GMOs and our Food System from seed to plate to belly

Written by Rebecca Brumberg Frimmer

Hi,  I’m  Rebecca  Frimmer  and  I  am  the  general  manager  of  Greensgrow Farms in North Philadelphia. I’d  like  to  thank  Hazon and Lori Dafilou for inviting me to speak to all of you today about GMOs.

At greensgrow Farms, we feed over 1000 families through our community supported agriculture program, and we work with over 75 farms producing fresh fruits and vegetables, livestock and dairy, so I get to see a wide range of farming operations. I’m  here  today  as  a  farmer and a researcher to talk to you about GMOs and how they impact our entire food system, from seed to plate to belly.

I was personally drawn to this issue after experiencing major changes in my health that led me to attempt to eliminate GMOs from my diet – after which I did a lot of research and became furiously frustrated with how difficult it is to eat GMO free in this country, and even more furious when I discovered the volume of chemicals being used to cultivate these crops.

This issue is important to me, and should be important to all of us because we live on this planet! We breathe the air, we drink the water and we eat food – a lot of it! And the way that food is grown, raised and processed effects our health, the toxicity of our land, air and water, and the health of future generations. The land we are farming now is the same land that our

grandchildren will need to use for growing food, and we need to maintain the fertility of the soil – mass cultivation of GMOs jeopardizes that future.

I’m  going  to  take  you  through  a  range  of  information  about  GMOs  today,  and  after  all  of  the  speakers  are  finished,  we’ll  have a Q&A panel, so please do hold on to any questions that you may have.

Let’s  start  with  the  basics  – identifying where GMOs are hiding in your pantry, and what GMOS are out there on the grocery

store shelves. Since GMOS are currently not labeled, it can be confusing.

The only crops that are currently approved for commercial cultivation in the USA are:

Alfalfa, Canola, Corn Cotton Papaya Soy Sugar Beets Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash (approx. 25,000

acres)

Think about how widespread these products are in food processing – soybean oil as the main ingredient in mayonnaise, corn syrup in every cereal, cottonseed oil in relishes and salad dressings, and sugar beets – the refined white sugar that is in a frightening majority of foods and drinks. These GMO crops are also hiding in ingredients with unsuspecting names, like “natural flavors” or  “cane  sugar”. Most baby formulas are made from GMO soy.

Over the last 17 years, GMO corn, soy and cotton have become so prolific; that only a small percentage of the US crop is grown is grown from natural seed. They have virtually taken over.

The other products that contain GMOs are dairy and meat – RbGH is a GMO lab hormone injected into cows to produce more milk – and with a vast majority of non-organic meat products, the livestock are fed GMO feed. This also means that most eggs are GMO fed, and your honey could also contain GMO inputs if the bees come into contact with GMO pollen.

Let’s  be  clear  about  this  – a sweeping majority of non-organic products in your grocery store – every box on every shelf, in every  aisle,  every  piece  of  meat  that’s  not  organic  – contains GMOs.

How did this happen? And are they safe?

GMOs are a fairly new issue in the world, they were legally approved in the mid-90s,  which  means  they’ve  been  on  our  plates and in our food system for less than 20 years.

Because of their short life span, there has been relatively little testing. In the last 10 years, biotech companies that make GMO seeds, and the chemicals used for growing them, have spent over $500 million dollars on advertising to convince us that  they’re  safe,  and  to  convince  farmers  that  GMOs  are  the  future of the farming industry.

Until unbiased research and long term testing is done on the health  effects  of  GMOs,  we’re  all  unsuspecting  guinea  pigs  in  this experiment. And none of the organizations monitoring our food are claiming responsibility for GMO food safety.

Many countries have rejected GMO crops, and many more have required labeling - but our nation does the opposite, promoting them domestically and overseas, pushing our biotech agenda overseas to boost business back home and convince hungry nations that our exports are safe.

No other country in the world has so widely accepted GE crops, this chart shows that our great nation has dedicated 69M hectares to GMO farming. The world bank report says that we have about 165M hectares of arable land in the united states, so  that’s  about  40%  for  GMOs.    That’s  a  lot  of  farmland.

Historically farmers have grown crops and saved their own seeds. They would selectively save and breed those seeds from their best fruits, an art that became known as selective breeding.

This eventually led to crop hybridization, cross-breeding with varieties that showed traits like disease resistance and cold hardiness for commercial production. Then, GMOs came on the scene.

Biotechnology companies realized that they could use pieces of DNA from any plant, animal or organism to force a desired trait onto a plant, using a gene gun (which is exactly what it sounds like), or a virus to spread the trait. This can also be done with

animals, and the current pipeline for GMOs includes livestock and fish in addition to more fruits and vegetables.

The GMO crops are designed to combine DNA that would never be related in nature – like spiders and corn for example - for different results –

They can be pest or disease resistant crops – or herbicide resistant crops (we’ve  all  heard  of  “round  up  ready”)

which can be sprayed with copious amounts of weed killer glyphosate, and survive.

They can be nutritional traits like with golden rice – or they can have industrial traits like for biodiesel or making pharmaceuticals.

Here’s  an  example  of  a  pest  deterrent  crop  – BT corn. BT, or Bacillus thuringiensis – which is a bacteria found in the soil that makes certain species of insects die by punching holes in the insect’s  gut.    If  this  DNA  is  inserted  into  corn  in  the  lab,  the  corn  contains the insecticide, and kills the caterpillar.

Some scientists think that when we eat this corn, our gut flora becomes genetically modified and starts making this bacteria inside of our system.

Overall we are losing biodiversity out there in the fields, and we’re  losing  it  fast. Seed sovereignty – the right of people to define their own food system – is at risk of being lost. For what? Biotechnology and predatory capitalism?! Seed  saving  is  a  business,  and  it’s  a  big  one.    And  seed  patenting  is affecting farmers all across the world. When a farmer or university purchases GMO seed, they are purchasing that seed as well as a technology license to utilize the patent.

This means that farmers are not allowed to save their seeds, and are forced to keep purchasing new seed year over year at higher and higher license fees. When using herbicide resistant seeds like round-up ready corn year  after  year,  farmers  don’t  rotate  their  crops,  depleting  the  nutrition in the soil. Then they apply fertilizer, and spray chemicals like Round up onto their crops to kill weeds. Are you surprised that the companies making the seeds and chemicals  are  one  in  the  same?    Don’t  get  me  started  on  all  of  those chemicals washing into our water supply.

The very same patent protection that keeps farmers from saving their own seeds also restricts research. The same companies that are developing the seeds and making the

chemical herbicides get to decide what research can be published and publicized. This means that tests are often too short and come out biased. These companies know that large land grant universities need their funding, and professors know that they need to bring in research  funds  to  be  tenured,  and  we’re  caught  in  a  vicious  cycle of information suppression. This chart from Food & Water watch shows how professors at Iowa State are basically sponsored by the biotech industry.

The same cross pollination and conflicts of interest are shown in our government officials, as they hop from the private to public sector, trading truth for money.

But,  let’s  get  back  to  farmers  and  seed  sovereignty  and  patent  laws for a moment, because this is really important, and a huge part of the problem for farmers. Let’s  say  I’m  growing  organic  corn; or some kind of beautiful red Aztec heirloom corn in my fields. And my neighbor is growing GMO corn.

Corn pollinates on the wind, and if my neighbors GMO corn pollen drifts onto my field and pollinates my corn, I now have GMO  corn.    I  didn’t  want  it,  and  I  certainly  didn’t  buy  it,  but  it’s here. What does that mean?

These patent laws put the burden of protection on me – not my GMO happy neighbor – and so I must build a barrier of corn plants that I will trash at my expense, and understand that my corn is at risk – and there’s  nothing  that  I  can  do, short of staggering my plantings over time to try and avoid cross pollination.

Even crazier is that one of these biotech companies can send a representative to trespass on my property and sample my corn. If its tests GMO positive in a lab – wanted or unwanted – I’m  required  to  pay  patent  license  fees  on  that  corn.    They’ll  sue  me,  and  I’ll  be  powerless.    This  is  the  true  and  sad  current  state  of affairs, and farmers are really getting sued. There’s  a  whole  other  moral  dilemma to think about here – companies are being given rights to owning life forms, both plant, and animal.

To add fuel to the fire, these biotech companies are buying up seed companies left and right – and further limiting options for farmers.

Less seed companies means less varietal seed choices, which means less bio diversity, and less disease resiliency, and therefore potentially big trouble leading into our era of climate change.    We’re  really  just  stacking  the  cards against natural selection.

Aside from the business of seed saving and dominating the world  food  supply  for  capitalism’s  sake,  why  else  might  farmers  be wary of GMO seeds? Herbicides. There’s  a  biotech  advertising  myth  out  there  that  GMO crops reduce agricultural chemical use. The truth is that since 1996 our agrochemical use has increased by more than 400 million pounds because of all of the glyphosate being sprayed on round-up ready crops. Glyphosate also creates salt

buildups in the soil, leaving the land less fertile and more susceptible to erosion. It’s also not good for humans to ingest at these high levels, glyphosate is a proven hormone disruptor.

On top of that, the weeds that are being sprayed are still evolving – they’re  not  genetically  modified  after  all.   And  they’re  becoming  resistant  to  the  Round  Up  spray, and are today known as superweeds. They have become a big problem in about 20 different states.

Now, agrochemical companies are using 2, 4-D in their weed killers. Ladies and Gentlemen, 2 4-D is also known as Agent Orange.    And  it’s  on  our  food  because  of  GMOs.

All of these chemical sprays and stronger herbicides are impacting the bee population, and the honey supply, with scientific evidence to back this up. I’m  sure  you’ve  heard  about  entire bee colonies disappearing, about apple orchards in asia pollinating thousands of trees with paintbrushes, and the fact that our bees are in trouble – it was on the cover of TIME Magazine last month, I’m sure you’ve heard. About 100 different fruit and vegetable crops that we eat are bee pollinated, and about 1/3 of the food that we eat would cease to grow if bees, bats and butterflies were to disappear.

Pollinators are in trouble because of the copious amounts of herbicides that we spray with GMO crops.

And last but not least, we have to feed our Livestock, which makes up the largest piece of the GMO market. In the USA, if a meat product is not labeled organic or 100% grass fed (note the 100%) – it most certainly has consumed soy, corn or alfafa GMOS.

Because the GMO feeds are commercial grade, they also often contain antibiotics – manufactured by the exact same companies that make the seeds. Are you following me yet?

Many anecdotal reports have shown that livestock eating non-GMO feed are much healthier, and there are even studies that show 3rd generation GMO fed livestock becoming sterile, and the general decline in the health, fertility, and energy levels of the animals. Sounds delicious, right? There’s  a  very  relevant  case  study  I’d  like  to  share  with  you  – a livestock farmer took 2 feed buckets – one GMO and one non-GMO, and given the choice, the animals chose to avoid the GMOs. To be fair, the farmer also switched the buckets. The animals instinctively knew, and followed the non-GMO feed. Then the farmer took away the non-GMO feed altogether,

leaving the animals no choice. It took 3 days of no food at all before the animals went back to the feed bucket for their GMO dinner.

At  this  point  we’ve  covered  a  little  bit  about  the  origins  and  proliferation of GMOs, and the seed to plate part. So what happens after we eat these laboratory foods? In  my  research  I’ve  found  evidence  of  the  dangers  of  pesticides  and herbicides, as hormone and endocrine system disruptors.

I’ve  also  found  evidence  of  widespread  allergies and autoimmune disorders, as well as cancer theoretically tied to GMOs. There are not a lot of tests because of the short time GMOs have been available and because of the seed ownership issues. Food intolerances are on the rise today, as well as allergies – this was the health problem that I was dealing with – and it all starts with leaky gut syndrome, which comes with a lot of inflammation and fatigue. When we eat, food breaks down into tiny particles, each with a celluar ID tag that our bodies recognize. When we eat GMO foods,  our  bodies  don’t  recognize  the  ID  tag,  because  it’s  a  new,  man-made laboratory food particle, made from 2 different species that would never be together in nature – our bodies have not evolved to digest it, and our own DNA with millions of years  of  evolutionary  record  can’t  recognize  it!    Thus,  the  food  particles present as a foreign invader, much like a virus. Then our bodies respond by sending white blood cells to the area, which calls for more blood volume, which inflames the intestinal wall. Then we continue to eat GMOs day after day, year after year, and begin to see cracks in the intestinal wall from prolonged inflammation, like a dam ready to break – and undigested food particles enter the bloodstream, causing the immune system to respond again – and food intolerances are born in the system as your body has tagged these particles as foreign invaders. Then the immune system is weakened, and

we’re  more  susceptible to disease and illness, everything from the common cold to auto immune disorders where our bodies attack our own cells regularly - Autoimmune disorders include lupus, IBS, thyroid disease and rheumatoid arthritis – As a result of these food intolerances, our immune system is dedicating a significant portion of its resources to rid the body of the food that we are eating instead of using the food we eat as nourishment to strengthen it. It is no wonder that Americans are experiencing so much chronic illness. One could also make the connection between an abundance of cheap corn syrup and refined sugar from GMO crops and the onslaught of diabetes in our country.

Lastly,  I’d  like  to  talk  about  the  great  myth that we need GMO seeds to feed the world because  they’re  supposedly  higher  yield or drought resistant. This is simply not true. It is propaganda. Earlier this year I visited the Rodale Institute – the foremost institute for collection of data on organic growing methods. Guess  what  else  they’re  growing?    Side  by  side  field  trials  of  GMO, conventional and organic corn. They have proven that the organic seeds are more adaptable and offer higher yields in a drought year that the GMO corn. Additionally in 2009 the union of concerned scientists conducted an agricultural survey that found that herbicide tolerant corn and soybeans had NO yield advantage over non GMO crops. They did not perform better.

By this time you should all feel well informed as to how GMOs end up on our plates and in our pantries, and in our bellies, sometimes unbeknownst to us, and understand how farmers are effected by GMO seeds via drift and patent laws, as well as understand a little bit about how the agricultural landscape has changed in the last 15 years in this country and worldwide.

There’s  a  lot  of  information  here  and  I  want  you  all  to  go  home  with a positive feeling, armed with information to make educated decisions and change the world for the better! So what can you do today?

1) Call you state legislator and let them know you want them to vote for the labeling bill. GMO labeling is the first step. Then, the power shifts to the hands of the consumer, and we get to vote for a better food system with every penny, supporting responsible farmers and seed companies.

2) Feel empowered by this knowledge. Made decisions that dovetail with your beliefs, whether its eliminating GMO baby formula today, or asking your server that your dish be cooked in olive oil tomorrow. At least start reading food labels to better understand your exposure. Ask the farmer at your market if his corn and zucchini are GMO free, or what kind of diet the chickens had that produced your eggs. Look for the non-GMO project label and buy organic foods when you can.

3) Talk to your community – you now have the information,

so  spread  the  word  because  a  lot  of  people  don’t  know what  they’re  eating!

4) Stay informed through your local advocacy organizations like Food and water watch, and speak up when you hear something  that  you  don’t  like!

Thank you so much and I hope you learned something today that you can work with to make your world a greener and more sustainable one!