GMOs: The Walking Dead of the Food Industry

This pretty much says it all.

GMO: Genetically Modified Organisms engineered from DNA of different species of plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes.

- Global Area of GMO crops:170.1 million hectares 
- Area of Alaska: 171.7 million hectares

*In case you don't know how big a hectare is 1 hectare = about 2.47 acres so that
 170.1 million hectacres is really about 420.15 million acres. Comforting, I know.

- 70% of items in American food stores contain GMOs 
- 0% of items in American food stores containing GMOs prior to 1996 

- 50: nations (including all EU countries) restricting or banning GMO production/sales 
- In the US: FDA ruled GMOs not significantly different from naturally occurring foods
- Approval based on studies conducted by GMO manufacturers themselves

- 87% of consumers who want foods containing GMOs to be labeled
- 53% of Americans who would refuse to buy genetically modified food
- 80% of conventionally processed food containing GMOs in the US - labeling not required

- GMOs are manufactured for herbicide tolerance, particularly to glyphosate (RoundUp). Some negative effects:
- Glyphosate builds up in the soil, contaminating it.
- Weeds resistant to glyphosate develop, spawning super weeds.
- 1: breeds of weeds resistant to glyphosate (ryegrass found in Australia) prior to 2010
- 6: US states where glyphosate-resistant weeds have been reported in the past three years
- 1500%: increase in herbicide production since GMOs introduced
- Signing of "Monsanto Protection Act" prevents government restrictions on GMO food found to cause health risks
- One corn GMO type threatened to wipe out Monarch butterfly larvae by contaminating milkweed
- "None of the genetically modified food crops currently on the market offer benefits to consumers in terms of price, nutrition, or new products." Ucsusa.org
- Over 40 genetically modified crops are allowed to be sold in the US.
- GMOs make it possible for allergens in one food type to emerge in a completely different species.
- GMOs found to transfer genetically altered DNA into the DNA of bacteria living in the human stomach, reproducing indefinitely.
- GMOs can contaminate existing species being grown organically.
- GMO producers can actually sue farmers whose crops are infected by GMO contaminates for intellectual property theft.
- As evidenced by the percentage of crops containing GMOs, producers like Monsanto have a virtual monopoly on the US farming industry.

Top foods containing GMOs

- Sugar Beets (95% of US crop)
- Soy (94% of US crop)
- Canola (90% of US crop)
- Cotton (90% of US crop)
- Corn (88% of US crop)

Sources

-  http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/what-is-gmo/
-  http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/44/executivesummary/pdf/Brief%2044%20-%20Executive%20Summary%20-%20English.pdf
-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area
-  http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2012/11/03/gmo-food-debate-in-the-national-spotlight/
-  http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/02/gmo-farming-crops-more-popular-than-ever-world-charts
-  http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/
-  http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/health/gmo-toxicity-affects-animals-plants-and-soil-336742.html
-  http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/environmental-effects-of.html#monarch
-  http://www.naturalnews.com/038792_GMO_toxicity_digestion_cancer.html
-  http://grist.org/food/monsanto-flirts-with-disaster-owns-the-world-anyway/