Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders were on hand Friday to celebrate the first in the nation law requiring food manufactures to label their product if it contains genetically modified organisms (GMO) going into effect.
Food producers informed Price Chopper in Vermont that they will no longer be providing their offerings, significantly reducing what is on the store shelves. Prices are predicted to go up due to the decrease in selection and competition.
Leahy tried to reassure his constituents that Pepsi would eventually have to get on board as other states follow Vermont’s example.
The stupid deserve their punishment. Schadenfreude moment. This from the nuthin state that gave us Senators Leahy and Sanders. Stew in it bitches.
i would hope they would label the products origin AND the GMO’s. We know the effects of beef hormones, and the lack of quality control in other countries and we have no clue what argentina/brazil/china are putting in livestock. And GMO’s are genetically modified. MODIFIED. (and fed to livestock) You have no idea what that can cause in a body. Why do you blindly trust monsanto or our government telling us its safe? I certainly dont. We dont eat GMO fruit/veggies because we eat healthy. Sell that shit to muslim countries.
GMOs. . .Trust us, we’re the US Government. What could possibly go wrong?
Wait for the push to increase SNAP benefits to offset the rise in prices
Charles your post is a disgrace. gmo’s are patented seeds developed by Monsanto and other capitalists and are vastly superior to non enhanced seeds. the gmo protests are from communist leftists who hate progress. What do you stand for?
The dirty pols passed laws taking
the country of origin off food labels.
If I think anything I might eat remotely,
possibly come from places like China,
it’s off my menu for good.
Charlie WoW: “…We dont eat GMO fruit/veggies because we eat healthy.”
So Charlie, GMO foods by your estimation are , by default, unhealthy? Citations, please.
jpm; you couldn’t be more wrong! For example, Round-Up Ready corn is not “vastly superior” as you claim. It has been genetically modified by introducing God knows what into the DNA of corn so that it can withstand being poisoned with enormous amounts of the pesticide Round-Up without dying. Guess who makes Round-Up…that’s right it’s Monsanto. So they modified the genetic structure of a strain of corn NOT to make it better corn, but so that they can sell more Round-Up pesticides. Do you know that ALL of America’s aquafers are polluted with these herbicides and pesticides? We should be finding ways to use LESS, not more.
We know factually that they have combined insect DNA with plant DNA. This is completely unnatural and of course something that could NEVER happen in nature. How would a spider mate with a lima bean? We have NO idea what this abomination of nature will do to our physiologies over time. Do you really want to blindly follow what these bastards tell you? Because that’s what the leftist communist want!
We currently destroy approximately 40% of our corn crops to make ethanol, so the claim that it’s has to do with a lack of food doesn’t hold up to scrutiny either.
And just for the record, I’m as far from being a communist or leftist as the east is from the west. But I did grow up on a farm in Missouri where I learned to respect the land, and revere nature. I’m all for progress, but I’m not so arrogant as to believe that humans are now somehow smarter than the God who made them, and the foods that we eat. Can there be any more insulting act before God Almighty that to claim we know better than Him? GMO literally stands for God Move Over! Do a little research instead of blindly accepting what these monsters are telling you. Start with this simple question, “If it’s so safe, then why do THEY work so hard to avoid it in their diets?”
^^ What Chance said.
Start with this simple question, “If it’s so safe, then why do THEY work so hard to avoid it in their diets?”
Name THEY
I’m unclear on how GMO based foods is in itself unhealthy.
Haven’t we been modifying crops since the dawn of history for greater yield and utility to the consumer?
Should we reject immunotherapy for cancer treatment since it violates nature?
How far should we go in rejecting advancements in knowledge and technology in order to go back to the way it use to be? How far back should all of society be dragged?
I have an ethical abhorrence to using baby body parts from abortions and am willing to give up what ever advances that area of research may lead too because it’s immoral, but that’s about the line for me.
I’m looking at Wiki on RoundUp and found this on its toxicity to humans.
In November, 2015, the European Food Safety Authority published an updated assessment report on glyphosate, concluding that “the substance is unlikely to be genotoxic (i.e. damaging to DNA) or to pose a carcinogenic threat to humans.” Furthermore, the final report clarified that while there may be other, probably carcinogenic, glyphosate-containing formulations, studies “that look solely at the active substance glyphosate do not show this effect.
It seems the Europeans think it’s safe. It’s been used in the United States since the 1970s – is that long enough to determine if there is a link to cancer or not?
i took the following from this website. https://foodrevolution.org/blog/former-pro-gmo-scientist/
There is, however, a growing body of scientific research – done mostly in Europe, Russia, and other countries – showing that diets containing engineered corn or soya cause serious health problems in laboratory mice and rats.
I am not gung ho about any altered foods. I prefer my food as close to God as possible. No sense pushing the envelope as cancer causes are mostly unknown and seem to be increasing exponentially along with other diseases since the 1980’s. About the same time “additives” became more and more prevalent along with hormone injected meats. Safe, not sorry.
I live in Vermont and I’m proud of the new law. It doesn’t ban anything, but it does require declaratory labeling. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. At least people will have an idea of what thy are getting.
Someone asked for citations, and it is great that there have been responses already.
There are spliced genetics involved in GMO crops, which may be for yield, appearance, ripening time or shelf life. Many of the crops are also “Roundup Ready”, which means they are resistant to glycophosphate, one of the main ingredients of Roundup pesticide. And that is made by Monsanto. I’ll leave it at that, but might also mention that they are not really your friend. (Many academics are fearful to write unfavorably about Monsanto, for fear of retaliation by Monsanto and loss of funding).
People should educate themselves about GMO’s.
“GE crops are typically far more contaminated with glyphosate than conventional crops, courtesy of the fact that they’re engineered to withstand extremely high levels of Roundup without perishing along with the weed….GE crops are typically far more contaminated with glyphosate than conventional crops, courtesy of the fact that they’re engineered to withstand extremely high levels of Roundup without perishing along with the weed….In 2009, a French court found Monsanto guilty of lying; falsely advertising its Roundup herbicide as “biodegradable,” “environmentally friendly” and claiming it “left the soil clean.”
(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx).
“While Monsanto insists that Roundup is as safe to humans as aspirin, Seneff and Samsel’s research tells a different story altogether. Their report, published in the journal Entropy1, argues that glyphosate residues, found in most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet courtesy of GE sugar, corn, soy and wheat, “enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease.” Interestingly, your gut bacteria are a key component of glyphosate’s mechanism of harm.
Monsanto has steadfastly claimed that Roundup is harmless to animals and humans because the mechanism of action it uses (which allows it to kill weeds), called the shikimate pathway, is absent in all animals. However, the shikimate pathway IS present in bacteria, and that’s the key to understanding how it causes such widespread systemic harm in both humans and animals.
The bacteria in your body outnumber your cells by 10 to 1. For every cell in your body, you have 10 microbes of various kinds, and all of them have the shikimate pathway, so they will all respond to the presence of glyphosate!
(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx)
“GMOs, glyphosate and mitochondrial dysfunction”
(http://responsibletechnology.org/gmos-and-mitochondrial-dysfunction/)
“Glyphosate causes extreme disruption of the microbe’s function and lifecycle. What’s worse, glyphosate preferentially affects beneficial bacteria, allowing pathogens to overgrow and take over. At that point, your body also has to contend with the toxins produced by the pathogens.” (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx).
As an RN, who has also studied nutrition, I tend to like my intestinal flora. I won’t knowingly put the stuff in my body.
Here’s a few other pages about GMO’s:
“You can’t really discuss genetic engineering without also addressing the chemicals these plants are engineered to tolerate. About 85 percent of all genetically engineered plants are herbicide-tolerant—designed to tolerate very high levels of herbicides, glyphosate in particular. These are the so-called Roundup Ready crops.
It’s important to realize that glyphosate is not “just” an herbicide. As explained by Dr. Huber, it was first patented as a mineral chelator. It immobilizes nutrients, so they’re not physiologically available for your body.”
“You may have the mineral [in the plant], but if it’s chelated with glyphosate, it’s not going to be available physiologically for you to use, so you’re just eating a piece of gravel,” Dr. Huber says….Naturally, health effects are bound to occur if you’re consistently eating foods from which your body cannot extract critical nutrients and minerals. Mineral deficiencies can lead to developmental and mental health issues, for example. Glyphosate is also patented as an antibiotic—and a very effective one at that— against a large number of beneficial organisms. Unfortunately, like all antibiotics, it also kills vitally important beneficial soil bacteria and human gut bacteria.
(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/06/dr-huber-gmo-foods.aspx)
That stuff is from a very simple search. I’ve been pilloried here before, just for being from Vermont. That’s OK, I can take it. What one eats is up to the individual, but informed choices must be enabled to be made. And I think it was James who said something like: ‘it isn’t what goes into ones’ mouth that causes the most harm, but that which comes out of the mouth.’
Take care of your body- it is the only one you get.
Screw it. If the GMO foods don’t get you the cellphone radiation will.
Dr. Tar, “modifying crops since the dawn of history’ is selecting the best producing plant (say, corn) to harvest those seeds and plant them.
Genetically Modifying corn is to take the DNA of corn and splicing in pieces of frog DNA to make corn that can withstand a monsoon (ok, I made that up, but the same principle stands).
Whenever you take something out of corn DNA and put in frog DNA, you make something that isn’t corn or frog. Maybe when we know more of what we are doing it will be ok, but for now; it’s like bleeding a patient with a fever to make them better. Didn’t always work very well for the fever patient.
My sister is a Dietician and her motto is “Eat food the closest to the way God made it.” Seems right to me.
Oh, Charlie, I didn’t see your comment about food and God. Great minds and all!
@Dr. Tar – your thumb count should be +2, not +1 & -1. Sorry for my sloppy roent control.
“rodent control” – now I’m having trouble with my keyboard’s d key.
All food is GMO.
Either by nature or man.
I was practically raised on frog corn.
I agree wholeheartedly with Charlie, Chance and others who agreed. At least 64 countries require the labeling of GMO foods, why can’t we?? Well, mostly because MONSANTO owns many politicians. Why do you reckon O’boughtoff signed an executive order which had a provision within in it (written by Monsanto) protecting makers of genetically engineered seeds form being sued? We have no trust in the government concerning anything else, why would we trust them with our food supply?
Who eats aboriginal maize? Or the progenitor of wheat? These and pretty much all food has been modified over the millennia. The genes of present day food crops are little like they were, naturally, so many years ago.
List the crops that have never evolved and changed from human interaction. Let’s see what we have on the table then – truly unmodified food.
@Anonymous, glyphosate or Roundup, is a dangerous herbicide, it is put inside the seeds, and sprayed on most grain crops before harvesting. I don’t believe it could be considered as some normal or natural evolving of food crops.
GMO food means YOU are the guinea pig.
No human testing has been done, only animal studies and those animals showed horrific organ damage.
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Rat-Tumor-Monsanto-GMO-Cancer-Study-3-Wide.jpg
Monsanto is one of the largest donors to the Clinton Family Foundation. Hillary has represented them in court. Birds of a feather, they will kill you together. They don’t give a shit about your health and they don’t care if you get cancer.
what unruly said ^^
Dr. Tar, prior to the last few decades, we have NEVER altered the DNA of any living thing. We improved the characteristics of a given crop or livestock through the use of “selective breeding.” That approach has worked perfectly for thousands of years.
Monsanto engineered Round-Up Ready corn to facilitate using more Round-Up! Plants evolve a resistance to pesticides in exactly the same way viruses become resistant to antibiotics. So farmers are left to use more and more, which makes Monsanto happy.
How exactly does immunotherapy violate nature? And what does this have to do with modifying DNA?
The original article implied that the “enormous” cost of adding these eleven letters, Contains GMO to a label will cause food and drink costs to skyrocket, and disappear from our shelves. In this computer age, changing a file to add those eleven letters cost virtually nothing. Labels today are printed by electronic means, the cost would be infinitesimal.
The real question is, do you and I have the right to know what we’re putting into our bodies?
Monsanto has spent tens of millions of dollars to keep information about GMO’s hidden, why? If it’s so safe, then why not simply educate the public, right?
Since when do the otherwise intelligent people who frequent IOTWReport
suddenly stop questioning a multi-national global cabal with highly questionable practices and literally swallow what they tell them to?
Thanks Clarlie WoW, what you said too. And what Chance said^^.
A lot of people seem to not know that Monsanto modified the genes of corn and other crops so they could patent their seeds and run the small farmers out of business. It is all about control. Many farmers have been sued out of their livilhoods by those bastards just because the wind blew some of Monsanto’s corrupt seed onto the farmer’s land. They actually sent their thugs in to check the surrounding farms — they must have known this would happen — court case after court case, farmers went broke after selling all their equipment to pay for lawyers fees after being accused by Monsanto of using their seed without permission.
They can take a microscope and identify the seed they have modified — and that is the main reason for their genetic modifications – so they could patent it and control the farmers that use it, and punish the farmers who don’t pay tribute to Monsanto.
They don’t like the fact that God holds all the patents and copyrights on all living things. They had to find a way to change that, and I am pretty sure they will burn in hell for what they have done.
The farmer has to pay royalties to Monsanto for that GMO seed — even the new seed from last years’ crops belongs to Monsanto, the farmer cannot claim any seed.
With the wind blowing it around and birds crapping seeds out miles away, GMO crops will spread like a cancer and contaminate all the remaining natural crops eventually, unless something is done soon to stop it. We could wait until human testing has been done, instead of letting Monsanto police itself and tell everybody that all is well with their products. But they will not allow human testing, they already know what it does to rats. In the meantime, they are okay with planting their patented crops everywhere for human consumption.
Everywhere that they haven’t been banned yet, that is. The US produces about 68% of the world’s GMO crops. Many countries won’t import crops from the US because of that. They’ve done their research.
J in VT: Thank you for that thoughtful post.
I would like to add just another point to add to your comments. Higher animals do not exchange genes very easily, because as you pointed out, mechanisms to avoid accidental gene transfer have evolved over the millenia. Higher animals and plants need this protection to prevent evolution from becoming a random roller-coaster ride into oblivion. However, bacteria and viruses are much simpler than higher lifeforms and have very short generations. So they exchange genetic material profligately, and that works well for them. Bad results from these horizontal gene transfers are quickly eliminated from their populations. This explains, in large part, why they evolve so rapidly, and why antibiotics become ineffective after only a few generations of bacteria. The DNA “snippets” used in Monsanto’s genetic modifications come from bacteria and viruses. Unfortunately, these short protein sequences enter your gut thanks to digestion of GMOs. Your gut bacteria are then vulnerable because, since bacteria DO profligately exchange genetic material via horizontal gene transfer, they begin to absorb these snippets, thus altering their genetic material. I do not have the references readily at hand, but I did a casual survey a while back of the epidemiology of Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, and was able to see a distinct per capita increase in these conditions over the period since the 1980s, when GMO food first entered our diets. It is then a little disingenuous of anyone to claim that we don’t know what happens to humans when they eat GM food. These results are readily available in published epidemiological statistics, and you, my friends, are the affected lab rats. We co-evolved, over millions of years, with natural edible plants. We have been co-evolving with GM foods for a bit over 30 years. How can we say, given such a short run, that this practice is safe?