Do you like genetically modified food? Do you know that these largely unregulated ingredients are in 60 to 70 percent of the processed foods we eat? The manufacturers love them: they increase profits. But we can look forward to cancerous growths, smaller brains, livers and testicles, and damaged immune and reproductive systems. And long after we stop eating GM corn chips, for instance, our intestines may continue to manufacture the pesticide “Bt” the corn plants were engineered to produce.

In Scotland, the scientist who made the findings was fired, of course. But an outpouring of news coverage created a consumer rebellion that forced manufacturers to keep GM products out of the European Union, despite official approvals. Here, our controlled media is so cowed we never got the story.

Consumers believe the FDA approves GM foods through rigorous, long-term studies, but the truth is voluntary research is left to big companies like Montesano, who design studies to avoid finding problems. The consensus among the FDA’s own scientists was that GM foods could lead to unpredictable allergens, toxins, new diseases and nutritional problems. But their demands for long-term studies were ignored by superiors. When evidence of this fraud was presented at a press conference, the media didn’t even run the story.

How many of us would have to reject GM food products to get them off supermarket shelves? Even five percent of shoppers could make the difference. We won’t get the truth from the public agencies created to protect us: we have to do it ourselves. Educate yourself and speak up. There’s information with footnoted source citations on a variety of toxic reactions at www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/issues/gmconcerns.

We can avoid GM foods, many of which are in our supermarkets today. In addition to processed food, the following, unless certified organic, may be genetically modified: Soy products, such as soy sauce, miso, tofu, teriyaki marinades, soy milk; corn, a in syrup, meal, corn starch, baking powder, etc.; cotton seed oil; canola; Hawaiian papaya; additives such as aspartame; and milk, if cows are treated with GM growth hormone.

It’s time to become informed and take action, for the sake of our children.

Mary Fiddler

Oak Harbor