The Enemy

The very first thing that you have to do to become a true Superhero is to pick a cause to fight for. Are you the person who is going to fight against the rich, the injustice, etc? Well in this blog our goal is to fight against GMO’s.

Now you might be wondering “Why the Hell would I want to fight against GMO’s?” That answer is a little bit of a long one but I will do my best to show you why you need to fight against GMO’s:

It might surprise you to learn that we have evolved to adapt to almost anything. It seems that our bodies are quite remarkable in their ability to adapt to new things, whether we are adapting to climates or different types of food. Over time as a species we have able to adapt to amazing things but every once in a while something comes a long that we just can’t adapt to. In this case it is Genetically Modified Organisms. Now you might be trying to think of good example of GMO’s and you probably come across that mouse. And you might start saying “Hey isn’t there that mouse that has a human ear growing out of it?” In fact that ear was grown from normal cells and is just surgically added, there was no genetics involved. But we aren’t focusing on animals but in the development of plants that have been changed to fit a certain need by genetically altering them.

Now I am going to give you some background, like an origin story of our nemesis, on how these seeds came to be, so you can learn how to fight our enemy like a Superhero:

In fact these seeds were created following the end of World War Two. What happened is quite simple; the scientists in charge of the chemicals making bombs and what not suddenly have tons of leftover chemicals, such as nitrogen. The scientists decided to market these chemicals as super fertilizers claiming that they would help the farmer make more money. When the plants used in many third world countries began dying the scientist realized that they needed to find a “miracle seed”. What they ended up doing was to dwarf the “extra” parts of plants and only have the important human food parts grow. These new plants flourished in the extra chemicals but at a cost. It turned out the “extra” parts where what the farmers used to feed their cows, and other animals. Basically the “extras” made the farms sustainable. And then began the problems with fields no longer be fertile. Leading to now where there are many new seeds that have been manufactured.

I could probably see that you might still be wondering why should I care I am not an environmentalist or maybe you are saying I could really care less about farming. Well maybe you should really care. Just think where does your food come from? (and the answer can’t be the grocery store) Do you know, maybe it’s from 100 miles away or from across the globe but who really knows. What truly matters is how healthy is it. Now I guess you might be saying “WHOA dude I eat tons of fruits and vegetables”. Well sorry man but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. In fact some of the food sold has lost most of its nutrients. Now the foods that have this problem are all GMO’s. Each one has had one manipulation done to it to make it grow “better” whether that means it now produces pesticides or is immune to herbicides that does not matter. The simple fact is that they are less healthy if that makes any sense; in fact they are all FDA approved, weird right?

I could see you going online right now and looking up the FDA approval of these GMO’s well go ahead and do it. You will find that they are approved, but you will also learn some very interesting facts. The first happens to be that none of these GMO’s have any required testing to be allowed for human consumption. In fact they are practically but on the express rout through the FDA, the only tests that are done on them are funded by the companies that sell that GMO’s, conflict of interest? If that’s not enough maybe learning that the guy who runs the FDA is in fact an ex-CEO of Monsanto, one of the biggest producers of GMO’s, and still has stock in their company, interested yet? No, well maybe you would like to hear about the provision that was included in the Bill Obama just signed. In fact this Bill was meant to fund the government for the next six months, to September, which it does do but somewhere along the way a Monsanto protection was thrown in. Basically if a company that distributes GMO’s is being sued or taken to trial about a certain GMO contract they are allowed to keep selling it no matter what. Does anyone else find this ridiculous? I mean this was in a Bill for Federal Funding and suddenly we have to deal with Agriculture just to fund our government?

Hopefully you are now seeing some of the problems associated with GMO’s but let’s really get into the health problems that are associated with them. One study done by an independent scientist over the course of 90 days concluded that GMO’s cause an increase to the chances of getting cancer. The experiment was quite simple: get a whole bunch of rats and feed half non-GMO wheat and the other half straight GMO wheat. It was found that the GMO fed mice had an increased rate of cancer. Now the FDA and Monsanto claimed that the study was not conclusive because of two things. First is that it is way too short and secondly they claimed the scientist had alternative motives. Now let us remember that the head of the FDA has Monsanto stock. Another study was recently finished; it explored the claim that GMO foods are cheaper in the long run because they require fewer pesticides because the plants produce it themselves. Over the course of five years it was found that after three years the pesticide amount needed to save the crop actually increased. What ended up happening is that all the money saved plus extra had to be used to protect the crop. Of course this study still does not affect the FDA’s approval of GMO’s.  Now you might think that pesticides don’t affect you but I will kindly ask you to remember the warnings on the sides of the bug-sprays you use in your house. I do believe they say not for human consumption. But is it okay to eat vegetables covered in it? Because that is obviously way better for you.