible diseases! And many scientists directly say that GMOs are weapons of mass destruction!
At the moment, the situation in the country is already bad - stores are littered with imported goods that contain GMOs; stern used in the production of meat often contain GMOs; There are GMOs in fast food, baby food, confectionery, baked goods, vaccines and much more... From the statement of Rospotrebnadzor it follows that the situation with GMOs in Russia will get worse.
From this message of Onishchenko, an unequivocal conclusion is immediately drawn: the authorities do not intend to take care of the health of citizens! The authorities have their own interests in this matter! So you have to take care of your health we ourselves and do not trust the authorities in this matter.
Practically All food in stores contains GMOs.! The lion's share of all products sold in large supermarkets and stores contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Especially dangerous in this case are foreign-made products. List of GMO manufacturers.
On the Russian market GM products appeared in . Currently, 16 lines of GM crops (6 lines of corn, 3 lines of soybeans, 3 lines of potatoes, 2 lines of rice, 2 lines of beets) and 5 types of microorganisms are allowed in Russia. It seems that there are few allowed varieties, but they are added to many products. GM components are also found in bakery products, and in meat and dairy products. There are many of them in baby food, especially for the little ones. The most common additive is GM soy resistant to Roundup herbicide (line 40.3.2).
Why are GMOs harmful?
Studies conducted by scientists from around the world that eating food containing GMOs leads to infertility. This fact is already confirmed by statistics - the number of infertile couples around the world is growing rapidly! GMO destroys immunity- a person gets sick more often and more severely. GMO is the cause of various allergies and cancerous diseases!
There are several ways to obtain GMOs. But only one of them is suitable for mass industrial production - using the properties of structures (plasmids) to penetrate into living cells of any organism and change their genetic composition. Bacteria with foreign inserts infect adult plants and their seeds, then transgenization (modification, mutation) occurs, and new qualities begin to appear in them. However, if such plants are consumed as food, then the body is also exposed to infection, since the bacteria and plasmids that were used to create do not disappear anywhere. When they enter the stomach and intestines, the same thing happens as when creating GMOs - transgenization I, only the cells of the walls of the stomach and intestines, as well as the microflora of the digestive system. Recall: in the intestine is located about 70% of the human immune system. Immunity falls, plasmids and GM-inserts through the blood enter all organs, muscles and even skin of a person, and their modification also occurs.
That is, even eating the meat of an animal that was fed with food with, a person becomes infected. The worst thing is that this also applies to germ cells. Mutant germ cells will produce children with genes from other species and classes of plants and animals. Fortunately, things have not yet come to pronounced external manifestations of these processes. And we are unlikely to turn into an ear of corn or we will have gills. And here this will hurt more. And it has already begun! People increasingly began to complain about a decrease in immunity, oncological diseases and allergic reactions began to be noted more often. And yet, as you know, it is cell mutations that create the conditions for the development of cancer cells.
Due to the cultivation of GM plants, the ecosystem is destroyed - the soil ceases to bear fruit and pollinating insects die out, without which the existence of nature and man in general is impossible!
Transgenization has a serious impact on the environment, leading to a decrease in biodiversity, disruption of trophic (food) chains. The ingress of pollen into normal plants turns the seeds of the latter into transgenic ones. transgenic organisms, like a fire, covering ever larger areas of the Earth. The statistics are depressing. According to the National Genetic Safety Association, every six hours a plant variety disappears on Earth; out of 7,000 varieties of apples, only 900 are left to date, and out of 2,600 varieties of pears, only 300 varieties. The situation with the animal world is no better. Thus, about 50% of Russian local breeds of the main agricultural species have either already disappeared or are on the verge of extinction. Poultry farmers, for example, have forever lost one of the most beautiful breeds of chickens - Pavlovskaya.
On the American and European continents, entire bee colonies are disappearing. In many regions, this problem has reached almost 90% bee families. In Germany, Austria, Spain, Poland and Switzerland, cases of the disappearance of bee colonies are also recorded. Such cases have been recorded before. However, there is a decrease in the population of bees not due to ordinary mortality: the bees simply leave their hives and do not return back. The most likely reason for this behavior of insects is the feeding on pollen and nectar of GM plants. When a bee gets sick, it flies away so as not to infect the entire hive. And this is already too serious, because bees are not just a source of honey. Bees and other pollinating insects are involved in the reproduction of most plants in the world. There will be no insects - the planet Earth will quickly turn into a desert. “Four years after the death of the last bee, people will also die,” - at one time even A. Einstein.
GMOs are weapons of mass destruction aimed at reducing the population. Destroy first of all the white race. So they say, scientists who conducted experiments with GMOs.
Learn more about GMOs and their dangers
What is GMO
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are new organisms artificially created as a result of the introduction of one or more genes from another species or class of animals and plants to obtain new properties or parameters.
Why are GMOs so harmful?
First of all, it matters what kind of "foreign" genes are inserted, and what new property will appear in plants due to these genes. At the same time, in the process of introduction, foreign genes (or) can both change themselves and have a negative impact on the genome, which is a program for the development and structure of the host organism. In addition, as a result of the activity of the introduced genes, unknown proteins, causing toxicosis or allergy in humans and animals. An important point is that plants that are resistant to herbicides or insecticides can accumulate them, and together with the plant, humans or animals will absorb pesticides.
According to scientists, one of the reasons for the danger may be the imperfection of the technologies for obtaining a transgenic organism. For embedding a gene, mainly viruses or plasmids (circular DNA) are used, which are able to penetrate into the cell of the body and then use cellular resources to create many copies of their own or infiltrate into the cellular genome (as well as “jump” out of it).
The circular shape of the plasmid DNA makes it more resistant to degradation. When conducting research by a group of British geneticists led by H. Gilbert, it turned out that DNA from cells of genetically modified food is borrowed by bacteria intestinal microflora of people. The capture of genes and GM plasmids by the intestinal microflora was also indicated in the works of other researchers. Transgenic inserts have been detected in human saliva and intestinal microflora, in blood and in cells of various organs (intestines, spleen, genitals, heart, brain, skin, etc.) of mice and their offspring. According to the Control Center in the southern German city of Weinstephan, GM inserts have been found in milk cows fed with GM food.
Some scientists suggest mistakenly considering transgenization as "accelerated" selection. However, with the help of selection, it is possible to obtain hybrids of only related organisms, i.e. you can cross potatoes of different varieties, but you can’t get, for example, a hybrid of a potato with an apple or a hybrid of a tomato with a fish. In nature, with rare exceptions, there is no crossing between different species and, moreover, classes of plants or animals. If, nevertheless, such a crossing did occur, then offspring is barren, such as, for example, a mule (or hinny) from crossing a horse with a donkey, or offspring from crossing a tigress and a lion, a black grouse and a capercaillie, and so on.
It has been shown that GM inserts can enter human and animal germ cells. After fertilization, "transformed" eggs will produce children with genes from other species and classes of animals or plants, i.e. appear genetic "chimeras", most of which, moreover, will be barren. The above can be confirmed by the studies of German scientists R. Schubert and co-authors. After adding plasmids with the green fluorescent protein gene to the feed of pregnant female mice, scientists found GM inserts and green protein in the cells of various organs of prenatal fetuses and newborn mice (intestines, blood, heart, brain, liver, spleen, testes, skin, etc.). ). The authors conclude about danger, which may represent GMO not only for those who absorb them, but also for their offspring(“GMO – Weapon or Mistake?” by I.V. Ermakova).
Experimental studies on mammals, which include humans, have shown that modern ones can lead to infertility, cancer, genetic deformities, allergic reactions, and the appearance of unknown diseases (“What do we eat?” I.V. Ermakova).
What to do?
1. Refuse to use products containing GMO. Do not buy foreign products or seeds, carefully study the composition of any product. Do not buy a product that contains GMO, GMI, GM, vegetable protein, soy-based components (soy flour, tofu cheese, E322 lecithin) and corn-based components (corn flour, oil, starch), etc. For reference: currently in the world about 95% soy is genetically modified, with corn the situation is about the same.
Do not buy food out of season. If you buy, for example, strawberries or tomatoes in the winter, the likelihood that they will be genetically modified is very high. Do not be lazy and buy cakes, pastries, cookies of industrial production. Often they contain, and almost always, other harmful substances. Try to bake your own. Avoid cheap chocolate that contains lecithin, vegetable fat and vegetable whey. Choose dark chocolate that contains cocoa powder and butter.
Don't eat fast food, almost always there can be products with GMO and other harmful substances. During prolonged heat treatment of a product containing GMO, its harm to humans is reduced, as foreign genes and plasmids are partially destroyed. Avoid margarine. Butter will be better.
Eat little by little, chewing food thoroughly. If your body "does not accept" a product, then it is better to refuse it. Eat either strictly on time, or only when you have a strong feeling of hunger. Don't overeat. Track information about, help identify those companies that widely use them in food products, seek a ban on the use GMO, require the introduction of mandatory labeling of their presence in products approved for sale.
However, if you do not grow all your food yourself, you are unlikely to be able to completely avoid eating GMO. And besides GMO, store-bought food contains many other toxic substances!
4. Fight against the introduction of GMOs in Russia and the world. In the ways described above, you will protect yourself to one degree or another from destructive influences. But to change the situation as a whole, this is not enough. cultivation GMO leads to the destruction of the planet's ecosystem. The soil on which GMOs were grown ceases to bear fruit forever. Bees, bumblebees and other pollinating insects are dying out en masse. But without them, for most plants, death will occur. Following this all animals will die who ate plants. If nothing is done against the introduction GMO, on our planet, life may cease to exist altogether!
Not buying products containing GMOs, you are already fighting the producers of this poison. And the more people stop buying GMO, the faster it becomes unprofitable to produce it. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that all people refuse to buy. For GMOs to become unprofitable, it is enough for 20-40% of the Russian population to become picky about what they eat and stop buying products containing GMO and other poisons.
But the bottom line is that most people just don't know how bad it is for them. GMO. Let them read this article, recommend watching Galina Tsareva's film "Transgenization - a genetic bomb" and reading the book "Seeds of Destruction. The secret underpinnings of genetic manipulation by William Engdahl. Do not decide for people that they may not be interested. Don't be afraid to be misunderstood. It is not this imaginary nonsense that should be feared, but the real consequences of mass implementation GMO on the planet! No one for us will tell people the truth about GMO. A person who understands how monstrously GMO destroys his body and all life on the planet will be more selective about the choice of food.
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“Food is power! We use it to change people's behavior. Some will call it blackmail. We don’t care, we don’t intend to apologize ... ”Catherine Bertini
GMO is short for Genetically Modified Organisms. That is, these are food products, as well as living organisms created using genetic engineering.
Every plant and animal, including humans, has thousands of different characteristics. For example, in plants, this is the color of the leaves, the number of seeds, the amount and types of vitamins in fruits, etc. A specific gene is responsible for each trait (Greek genos - hereditary factor). A gene is a small segment of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule and gives rise to a specific trait of a plant or animal. If you remove the gene responsible for the appearance of a trait, then the trait itself will disappear. Conversely, if a new gene is introduced, then a new quality will arise in a plant or animal. Modified organisms are euphoniously called transgenic, but it would be more correct to call them mutants (lat. - modified).
For the first time, new transgenic plants were discussed back in the early 80s, when in 1983 a group of scientists from the American company Monsanto created the first genetically modified plants. Quite plausible goals were pursued at the initial stage: to create qualitatively new plants resistant to, say, frost, drought, pests, pesticides, radiation, etc. And already the first experiments exceeded all expectations: the experimental wheat crop turned out to be unprecedented. And the pests simply avoided eating such a treat. And as always, there were enterprising people who quickly realized that you can make good money on a new product. Already in 1994, the production of superplants was put on stream, as they say. Thus began the industrial production and cultivation of gene mutants. To date, more than 2,000 varieties of various plants have already been bred, which have alien genetic inserts in their genetic structure.
An important difference between transgenic organisms and natural ones. They are completely barren. That is, the seeds of such plants do not germinate, and animals do not give offspring. Why? After all, before a person created new varieties and breeds, and everything was in order with them? The reason is that traditional breeding has one important limitation: it can only produce hybrids of related organisms. You can cross, for example, different varieties of apples, pears, breeds of dogs, but an apple with potatoes or a tomato with fish is not. In ordinary life, in a natural habitat, mating and interbreeding between different species, and even more so classes of plants or animals, as a rule, does not occur.
The introduction of alien genes of some species or classes into others leads, so to speak, to a genetic failure, blocking the reproduction processes. This is a kind of protective mechanism for the conservation of species. Or, speaking poetically, the protest of nature against interference with its laws.
Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology. An expert in the field of GMOs will talk about the dangers that lie behind products produced using genetically modified organisms.
GMOs are very unhealthy food
The American Academy of Environmentally Friendly Medicine urges physicians to keep patients away from GM foods. They cite studies that such foods harm the organs, digestive and immune systems, accelerate the aging process and lead to infertility. Human studies show that such foods can leave a special material in the body that causes many health problems over a long period. For example, genes that are introduced into soybeans can be transferred to the DNA of bacteria that live inside us. Toxic insecticides produced by genetically modified corn enter the bloodstream of pregnant women and fetuses.
A large number of diseases appeared after the production of genetically modified foods began in 1996. In America, the number of people with three or more chronic conditions has increased from 7 percent to 13 percent in just 9 years. The number of food allergies and problems such as autism, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and others has skyrocketed. Although there have not yet been detailed studies that have confirmed that GMOs are to blame, the Academy experts warn that you should not wait for these problems to come and you should protect your health now, especially the health of children, who are at the greatest risk.
The American Public Health Association and the American Nursing Association also warn that modified ruminant growth hormones increase levels of the hormone IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1) in cow's milk, which has been linked to the development of cancer.
GMOs are on the rise
Genetically modified seeds are constantly spreading naturally around the world. It is impossible to completely clean up our gene pool. Self-propagating GMOs can survive the challenges of global warming and the effects of nuclear waste. The potential impact of these organisms is very high, as they threaten future generations. The spread of GMOs can cause economic losses, leaving organic farmers vulnerable as they constantly struggle to protect their crops.
GMOs call for more herbicide use
Most GM crops are designed to be tolerant of weed killers. From 1996 to 2008, US farmers used approximately 174,000 tons of herbicides for GMOs. The result was "superweeds" that were resistant to the chemicals used to kill them. Farmers are forced to use more and more herbicides every year. Not only is this harmful to the environment, but such products end up accumulating a high percentage of toxic chemicals that can lead to infertility, hormonal disorders, malformations, and cancer.
Genetic engineering has dangerous side effects
By mixing the genes of completely unrelated species, genetic engineering entails a lot of unpleasant and unexpected consequences. Moreover, regardless of the types of genes that are introduced, the very process of creating a genetically modified plant can lead to serious negative consequences, including toxins, carcinogens, allergies, and nutrient deficiencies.
The government turns a blind eye to the dangerous consequences
Many of the health and environmental implications of GMOs are ignored by government regulations and safety analysis. The reasons for this may be political motives. The US Food and Drug Administration, for example, has not required a single study to confirm the safety of GMOs, does not require proper labeling of products, and allows companies to ship genetically modified foods to markets without informing the FDA.
They justify themselves by saying that they do not have information that GM products are significantly different from conventional ones. However, this is a lie. Secret memos that the FDA receives from the public who go to court show that most scientists working for the FDA agree that GMOs can cause unpredictable effects that are difficult to detect.
The biotech industry hides the facts about the dangers of GMOs
Some biotech companies are trying to prove that GMO products are completely harmless using superficial and falsified research data. Independent scientists have long since refuted these claims, finding evidence that this is not the case. It is beneficial for such companies to distort and deny information about the dangers of GMOs in order to avoid problems and stay afloat.
Independent research and reports are criticized and suppressed
Scientists who uncover the truth about GMOs are criticized, silenced, threatened and denied funding. Attempts by the media to bring the truth about the problem to the public are censored.
GMOs are bad for the environment
Genetically modified crops and their associated herbicides harm birds, insects, amphibians, marine life and organisms living underground. They reduce species diversity, pollute water and are not environmentally friendly. For example, GM crops have supplanted monarch butterflies, whose numbers have fallen by 50 percent in the US.
Herbicides have been shown to cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic death, endocrine disruption, and organ damage in animals, even at very low doses. Genetically engineered canola (a type of rapeseed) has spread into the wild in North Dakota and California, threatening to transfer herbicide resistance genes to other plants and weeds.
GMOs do not increase yields and cannot help fight hunger
While sustainable, non-GMO agricultural practices used in developing countries have increased crop yields by 79 percent, GMO practices, on average, do not increase yields at all.
The International Organization for the Evaluation of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology Development, citing the opinion of 400 scientists and the support of 58 countries, reported that the yield of genetically modified crops is "highly variable" and in some cases even starting to decline. She also confirmed that with the help of GMOs it is currently impossible to fight hunger and poverty, improve nutrition, health and livelihoods in rural areas, protect the environment, and help social development.
GMOs use the tools and resources that could be used to develop and use other safer methods and more reliable technologies.
By avoiding GMO foods, you can do your part to help get rid of negative effects.
Since GMOs do not provide the consumer with any benefit, many may refuse them, therefore, it will become unprofitable to produce such products and companies will stop offering them. In Europe, for example, back in 1999 they announced the danger of GMOs, warning about the potential harm of these products.
Living organisms for bacteria viruses are the habitat. And, getting into an animal or plant, they begin to adapt, change themselves and the environment, fight the immune system, but try to survive by all means (this is the desire of any organism, the law of life). Therefore, those bacteria and plasmids that were used to create GMOs do not go anywhere. At least part of them remains and penetrates into our body or into the body of animals when eating GM plants. And getting into the stomach and intestines, the same thing happens as when creating GMOs - transgenization (modification, mutation), only of the cells of the walls of the stomach and intestines, as well as the microflora of the digestive system.
About 70% of the human immune system is located in the gut. Immunity falls, plasmids and GM-inserts enter all organs, muscles and even skin of a person or animal through the blood and also modify them. That is, even eating the meat of an animal fed with GMO feed, a person becomes infected. The worst thing is that this also applies to germ cells. Mutant germ cells will produce children with genes from other species and classes of plants and animals. Most of these genetic "chimeras" will also be sterile. Fortunately, things have not yet come to pronounced external manifestations of these processes. And we are unlikely to turn into an ear of corn or we will have gills.
And this is going to hurt more. And it has already begun! People increasingly began to complain about a decrease in immunity, they more often began to develop oncological diseases, allergic reactions. And yet, as you know, it is cell mutations that create the conditions for the development of cancer cells.
The above is proved by an elementary test of the effect of GM soybeans resistant to the roundup herbicide (RR, line 40.3.2) on laboratory rats and their offspring, conducted by I.V. Ermakova, Doctor of Biological Sciences. The study showed increased mortality of first-generation rat pups, underdevelopment of surviving rat pups, pathological changes in organs, and the absence of a second generation. At the same time, only females were fed with GM soy two weeks before mating, during mating and lactation. When feeding GM soy, not only females, but also males, it was not possible to obtain even the first generation. In another study, a decrease in fertility and a decrease in testosterone concentration in males was observed in Campbell hamsters when GM soybean seeds were added to their diet (lines 40.3.2).
A few years ago, every 10th young man in Russia was infertile, now every 6th, after a while, maybe every third, and so on. Products containing GM components may be one of the reasons for the development of infertility in the younger generation. There is already convincing evidence of a violation of the stability of the plant genome when a foreign gene is inserted into it. All this can cause a change in the chemical composition of GMOs and the emergence of unexpected properties, including toxic ones. For example, for the production of the food additive tryptophan in the United States in the late 80s. In the 20th century, the GMH bacterium was created. However, along with regular tryptophan, for an unknown reason, she began to produce ethylene-bis-tryptophan, a substance that can cause muscle pain and spasms of the respiratory tract. As a result of its use, 5 thousand people fell ill, of which 37 people died, 1,500 became disabled. Independent experts claim that genetically modified crops emit 1020 times more toxins than conventional organisms.
Today in Russia, 14 types of food products obtained using transgenic technologies are officially allowed to be used: 3 soybean lines, 6 corn lines, 3 potatoes, 1 rice line and 1 more sugar beet for sugar production.
- soy and its forms (beans, sprouts, concentrate, flour, milk, etc.),
- corn and its forms (flour, cereals, popcorn, butter, chips, starch, syrups, etc.),
- potatoes and their forms (semi-finished products, dry mashed potatoes, chips, crackers, flour, etc.),
- tomatoes and its forms (paste, puree, sauces, ketchups, etc.),
- zucchini and products made using them,
- sugar beet, table beet, sugar produced from sugar beet,
- wheat and products made using it, including bread and bakery products,
- sunflower oil,
- rice and products containing it (flour, granules, flakes, chips),
- carrots and products containing them,
- onion,
- shallots, leeks and other bulbous vegetables.
LIST OF INTERNATIONAL MANUFACTURERS NOTICED TO USE GMOs and a huge amount of chemicals:
Foods that are killing you, blacklisted:
McDonald's, Bonduel, Orchard, Rich Puree, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Gallina Blanka, Knorr, Lipton, Pringles Chips, Maggi Seasonings, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, Cheetos, Pepsi Cherry, Mountain Dew, Minute Maid Orange, Minute Maid Grape, Real Mayonnaise (mayonnaise), Light Mayonnaise (mayonnaise), Low-Fat Mayonnaise (mayonnaise), Heinz Manufacturing Company: Ketchup (regular & no salt) (ketchup), Chili Sauce (Chili sauce), Heinz 57 Steak Sauce (meat sauce). M&M's, Snickers, Milky Way, Twix, Nestle, Crunch (chocolate rice cereal), Milk Chocolate Nestle (chocolate), Nesquik (chocolate drink), Cadbury (Cadbury / Hershey's), Fruit & Nut. Kit-Kat (chocolate bar), Kisses (sweets), Semi-Sweet Baking Chips (cookies), Milk Chocolate Chips (cookies), Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (peanut butter), Special Dark (dark chocolate), Milk Chocolate ( milk chocolate), Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup), Special Dark Chocolate Syrup (chocolate syrup), Strawberry Syrop (strawberry syrup), Toblerone (chocolate, all kinds), Mini Kisses (candy), Cracklin "Oat Bran (cereal), Raisin Bran Crunch (cereal), Honey Crunch Corn Flakes (cereal), Just Right Fruit & Nut (cereal), Nutri-grain (stuffed toast, all types), Pop Tarts (stuffed cookies, all flavors), All-bran Apple Cinnamon/ Blueberry (bran with apple, cinnamon, blueberry flavours), Frosted Flakes (flakes), Corn Flakes (flakes), Nescafe (coffee and milk), Maggi (soups, broths, mayonnaise, seasonings, mashed potatoes), Nestle (chocolate ), Nestea (tea), Nesquik (cocoa), Knorr (seasonings), Lipton (tea), Brooke Bond (tea), Conversation (tea), Calve (mayonnaise, ketchup), Rama (butter), Dumpling (margarine ), Delmi (mayonnaise, yogurt, margarine), Algida (ice cream), Nescafe Coffee (so far, vast plantations of such coffee are grown only in Vietnam), Potatoes (from Monsant USA).
Dumplings also turned out to be genetically modified, namely: “Dumplings without haste, pork and beef”, “Daria classic dumplings”, GMOs were found in “Tasty beef steaks”. Soups Campbell, Baby food Nestle, Hipp, Danon (yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, baby food), Mikoyanovsky ML, Hershey (Kit-Kat bars, chocolate), Lays chips, Rastishka. Factory ''Bolshevik'' (Moscow) - cookies ''Yubileinoe'' are used in the technology of preparation of GMOs.
When buying products in a store, labels can indirectly determine the likelihood of a GMO content in a product. If the label says that a product is made in the USA and contains soy, corn, canola or potatoes, then there is a very good chance that it contains GM components.
The situation with the animal world is no better. Thus, about 50% of Russian local breeds of the main agricultural species have either already disappeared or are on the verge of extinction. Poultry farmers, for example, have forever lost one of the most beautiful breeds of chickens - Pavlovskaya. In the next decade, from 20% of breeds of pigs, goats, cattle and up to 30% of sheep breeds are under the question of their further existence. In total, more than 30% of cattle have already disappeared in the world. On the American and European continents, entire bee colonies are disappearing. In many regions of the United States, this problem has affected almost 90% of bee colonies. In Germany, Austria, Spain, Poland and Switzerland, cases of the disappearance of bee colonies are also recorded. Manfred Gederer, head of the German professional beekeepers' federation, states that in Germany bee colonies have decreased by 25%, and in some regions even by 80%. In Switzerland, according to official figures, 25% of bees disappear annually. Losses of bee colonies have been recorded before. However, the decrease in the population of bees is not due to the fact that they die. The bees just leave their hives and don't come back. The most likely reason for this behavior of these insects is the feeding on pollen and nectar of GM plants. When a bee gets sick, it flies away so as not to infect the entire hive. And this is already too serious, because bees are not just a source of honey. Bees and other pollinating insects are involved in the reproduction of most plants in the world. There will be no insects - the planet Earth will quickly turn into a desert. “Four years after the death of the last bee, people will also die,” Albert Einstein warned at the time.
How to avoid eating genetically modified foods?
- Read food labels and avoid soy-based ingredients such as soy flour, tofu, soybean oil.
- Buy products that say “100% organic”.
If the eggs say “free range” or “natural”, it may be nothing more than a marketing ploy and the product is GMO. So, we choose only a product that says 100% organic.
What do the numbers on fruits and vegetables mean?
- 4-digit number indicates a regular product, non-GMO
- if this is a 5-digit number starting with the numbers 8, then you have a GMO product
- if it is a 5 digit number starting with 9 it is an organic product
Buy grass fed beef, a recommendation that applies more to North American readers.
Buy only local vegetables and fruits whenever possible.
Buy whole foods, not boxes, cans, bags. In semi-finished products, canned food, etc., you are much more likely to get GMO ingredients without even knowing it.
Grow your own fruits and vegetables. You yourself will grow a normal crop, not GMOs, but on condition that you planted non-GMO seeds! HOME-MADE FOOD - bread, cakes, cottage cheese, etc. - are undoubtedly much healthier and more nutritious than their industrial counterparts.
BUY YOUR FOOD FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE: Certified organic foods are much less likely to be affected by genetic engineering. Opt for organic, natural products whenever possible.
AVOID fast food restaurants and low-budget foods as GM ingredients are first introduced into cheaper varieties.
BAKERY PRODUCTS: When purchasing baked goods such as bread, avoid "flour improvers" and "dough impregnations" which may be a mixture of genetically modified enzymes and additives. Similarly, "ascorbic acid" may be a genetically modified derivative.
AVOID margarine. Opt for organic butter.
DAIRY PRODUCTS and meat from animals fed genetically modified soy and corn are not labeled as such on labels, despite evidence that the altered DNA can pass through the intestinal wall into the spleen, liver, and white blood cells. Whenever possible, give preference to organic milk, butter, cream, cottage cheese, etc.
CHOCOLATE may contain GM soy lecithin, as well as "vegetable fat" and "whey" affected by genetic engineering. Therefore, give preference to organic chocolate. All lecithin is soy lecithin. Its code number is E322.
SHOPPING WITH EXTREME CAUTION when buying products such as baby food and breakfast cereals, as they may well contain vitamins and other components derived from genetically modified organisms in the form of supplements.
REGARDING HEALTH SUPPLEMENTS, vitamins and drugs: Check with the manufacturer as some ingredients may be biotechnologically produced and may be hazardous. The genetically modified dietary supplement Tryptophan has killed 37 users and disabled another 1,500 people. In addition, over the past 10 years, there have been reports of a genetically modified version of "human insulin" causing problems in diabetic patients who have been successfully using "animal insulin" for years.
HONEY. In several varieties of honey, traces of genetically modified oilseed rape DNA have already been found. If the label of a jar of honey says: "imported honey" or "produced in several countries", then it can be advised to avoid such varieties. Instead, opt for local honey or organic honey.
DRIED FRUITS. Many varieties of dried fruit, including raisins and dates, can be coated with GM soybean oil. Choose organic varieties of dried fruit or varieties that do not have "vegetable oil" on the label.
A WARNING. Avoid all imported products from the US and Canada. Foods and items to avoid include all fruits and vegetables, ice cream, milk, milk powder, butter, soy sauce, chocolate, popcorn, chewing gum, vitamins. A stay in the US and Canada will almost certainly result in the regular consumption of genetically modified food (including genetically modified fresh fruits and vegetables).
Eat healthy food!
