GMO News

“Genetic Roulette — The Gamble of Our Lives” is an 83-minute look at how the health of Americans has noticeably deteriorated since GM crops became available to consumers in the mid-1990s.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are the subject of a new documentary produced by Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology. “Genetic Roulette — The Gamble of Our Lives” is an 83-minute look at how the health of Americans has noticeably deteriorated since GM crops became available to consumers in the mid-1990s. (geneticroulettemovie.com)

Medical professionals and farming experts with years of experience provide reports on the unhealthy effects of GMOs presenting in people and in animals fed GM crops. The film presents evidence for why they are linked to allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, infertility, autism, cancer and more. Health practitioner Mary Tobin, L.Ac., said the film “provides abundant evidence that eating a GMO-free diet is the single most important change Americans can make for their health.”

The majority of the corn, soy, cottonseed, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. Approximately 70 percent of the food in American grocery stores is GM.

In California, an effort to require labeling of GMOs goes to the ballot in November. If passed, Proposition 37 would require that foods containing GMOs be labeled, and the term “natural” could not be used in advertising products that contain GMOs.

Supporters of Prop 37 have raised over $3 million. Agribusiness and biotechnology corporations have contributed about $23.5 million to defeat Prop 37. Prominent businesses supporting Prop 37 are Dr. Bronner’s Soaps, drmercola.com and The Organic Consumers Association. To the surprise of some, major organic food companies like Whole Foods Market, Stonyfield, Hain-Celestial Group and Trader Joe’s have not contributed to the campaign.

“There has been speculation that because some of these companies’ leaders have close relationships with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a proponent of genetically engineered foods, and others in the Obama administration, that they are sitting on their hands and sitting on their wallets, so as not to embarrass the President during an election year,” said Mark Kastel, co-director of The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm and food policy research group.

An important new website (gmoevidence.com) has been launched that is designed to be a worldwide user-friendly library of evidence on the harm caused by GMOs and the pesticide glyphosate.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 31, Number 5, October/November 2012.