Genetically modified foods

My daughters are very aware of food issues. (One of my grands is hyper-reactive to red dye 40.) So I was recommended to read Seeds of Deception, which is quite eye-opening. The last chapter, especially, recounts several lay experiments changing diets of school children and lab rats (or maybe mice) and seeing striking changes in behavior. Calmer, more able to focus in the classroom, less defiance, in the kids.

So I picked up Jeffrey M. Smith's next book - Genetic Roulette. It covers all of the issues and questions about genetic modification, each summarized on a two page spread. I highly recommend it.

DId it highlight the (lack 0f) difference between GM and getting the same results through conventional breeding?

Actually, it pointed to many differences between the two, with random insertions of partial strings, odd repetitions, and other nonsense coding that messes with the entire organism. This is not a technique that is precise, contrary to popular perceptions.

I heard from a farmer at my farmer's market that one of the big biotech companies (DuPont, Monsanto, etc.) will soon begin selling a GM variety of corn that kills pests by rupturing their stomachs upon ingestion. This corn is going to be sold raw on the cob at stores such as Wal-Mart with no GM labeling. We are told that we have "the right not to know" how our food is made and where it comes from. No, thank you to all of that nonsense.

My 20something daughter has taken herself off of wheat products because she connects it with joint and muscle pain. I wonder if gluten sensitivity is connected to odd changes in the bionic wheat.

Gluten sensitivity has become all too common.
Most 'so called allergies' are all in the mind.
If you haven't had the definitive test, just take yourself on a reality test!!!
Load of bollocks!

I think a lot of the gluten sensitivity is coming from the fact that most modern (read: GMO) wheat has a protein content that is drastically weighted with gluten. Older varieties of wheat have much less gluten in them and thus are easier to digest. Also, older varieties of wheat were allowed to germinate on the stalk before harvest in past generations. Germination breaks down most of the gluten content of wheat, but this is not done in modern, large-scale agriculture. Big surprise that all these allergies are popping up; we are stuffing ourselves with something past generations only ate a bit of.

Here is a link to the website of a non-profit low power radio network that recently aired the entire DVD presentation featuring Don Huber, PhD, professor emeritus at Purdue University (Indiana, USA). (You will have to scroll down the screen to see the paragraph about Don Huber's remarks ... it is the 6th paragraph down.) He deliberately did not copyright his remarks. Samples of the DVD (also in CD form) of his in-depth discussion of problems he has personally observed that are associated with GMO crops are on that link. Purchase costs are something like $10 for CD, $14 for DVD. Title of his presentation is "The Impact of GMOs and the Herbicide Roundup on Crops, Animals, People, and the Environment."

Included in his remarks are his concerns that human inflammatory bowel disease is linked to GMO materials in human good.

http://www.tucradio.org/new.html