What’s Up With GMOs and Organic Foods?

Background:

Today, there is so much confusion about what organic means, when we need to buy organic, what  GMO’s are, how pesticides and chemicals affect the foods we eat. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, but there are scientific studies that have been performed to see what foods you REALLY need to be careful about, and which ones are generally ok.

Vocabulary:

GMO: Introduced in 1996, Genetically Modified Organism – an organism whose natural genetic composition has been altered through genetic engineering.

Organic Foods: Foods grown and produced without modern synthetic products like pesticides, chemical fertilizers, irradiation, industrial solvents or additives. Typically, these foods a fresh and are minimally processed using organic ingredients. In the case of animals raised for meat, the animals are not treated with antibiotics, unless they are ill, and the animals are not treated with growth hormones.

Some Facts:

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      Why GMO’s are getting bad press (From GMOinside.org and the Institute forResponsible Technology):

o   They can be toxic, causing allergies to foods (such as soy allergies caused by peanut genes now in soy – people are actually allergic to the peanuts, not soy!)

o   Little regulations exists, so safety is questionable

o   This is a newer technology, so all risks have not been studied or well documented

§  Because of the point above, tests like those that claimed Agent Orange and DDT were safe are used to promote the safety of GMOs

§  Independent research with negative results is suppressed by companies (like Monsanto) with the big money

o   Do not actually increase yield of crops

o   Do not reduce pesticide use, but increases it – crops are tolerant to pesticides now, so they are used more freely on crops to prevent weeds (The differences in applied herbicide in 1996 and 2008 was 383 million pounds!), thus, GMO crops tend to have higher trace pesticides on the produce we eat.

o   They are creating resistance to pesticides in weedy plant and insect species

§  This can make crops more susceptible to disease, because they are not adapted to the changing pest species

o   The reduce biodiversity due to becoming better competitors, and disrupting ecosystems

§  These are linked to habitat reduction of even the Monarch butterfly, for example, whose population is down 50% in the US in recent years.

§  These also cause infertility and infant deaths or birth defects in wild bird and amphibian species.

o   Studies from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine indicate that GMO’s have shown to cause intestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging and even infertility in test animals!

o   GMO’s involving growth hormones (like those we get from cow milk) are linked to cancers.

o   They require the same amount of energy (if not more) than non-GMO species

o   Cannot solve the world hunger problem, because amount of food is not the problem, lack of land and access to the food causes the problem.

-          Not all organic foods are better than non-organic foods

o   Most studies do not find significant vitamin differences in produce

o   Studies show that there is no significant differences in protein or fat content in meats

o   Only organic milk seemed better nutritionally, having better omega-3 fatty acids

-          Not all organic foods have less pesticides than non-organic foods

o   A lot of our foods come from other countries where they do not actually have access to the chemicals put on foods in the USA.

o   Not all foods absorb pesticides

§  Pesticides are designed to use different “modes of action” within the plant metabolism.

§  This is to prevent killing off target plants.

§  As an example soy plants are genetically modified to me “round up ready,” meaning they are tolerant to glyphosate (the active chemical in round-up). This is because the genetically modified soy plants are able to hydrolyze the glyphosate- or break it down into non-active ingredients.

-          There are foods that you can get by with eating non-organic, while others should be substituted, as they have the highest residues for pesticides (From the Environmental Working Group at ewg.org):

o   “Clean 15” are 15 foods with the LOWEST traces of chemicals and thus the safest to get the non-organics

§  Sweet potato

§  Cabbage

§  Pineapple

§  Grapefruit

§  Cantaloupe

§  Eggplant

§  Mango

§  Kiwi

§  Sweet peas

§  Onions

§  Mushrooms

§  Asparagus

§  Avocado

§  **Papaya and Sweet corn have little pesticides, but are common GMO’s, so, EWG recommends to go organic

o   The “Dirty Dozen” are 12 foods with the HIGHEST traces of chemicals, so get them as organic!

§  Strawberries

§  Cucumber

§  Celery

§  Bell pepper

§  Grape tomatoes

§  Spinach

§  Hot peppers

§  Grapes

§  Nectarines

§  Peaches

§  Potato (baking style)

§  Apple

§  **** Kale and Summer Squash (green squash) exceeded even the Dirty Dozen criteria, as they also test positive for traces of known neurotoxins!  Go organic on these FOR SURE!

Conclusion:

GMO’s are looking to be pretty terrible over all for our health and for the environment. Recent studies, like those sited in the facts section above, indicate that GMOs have done nothing but cause more problems. These sources, and many others, suggest that we avoid purchasing any known GMO foods. When we avoid purchasing them, we do not support their profits and we let them know that we are fed up with the half cocked science experiments. Look what happened with the “safe” PCB’s that caused a hole in the ozone layer and DDT that killed thousands of animals of different plants, just to control a single insect. As a biologist, I am obviously not making the claim that science is bad, but science needs to be thought out fully and tested well before it is implemented in the world.