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The Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT) and The Non-GMO Project have created a Non-GMO Shopping Guide that's free and available for download.
It's About Giving You a Choice
The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization, created by leaders representing all sectors of the organic and natural products industry in the U.S. and Canada, to offer consumers a consistent non-GMO choice for organic and natural products that are produced without genetic engineering or recombinant DNA technologies.
The US does not currently require labeling of food products made with genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).
Made with Non-GMO Ingredients logo icon
How can you make an informed choice if GM ingredients aren't clearly listed on the label? Look for the Non-GMO Project verified seal.
The guiding mission of the Non-GMO Project is the belief that consumers in North America should have access to clearly labeled non-GMO food and products in the marketplace.
The Non-GMO Project offers North America's only independent verification for products made according to best practices for GMO avoidance. The Project was conceived by retailers, who wanted an easy, consistent way to help shoppers see which products were committed to non-GMO ingredients. Prior to the Project, there was no consistency in non-GMO labeling claims. Manufacturers made claims according to their own internal criteria, which ranged from rigorous to meaningless and either way offered no transparency to the consumer.
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A brand's enrollment in the Project gives them a way to share their diligence in producing food according to consensus-based best practices for GMO avoidance, including testing of risk ingredients with you in a valid, meaningful way
Why Should I Avoid GMO's ?
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) recently released its position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating that "... GM foods pose a serious health risk". The AAEM called for a moratorium on GM food, with implementation of immediate long-term safety testing and labeling of GM food. The AAEM is just one of many organizations worldwide calling for these steps to be taken. Read their position paper on GMOs
Hasn't research shown GM foods to be safe?
No. The only feeding study done with humans showed that GMOs survived inside the stomach of the people eating GMO food. No follow-up studies were done.
Various feeding studies in animals have resulted in potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, damaged immune systems, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partial atrophy or increased density of the liver, odd shaped cell nuclei and other unexplained anomalies, false pregnancies and higher death rates.
But aren't the plants chemically the same, whether or not they are GM?
Most tests can't determine the differences at the level of the DNA. And, even if they appear to be the same, eyewitness reports from all over North American describe how several types of animals, including cows, pigs, geese, elk, deer, squirrels, and rats, when given a choice, avoid eating GM foods.
Haven't people been eating GM foods without any ill effect?
The biotech industry says that millions have been eating GM foods without ill effect. This is misleading. No one monitors human health impacts of GM foods. If the foods were creating health problems in the US population, it might take years or decades before we identified the cause.
What indications are there that GM foods are causing problems?
Soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50 percent.
In March 2001, the Center for Disease Control reported that food is responsible for twice the number of illnesses in the U.S. compared to estimates just seven years earlier. This increase roughly corresponds to the period when Americans have been eating GM food.
Without follow-up tests, which neither the industry or government are doing, we can't be absolutely sure if genetic engineering was the cause.
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Milk from rbGH-treated cows contains an increased amount of the hormone IGF-1, which is one of the highest risk factors associated with breast and prostate cancer, but no one is tracking this in relation to cancer rates.
Why do genetically engineered foods have antibiotic resistant genes in them?
The techniques used to transfer genes have a very low success rate, so the genetic engineers attach "marker genes" that are resistant to antibiotics to help them to find out which cells have taken up the new DNA. That way scientist can then douse the experimental GMO in antibiotics and if it lives, they have successful altered the genes. The marker genes are resistant to antibiotics that are commonly used in human and veterinary medicine. Some scientists believe that eating GE food containing these marker genes could encourage gut bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance.
But is there any documented instance of adverse effects of GMOs on people?
One epidemic was rare, serious, and fast acting, and therefore more easily discovered. Called EMS, it was traced to a GM brand of the food supplement L-tryptophan. In the 1980's, the contaminated brand killed about 100 Americans and caused sickness or disability in about 5,000-10,000 others.
Why are children particularly susceptible to the effects of GM foods?
Children face the greatest risk from the potential dangers of GM foods for the same reasons they face the greatest risk from other hazards like pesticides and radiation, these include:
- Young, fast-developing bodies are influenced most.
- Children are more susceptible to allergies.
- Children are more susceptible to problems with milk.
- Children are more susceptible to nutritional problems.
- Children are in danger from antibiotic resistant diseases.
Since so little research has been done on the safety of GM foods, it is not possible to rank its risks. Unlike the others, GM crops persist in the environment, and may continue to pose risks to health for centuries.
In addition, transfer of transgenes to gut bacteria may present long-term chronic exposure, since the foreign protein may continue to be produced inside of us after we no longer consume the GM food.
View all 65 health risks of GM foods, excerpted from Jeffrey Smith's comprehensive book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods.
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