Genetically Modified products are spreading inexorably around the planet
Those corporations most actively pushing their use and introduction are in it for money and profits
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Those who sell the seeds are producing ever more varieties in ever more areas
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Tying the farmers and users into long term contracts
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The farmer has to use their seeds
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His choice is gone
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From many points of view it is highly debatable that GM products are a good idea although many would claim that this debate is long since lost
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However the idea that progress cannot be made without them is plain untrue
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Many advances are being made which do not have the same potential for disaster that GM products do
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There are many ideas for crop improvement and protection which do not need GM technology
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Nor is the unfettered manipulation of genes helpful as accidents must and will occur
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The long term effects on animals and humans ingesting GM cannot be known yet
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The jury is still out as to their long term effects
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And no corporation spin machine can prove otherwise
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What happens to internal human systems after ongoing long term ingestion of GM anything?
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They do not know
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Nor do we
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However for many of us our intuition says lets find out more first before we feed this to our children and ourselves
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Yet against the will of most Europeans we are being forced to accept GM crops being grown in Europe
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Being hidden in our foods
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In the US it is even worse as farmers have acquiesced to the seed sellers demands
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American consumers have few ideas about what they are eating as their labelling is even less candid than ours in Europe
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We are already ingesting GM foods in soy based foods, tomatoes, potatoes, rapeseed, sugar cane, sugar beet, sweet corn, rice, corn
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In addition, various genetically engineered micro-organisms are routinely used as sources of enzymes for the manufacture of a wide variety of processed foods.
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These include alpha-amylase from bacteria, which converts starch to simple sugars, chymosin from bacteria or fungi that clots milk protein for cheese making, and pectinesterase from fungi which improves fruit juice clarity
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Saying be careful what you eat is actually becoming a joke as the power to do so or to even know what you are eating has been taken from us
The United States and Canada do not require labeling of genetically modified foods
However in certain other regions, such as the European Union, Japan, Malaysia and Australia, governments have required labeling so consumers can exercise choice between foods that have genetically modified, conventional or organic origins
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Unfortunately for consumers the small print on labels is usually so small that reading them is next to impossible, even if you could understand the abbreviations and letters used instead of names
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To improve this situation requires a labeling system as well as the reliable separation of GM and non-GM organisms at production level and throughout the whole processing chain.
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Research suggests that this may prove impossible
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And where we are is for many a tragedy
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We need biodiversity intensification that works with nature’s nutrient and water cycles, not against them,” says Vandana Shiva.
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Shiva, the founder of Navdanya, the movement of 500,000 seed keepers and organic farmers in India,
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She argues that GMF’s have not increased yields.
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Recently, Doug Gurian-Sherman, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy group, published a report called “Failure to Yield”, in which he stated that in a nearly 20 year record, genetically engineered crops have not increased yields.
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Check the labels for what they do tell you about what you are buying
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Visit the Internet and see what information is available on whatever it is you are looking for
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The true impact of GM foods on our systems is not yet known, the jury is out
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Make your own choices please
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Inform yourself
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