February 2017 marks the introduction of genetically modified apples into US stores, sadly. The altered Golden Delicious apple will be the first to be test marketed, at ten Midwest locations. Okanagan Specialty Fruits is producing the latest Frankenfood, but more apple varieties are soon to follow. The FDA has approved Okanagan’s GMO Granny and Fuji varieties, and approval for the Gala is expected in 2018. Exactly which stores will get the new apple is not being disclosed to the public, for reasons that aren’t clear. If Okanagan has nothing to hide, why not just disclose the information in an announcement? The apples will carry the name ‘Arctic’ but if you aren’t aware of this then you could be ingesting yet another unlabeled GMO.

Anyone who has ever eaten an apple knows that they will start to brown within moments of the flesh being exposed to air. The browning is due to the presence of the enzyme polyphenol oxidase, which causes apples to oxidize. But the Arctic apples have been genetically tinkered with, and the enzyme has been limited by a gene silencing technique. And that is the hook for consumers who demand perfection in the appearance of the produce they eat – when sliced this new creation will not brown for three weeks. This Frankenfruit will come pre-sliced and wrapped in plastic, just the way nature intended (not). (RELATED: See more news about GMOs at GMO.news )

The GMO industry’s shameful legacy of ill effects

ResponsibleTechnology.org lists important reasons to avoid GMOs:

1 Studies on animals given GMO feed show “organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility.”

2 GMOs cross pollinate and the contamination is permanent, threatening future generations.

3 Genetically modified crops are altered to tolerate herbicides, so GM foods contain more dangerous chemicals such as Roundup, which has been linked to birth defects, infertility, and cancer.

4 Genetic engineering can cause unintended consequences, such as “new toxins, allergens, carcinogens, and nutritional deficiencies.”

5 Perhaps most telling is that when given a choice, animals avoid eating GMO foods. These include rats, squirrels, chicken, buffalo, deer, raccoons, mice, cows, pigs, geese, and elk.

PhD plant biologist Jonathan Latham writes,“I wasn’t, at the outset, concerned about the possible effects of GM plants on human health or the environment…we hardly imagined that GMOs like ours would be grown or eaten. So far as I was concerned, all GMOs were for research purposes only. The commercial purpose of GMOs is not to feed the world or improve farming. Rather, they exist to gain intellectual property (i.e. patent rights) over seeds and plant breeding and to drive agriculture in directions that benefit agribusiness. This drive is occurring at the expense of farmers, consumers, and the natural world.”

Many countries around the world have banned GMO’s. Yet sadly, the US leads the world in production of these insidious poisons. The problem is that when you alter a plant’s DNA to produce a desirable trait, no one knows how this affects health; the science of genetic tampering is still too uninformed to predict, and unintended consequences will result because it’s beyond the grasp of science to know. If enough Americans become informed on the roulette game being played out with our health and our very lives, the power of the marketplace will prevail and we can eradicate the menace of GMO’s. The very idea that foods can be marketed without labeling GMO ingredients is a red flag – why the secrecy if the food is safe? If enough consumers refuse to purchase GMO foods, and they are no longer profitable, this despicable technology will cease. (RELATED: Read Ingredients.news to stay informed on genetically modified food ingredients.)

Don’t join the GMO cult of genetic pollution and questionable health effects.

Sources:
ThomasDishaw.com

ResponsibleTechnology.org

NutritionStudies.org