Since the beginning of time, people have been harvesting seeds from their plants, sticking them into holes, watering them and watching them grow. That's all changing now, and some experts are concerned about the public health and the future of pure, unadulterated food.

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Since the beginning of time, people have been sticking seeds into holes, watering them and watching them grow. It really isn’t rocket science. It used to be that the biggest fruit-and vegetable-gardening decisions were whether to grow pumpkins or watermelons, organic or conventional, heirloom or hybrid. But “progress” and technology have changed all that, and created a problem that in many circles seems to be flying under the radar: the gradual tinkering with our food supply. 
The most recent strike came on Jan. 27, when despite widespread protests from public health advocates and organics proponents, and a thousands-strong petition, the USDA approved the unrestricted planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa -- the latest genetically-modified biotech plant to gain the government's blessing. In case you're wondering what alfalfa means to you, it's the fourth-largest field crop in the United States, grown on about 20 million farm acres to feed dairy cattle and other livestock. It joins several different types of biotech corn, cotton and soybeans, among others currently growing on U.S. farms, and may pave the way for more GM foods awaiting approval, including transgenic Atlantic salmon modified with growth hormone to allow it to grow at twice the normal rate. 
You might be familiar with Monsanto, the biotech company that invented glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer. The company also is the world’s leading producer of GMO seeds. Those are seeds whose DNA has been tampered with, or "engineered,"&nbsp; by the introduction of a foreign gene. That gene could be from something natural, like another plant, insect or bacteria, or something synthetic, like Roundup. Because seeds are the precursors to life, it’s downright bizarre that they could be patented, but they can, and they were. 
Plants grown from GMO seeds have been praised for increased yields and resistance to herbicides that are sprayed on fields to kill weeds. The FDA tells us this "poses no food or feed safety concerns," but the seeds haven’t been in use long enough for anyone to assess the effects of ingestion in the long term. 
If your eye is on plant production and feeding a hungry world, GMO seeds might sound like a good solution, but the devil is lurking in the details: Consider that we’re eating food grown from seeds that contain things like Roundup, which some scientists contend is an endocrine disrupter that can cause gene damage in humans and animals. 
Researchers at the National Institute of Nutrition in Rome, Italy, published a study in 2008 that linked consumption of a GMO diet to allergy and immune system changes in mice, and last year, the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Association for Gene Security found a diet of GMO soy led to devastating results in hamsters, including a high mortality rate and the sterility of third-generation offspring. GMO foods haven’t been in production long enough for us to know the effect they may have on third-generation humans. 
So why not just avoid GMO food? Would that it were so simple, Grasshopper. Not only are they not labeled as such, but even buying organic can't possibly offer a complete guarantee. 
Perhaps the biggest concern is that once we’ve messed with our food, there may not be any turning back. Saccharine (Monsanto's first product, by the way), red dye No. 2 and Meridia all were considered safe -- until they weren’t. If it’s discovered that GMOs are harmful to humans, it may be impossible to ban them because windblown pollination can cause GMO plants to pollinate conventional plants growing nearby, resulting in the presence of GMO material in seeds produced by conventional and organic plants. Nature being what it is, there might come a day when there aren’t any unadulterated seeds left. 
Imagine if, years from now, some scientists link GMO seeds to a human disease, as they did with cigarettes. While we can decide not to smoke cigarettes, we won’t be able to return to non-GMO seeds if the world’s seed supply has been infiltrated. 
We’re digging ourselves the mother of all holes with this one, and I fear the genie’s already out of the bottle: Last summer, fields of genetically modified transgenic canola (rapeseed) were discovered growing rampantly in the wild in North Dakota. Not only did these plants escape from farms -- typical behavior for plants -- but now the municipality has to deal with herbicide-resistant canola growing by the side of the road that can’t be eliminated with weed killer. This potentially sets up the plants to become an invasive species. Who’s to say they won’t choke out natural vegetation and mess with the entire ecosystem? Certainly not India, which, with about 230 million undernourished people among its residents, has refused to accept genetically engineered seeds and food. If they don’t need them, why do we?

Genetically modified foods and you: Part 1

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<a href="http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029/genetically-modified-foods-and-you-part-1-1.2691667" target="_blank">New here? Catch up by reading part 1</a> 
&nbsp; 
Genetically modified beets joined the ever-growing roster of genetically modified plants to gain U.S. approval on Feb. 4, after nearly 2 years of contentious debate. The approval comes with some strings attached (4 miles to be maintained between male plants and other commercial crops, labeling criteria, and restrictions on planting in California and parts of Washington, among them), but the nation's largest organic farming cooperative, Wisconsin-based Organic Valley, released a statement about the approval, saying, "the USDA is more interested in protecting the biotech industry than the health, safety, environment and property rights of U.S. farmers and consumers who choose not to grow or consume" biotech crops. 
Then, just last week, the U.S.&nbsp;government approved the use of thermostable alpha-amylase corn (Enogen) developed by the Swiss biotech company Syngenta. The corn, which is to be used&nbsp; to produce ethanol, is engineered to produce an enzyme that softens the kernel to make extraction easier.&nbsp; The approval does not apply to food-grade corn, and this corn has not been approved for human or animal consumption, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about: As far back as 2002, the Mexican government, which has banned GMO crops, confirmed that as much as 95% of wild, non-GMO corn crops growing in Oaxaca and Pueblo had been contaminated with GMO material from biotech plants. 
So why is the Obama administration seemingly gung-ho about approving GMOs? And why did it appoint former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor to the position of deputy commissioner of foods at the FDA? Didn't anybody over there see a conflict of interest? And how did the appointment of Islam Siddiqui, a former lobbyist for CropLife America, representing Monsanto, Syngenta and other biotech companies, to the post of US Agriculture Trade Representative not raise any red flags? To add insult to injury, in 2005, before former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was named Secretary of Agriculture, he was bestowed with another title: The Biotechnology Industry Organization's Governor of the Year. 
And unlikely critic Barry Estabrook at The Atlantic, has contented that Justice Elena Kagan had publicly defended Monsanto in a case before she was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that "Kagan's office interceded on Monsanto's behalf even though the government was not a defendant in the appeal." Google each of these appointees' names and "monsanto" or "GMO" and you'll come away with some interesting reading material. 
Monsanto, the primary pioneer behind biotech foods, also is responsible for developing “recombinant bovine somatotropin,” more commonly known as rbST, or bovine growth hormone, which is administered to cows to increase milk production. Milk produced from treated cows has been banned in Canada, Japan, Australia and the European Union because of concerns about health problems in cows as well as in humans who consume their milk, which, by the way, is readily available in supermarket dairy cases in all 50 U.S. states. 
You don’t have to be an environmentalist or an organics proponent to be disturbed by this. Everybody eats. What’s wrong with crossing dandelion genes with rice? Dandelions are edible and they make an awfully tasty salad. Besides the obvious -- dandelions don’t belong in rice -- what if someone is allergic to dandelions? It’s not like dandelions would be listed with the ingredients on a box of rice. Would it spur an allergic reaction? We’re told it won’t, but that’s not really the point. The point is that once we’ve messed with our food, there may not be any going back. 
As I mentioned in <a href="http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029/genetically-modified-foods-and-you-part-1-1.2691667" target="_blank">my last post</a>, in addition to the unknowns regarding long-term human health, there are concerns that windblown cross-pollination could affect conventional and organic seeds grown on farms near those growing genetically modified plants. Because GMO plants have the potential to pollinate a conventional plant growing nearby, seeds produced by the conventional plant would contain GMO material, so buying organic won’t assure you’re avoiding GMOs. This likely will become more of a problem as time goes on and more engineered seeds gain approval. 
If the farm next door or even a mile away is growing GMOs, windblown pollen can come into contact with organic plants. Those particular plants and their crops wouldn’t be affected, it's true, but the seeds they produce would contain the foreign gene. Farmers typically harvest seeds for replanting the following year. In this scenario, unsuspecting organics farmers would have no way of knowing they’re planting GMO seeds produced by their own non-GMO plants. 
Avoiding plant foods altogether, not that you would -- but hypothetically -- wouldn't ensure a GMO-free diet, either, as many beef and dairy cows are fed GMO Bt corn. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is a bacterium that's an effective plant pesticide because it sickens and kills certain insects that destroy crops. When applying it to plants, it's one of the safer ways to go compared to other insecticides, and residue can be washed off before consumption. I have nothing against using bT; in fact, I often recommend it as a safer alternative to chemical insecticides. When applied to plants, it's quite harmless to us. But when a plant is engineered to contain it, every cell of that plant becomes infused with the bacteria. That, I have a problem with. 
And now, of course, cattle will be fed the newly deregulated<a href="http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029/genetically-modified-foods-and-you-part-1-1.2691667" target="_blank"> GMO alfalfa</a>, as well.

Genetically modified food and you - Part 2

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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029/genetically-modified-foods-and-you-part-1-1.2691667">Past installments: Catch up on the GMO series</a> 
Genetic engineering is nothing new; what's new is the rate at which biotech foods are being approved. High-profile GMO opponents like natural health physician Dr. Joseph Mercola; founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, Jeffrey Smith; and writers Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman have been warning deaf ears for years. Earlier this month, Bittman, The New York Times'&nbsp; food columnist left his 13-year post to write food-centered opinion pieces for the paper. It's as if he left his family to climb the highest mountain with a megaphone and warn the masses. He started his new endeavor by targeting GMOs with a call to "break up the <org value="arts,automobiles,books,business,college,dealbook,dining,education,fashion,garden,giving,health,jobs,magazine,movies,multimedia,nyregion,obituaries,realestate,science,sports,style,technology,theater,travel,us,washington,weekinreview,world:::More articles about the U.S. Agriculture Department.:::http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/agriculture_department/index.html" idsrc="nyt-org">
 <alt-code idsrc="nyt-org" value="Agriculture Department"></alt-code>U.S. Department of Agriculture
 </org> and empower the <org value="arts,automobiles,books,business,college,dealbook,dining,education,fashion,garden,giving,health,jobs,magazine,movies,multimedia,nyregion,obituaries,realestate,science,sports,style,technology,theater,travel,us,washington,weekinreview,world:::More articles about the U.S. Food And Drug Administration.:::http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html" idsrc="nyt-org">
 <alt-code idsrc="nyt-org" value="Food and Drug Administration"></alt-code>Food and Drug Administration
 </org>. 
"Currently, the U.S.D.A. counts among its missions both expanding markets for agricultural products (like corn and soy) and providing nutrition education. These goals are at odds with each other; you can’t sell garbage while telling people not to eat it." 
The 2008 film "Food, Inc.," which was shown to my daughter's 8th-grade class recently (very good movie; very bad idea showing it to 13-year-olds), begins by stating during the opening credits, "the [agriculture] industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you're eating, because if you knew, you might not want to eat it." 
Although these are pretty strong words, I don't think enough people have heard them. However, I'm noticing that slowly, perhaps too slowly considering that GM seeds have been in circulation for nearly 2 decades, more people in the mainstream are beginning to pay attention. 
I found some 15 Facebook pages devoted to fighting genetically modified foods, including Dr. Mercola's "No GMOs" page, with more than 21,100 followers, and the "Oprah, please Expose Monsanto &amp; the Dangers of GM Foods" page, with just 150. 
Farmers and seed sellers Jere and Emilee Gettle, who put out the beautiful annual Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog, have made a public statement in this year’s edition, which I received in December: “We feel that food and life are rights that should not be controlled, manipulated and polluted by a few multinational corporations. Genetic engineering is even starting to scare the farmers who grow it. Scientists are finding these manipulated genes showing up in ground animals and insects. Studies show that some strains have sickened mice and rats. Some types have gone ‘wild’ and are now becoming almost uncontrollable weeds. Soy allergies in humans have doubled since the introduction of GE soy. Scientists are now questioning how this might affect fish after finding living, genetically modified genes in streams for many months after the crops’ harvest season. Sadly, we humans are the ultimate ‘guinea pigs’ of the chemical corporations, who engineer many crops so farmers can spray nearly unlimited amounts of the same corporations’ own herbicides. This chemical spray kills almost everything...except the engineered crop! Remember the same company that brought us DDT and Agent Orange is now bringing us this new technology.” 
That’s certainly food for thought. 
Next: Does this coin have another side?&nbsp;

Genetically modified food and you -- Part 3

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/home-and-garden/garden-detective-1.812029?tags=GMOs">Past installments: Read the entire GMO series</a> 
I think I've established how I feel about GMOs, but really, I do try to keep an open mind. It just seems a bit hypocritical that a natural sweetener like stevia isn't approved as a food item by the FDA because not enough is known about it, despite it having been used as a natural sweetener in Japan for more than 40 years. Japan has shunned all artificial sweeteners, and so even American-branded diet sodas, including Coca-Cola, are made with stevia for the Japanese market. Sure you'll find stevia in the supplements aisle here in the United States, but you'd better not call it a food additive because, well, I can't even justify it with a "because" when it's considered perfectly acceptable to sweeten our food and beverages with aspartame, but the nearly half-century of commercial use of a leaf extract without any documented or suspected ill effects isn't good enough. 
And yet, somehow, biotech foods grown from genetically modified seeds whose DNA has been tampered with by the introduction of a foreign gene are promoted as perfectly harmless, even when researchers have linked them to debilitating and even fatal effects in mice and hamsters. If we don't know enough about stevia to deem it safe, why do we claim to know enough about GMOs? 
Having said all that, can the entire world really eat a sustainable, local, organic diet? I say no. There are many remote places on Earth that aren't suitable for growing food, and horrific famines ensue. Even the film "Food, Inc," which I like, and which aims to make a case against GMOs and for sustainable agriculture, contradicts itself: 
When small-scale organic farmer Joel Salatin, who's frustrated with how USDA rules seem to favor unhealthy practices at large, industrial agribusinesses, is asked about his ability to supply the masses, he replies: "I have no desire to scale up or get bigger. My desire is to produce the best food in the world and heal. And if, in doing so, more people come to our corner and want stuff, then heaven help me figure out how to meet the need without comprimising the integrity." 
"I have absolutely no desire to be at Walmart. As soon as you grasp for that growth, you're gonna view your customer differently, you're gonna view your product differently, you're gonna view everything that is the most important ... differently." 
So, tell me Joel, while you're up on that local, sustainable food pedestal telling the masses that they should all eat only the kind of food you produce: How exactly can that happen if only small farmers -- who don't have the ability to produce enough food for everyone -- can produce quality food? Small scale usually does equal higher quality, based on logistics alone. But there's a big, hungry Walmart crowd out there, all over the world, that needs to be fed. Small-scale organic farmers aren't going to meet that demand, but assemby-line, industrial agribusiness can and will. 
Does this mean we have to resort to GMOs? Weeds are a fact of life, and they're not going away. Let's remove the potential safety issues, which I discussed at length in prior posts and which in all fairness haven't been proven to be harmful to humans, and play devil's advocate: 
Unless farmers are going to go out into the fields every day and hand-pull those weeds, the only options left are weed-killers like Roundup, which end up throwing out the proverbial baby with the bath water -- killing the crop as well as the weed -- or growing Roundup-ready plants from seeds engineered to be resistant to the effects of the chemical. There are organic alternatives, which I employ in my own backyard, but they aren't practical for large-scale farms. 
Genetically modified food also tastes better. Corn has been engineered to taste sweeter, for instance, not necessarily a big draw for me because I liked corn the way it was. But GMO corn also lasts longer than conventional crops, both during transit and in your refrigerator. So, right there, that's a check mark in the waste-not-want-not column that can even be argued to be beneficial to the environment as well as the pocketbook. 
GMO plants and animals reach maturity faster, too, saving time and money. Modified farm animals are resistant to disease and are bred to handle the less-than-savory factory farm conditions that can sicken regular livestock. And biotech crops don't need to be treated with pesticides. That saves the farmer money, so he doesn't have to raise produce prices, and eliminates pesticide contamination in your food. 
So maybe the answer isn't absolute. Consider how suburban sprawl has affected Long Island in the past generation alone: My neighborhood was filled with apple orchards in the 1950s. Now it's populated by people like me, many of whom have a chemical- and water-sucking lawn and a gas-guzzling car in the driveway. So much for the small farmer. There just isn't enough land left to meet demand the old-fashioned way. 
What do you think? Do the the safety concerns outweigh the benefits of GMO foods, and if so, how do you propose we meet the rising demand for food without them? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Genetically modified food and you -- Part 4

Genetially modified foods and you

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