Maybe you don’t care what is in your food. Maybe you don’t believe that you have the right to know if your family is ingesting additives which may cause future physical impairments. You may be a person who never cooks, relying on takeout, or fast food for your nutrition. If you fit these groups, you are in the minority, and have no reason to read this article.

First, a few revelations about the Food and Drug Administration. In June 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Food and Drug Act, also known as the “Wiley Act” after its chief advocate. Its purpose was to protect consumers from dangerous substances harming their health. Today’s FDA fails to perform its original purpose. It is obviously owned by the food industry and the large pharmaceutical companies.

How many times a week do you hear an announcement on television that a popular drug, formerly approved by the FDA, has caused serious side effects and even death? Virtually every medication presented to the American people as a ‘wonder drug’ has experienced class action lawsuits, but only after the company has experienced profits reaching billions of dollars. Sadly, no one has sued the FDA for approving the sale and distribution of these harmful products.

Most of the industrial world has either banned or forced labeling of products manufactured with Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs. All of Europe, and other nations such as Japan and Australia recognize the dangers of GMO foods as established by scientists in their nations. Not the USA.

The FDA did require testing of GMOs, and made the decision that they were safe for consumers. There was only one problem with the testing; it was performed by Monsanto, the largest producer of GMOs.

GMOs were created to prevent crops from destruction when a stronger form of Monsanto’s most popular product, Roundup, was used to kill resistant weeds. They have made fallacious claims that it was invented to ‘increase the world’s food production.’ Never forget that Monsanto was the manufacturer of ‘agent orange.’

Today the USDA has joined the FDA and approved the growth and sale of corn produced with the use of GMOs; no permits are required.

The truth is that Monsanto, the FDA, the USDA, and farmers who use GMOs to grow their crops have no concern for public health. The approval by the USDA comes as a battle for ‘herbicide supremacy’ is underway. Generic products are cutting into Monsanto’s Roundup profits.

The agencies we expect to protect us have become our enemy. The only choice for many Americans is to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Communities throughout the world have begun to grow communal gardens. We must boycott not only corn, but any food product manufactured with substances which could be harmful.

Above all, the American people must take this issue seriously and demand that our food be labeled. We have the right to know what we consume. It is of no importance whether or not GMOs are as harmful as many of the world’s scientists report. The fact remains that the rights of consumers must be of more importance than the rights of those who produce what we eat. Give us the labels.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

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