How to avoid Genetically Modified Foods?

• Buy organic certified foods
• Visit your local farmers’ market
• Avoid the top 4 GMF crops (soy, corn, canola and cotton seeds)
• Avoid processed, packaged foods
• Look at the stickers on fruit (look for 5 number codes that starts with 9)
• Use a Non-GMF shopping guide (such as: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/)
• Grow your own food

Non-GMO Project

    The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization committed to preserving and building sources of non-GMO products. The organization believes that everyone deserves an informed choice about whether or not to consume genetically modified organisms. Non-GMO Project offers North America’s only third party verification and labelling for non-GMO food and products.

GreenPeace Organization

    Greenpeace is a non- governmental environmental organization with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The organization is committed to the removal of genetically modified foods from brand name products. Greenpeace opposes the release of genetically modified foods and animals into the environment based on the fact that no long-term tests have been done on the impacts of GMF.

 

Graphs/Statistics About GMFs

Facts About GMFs

- Between 1996 and 2011, the total surface area of land cultivated with GM had increased from 17,000 km2 to 1,600,000 km2.

- The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimated in 2003 that 70-75% of all processed foods in the U.S. contained a GM ingredient

- In 1970, the top 5 beef producers controlled 25% of the market. Today, the top 4 producers control 80% of the market.

- The largest slaughterhouse in the world is located in North Carolina. It is called the “Smithfield Hog Processing Plant”

- In 1996, only 2% of soybeans in the U.S. contained Monsanto gene. By 2008, over 90% contained Monsanto gene.

- Monsanto is the world’s largest producer of GM crops

Label Our Foods!

Problems Regarding GMFs

- The bovine growth hormone injected into cows to make them grow bigger and produce more milk is associated to the cause of colon and breast cancer.
- Soy, corn, canola, and sugar beets are considered some of the top most genetically modified foods in America. 
- In 1972, the U.S. FDA  (Food and Drug Administration) conducted approximately 50,000 food safety

inspectors. In 2006, the FDA conducted 9164.

- Researchers have found evidence that the use of antibiotics on farms has led to increase in antibiotic resistant cases of food poisoning caused by bacteria in people.

- Soy allergies went up by 50% in the UK, soon after GM soy was introduced.

- In Argentina, over 300 cases of cancer have been reported in the areas where the pesticide Roundup is being used.

- Studies in animals show serious health risks including infertility, immune problems and insulin regulation associated with GM foods.

What is GMF?

  GMF stands for Genetically Modified Foods.
  They are foods that have been introduced to changes in their DNA by genetic engineering techniques.
   An example of GMF would be chickens that has been fed antibiotics and hormones so they can develop twice the size as before but only in half the time.
  However as a result of this rapid growth, the bones of the chickens cannot carry all their weight. In consequence, many chickens drop down on the ground and cannot walk or even move.
  Genetically Modified Foods was first introduced by McDonalds in the 1950s.
  Fast food restaurants were becoming wildly popular in the 50s, and  McDonalds had a vision for it's food making - conformity, efficiency, and cheapness. 
  Due to the large demands of crops from McDonalds and other large chain fast food restaurants, the way we produce food has been changed - and genetically modified food was introduced.