A highly controversial topic today, GMOs. Surprisingly not that many people I talk with are aware of the dangers. Grab your tin foil hat and let’s discuss GMOs in the American food supply.
I’d heard of GMOs but it wasn’t until about 6 years ago that I really took a deep dive into what exactly they are. I recently watched the documentary on Tubi called GMO OMG and if you haven’t watched it I highly recommend it, it can also be found on Amazon Prime.
A little backstory about me and our families food journey began when my daughter was diagnosed at age 2 with “Severe Autism & Global Developmental Delays.” It would take me a book or two to get into all the specifics but this is what nudged me into researching what we were eating and how it was affecting our children.
Now I don’t know what to attribute to that not being an actual true diagnosis for her. She did show all the signs of a child with autism, but then she didn’t.
She has since had an assessment and shows no signs of any autism or developmental delays. In fact she is a grade ahead in school, and excels at social interaction. Was it too early to tell, was she just a late talker, did her fluid on her ears attribute to her delays, or was it once we removed a majority of the poisons from the kids’ diets that led us to this point?
I honestly don’t know, and I’m not here to say autism can be cured, but I am here to share our story and why I am so passionate about ridding our diets of the poison our government is knowingly feeding us.
I don’t think we really give the food we consume enough credit for how it affects our bodies.
Anyways, let’s discuss GMOs. Let’s really get to the heart of the issue here.
Scientists are creating our food supply.
The recent documentary called GMO OMG is eye opening to the potential dangers of what we as Americans are consuming.
I posed the question to my children: if I handed you a cup filled with Roundup would you drink it?
Now if I handed you a bowl of graham crackers containing GMOs sprayed by Roundup would you eat it?
They both looked at me as if I’d lost my mind, but I was trying to convey how dangerous a majority of our food here in America actually is.
The only difference between the two is the packaging. What lunatic would take a sip of Roundup? But that’s exactly what we are doing, it’s just packaged in the shape of a cute cracker, a can of whipped cream, and a bowl of oats.
I wonder where the outrage is over this? Maybe people just don’t realize? I know I had no idea until I really started researching what we were consuming.
What Are the Top 10 Facts About GMO Foods
- There are 10 commercialized types of GMO crops in the US.
- More than 60 countries worldwide have either banned or restricted the use and production of GMOs.
- The US planted 75 million hectares of biotech crops in 2018.
- Close to 90% of field corn in the US is genetically modified.
- It’s estimated that 77% of papaya grown in Hawaii is bioengineered.
- About 94% of soybean is genetically modified.
- 40% of dairy products in the US contain rBGH.
- The GMO statistics from 2019 reported that the total acreage of GM crops worldwide was 191.7 million hectares.
- Since GM crops were introduced in 1996, pesticides have increased by 404 million pounds.
There is so much to take in with these bullet points.
But the biggest red flag in all of them is why have 60 countries worldwide banned and restricted the use and production of GMOs? Do they know something we don’t?
Only 6% percent of soybeans in America remain pure and free of GMOs? That equates to 94% of our soybeans being genetically modified. 94%! Yikes.
Head into your local grocery store, you will find a majority of the products contain GMOs and almost all processed food contains GMOs.
Not to mention our animal feed is packed full of the same GMOs unless you specifically research and find products not genetically modified, or allow your animals to free range and forage, the way God intended them to live.
In fact you will find it difficult to find products that don’t have some sort of GMO in one or more of their ingredients.
I encourage you to go to the store and take a look for yourself, research for yourself as well.
Knowledge is power, you shouldn’t just take my word for it.
How did we get here?
Did we even have a choice in the matter?
I really strive to minimize the amount of processed food we keep in the house but it’s a challenge to provide your family with everything they could possibly eat. Despite my dairy goats, chickens, vegetables and fruit it seems overwhelming and a bit impossible to be able to solely provide for our family based on what we grow. It’s a full time job and then some.
I find it sad that rather than educating others on the importance of farming practically, we’ve handed it over to a group of wealthy scientists to create our food for us.
I was 9 in 1996 when this decision by our government was made to use genetically modified ingredients in our food, increasing rapidly over the last 20 plus years. I didn’t really get a chance to vote for what was in our food, but I can’t believe it’s too late.
It seems easier to turn your cheek and continue consuming what is on our grocery store shelves, but is that what we want for our own health, our children’s health, our animals health?
I don’t believe scientists should ever have had a significant role in our food production, but here we are.
Where do we go from here?
How can we prevent the consumption of GMOs in our food when it seems they are everywhere?
- Educate yourself and decide if you believe GMOs are in fact dangerous for your health, this is actually a debated topic, but who doesn’t love a good debate?
- Begin by removing one GMO product from your pantry or fridge.
- Plant one edible from non-GMO seeds for you and your family to consume this year. I recommend seedsnow.com for non-GMO heirloom seeds.
- Commit to making one item from scratch this week using non-GMO products.
- Write a letter to your local legislation, you may not receive a response, but at least you are taking a step to ensuring that you did something, made your opinions and your voice heard no matter how small it may be.
- Share with someone else, you might be surprised to find that a lot of people aren’t even aware of the poisons lurking in our food, our seeds, and our animals feed.
After watching GMO OMG, I found a newfound pull, to discuss this with those around me.
To quote Martin Luther King Jr., “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
This matters, this matters for our health, our children’s health, and our animals health. Spraying poison on GMO crops and feeding them to the American people is a concern we should be addressing.
Towards the end of the documentary GMO OMG, you will see the effects of GMOs fed to lab rats, and it’s sickening. If a lab rat is riddled with tumors what is it doing to us?
What do you think about GMOs comprising much of our food supply?
Happy Researching!
Danielle
Having a kid with Celiacs Disease makes us look at food entirely different too. There is something to be said about stripping away all the junk in processed food and all the science to bulk up our food and just enjoy it naturally. Great article.
Thank you! The more I research the more I find food naturally and simply is the best for our health even though it can be an up hill battle to find. My kids act so strange when they’ve consumed a lot of processed food or end up not feeling well.
I am happy to read your daughter’s initial diagnosis held no merit. You seem like the type who could handle whatever came your way, but I am sure you and your husband are relieved. Your writing is engaging and informative. Thank you so much! I buy mostly veggies – organic when possible, but my purchases are far from perfect. My daughter lectured me for three days about buying granola cereal when I visited her a few months ago. 😆 She does a much better job than I do. I appreciate your call-to-action at the end of your post. Bravo to you! You have motivated me, without lecturing me! 😆🙏🏻
It was a process trying speech therapy and hippotherapy (horse therapy), but then suddenly her behaviors changed and she started speaking with diet change, and simply nature. It was a relief but also a blessing to have experienced all of it. Thank you! The last thing I want to sound like is I’m lecturing those on their food choices, it just seems most people don’t really know (including myself) all the dangers lurking in our food. Granola! The horror!
I had asked my mom why she allowed us to eat so much junk as kids and she said she didn’t know and I think that’s true for all of us. I think if more people were aware of the dangers of what has been changing in our food production maybe we’d be a healthier society. Another great documentary is The Bullish Farmer his passion to feed people with healthy food is truly something amazing. I’m so glad you feel motivated and not lectured!
The journey with your daughter sounds fascinating and inspirational. Thank you for sharing. I understand about not wanting to come across as pushing an agenda, but information is power. People can make their own choices.
I gave up dairy just before the pandemic. Something unexpected and life-altering happened for me: the allergies I had delt with for years disappeared. They have remained absent. The quality of my life drastically improved. I have occasional cheese when eating out and occasional quality butter, but that’s about it. No yogurt, cottage cheese, ice-cream, etc. Just dairy substitutes now. I thought it would be impossible to give up cheese, but with positive results it isn’t worth it to make those choices again. You know more than me, but it’s probably all the extra crap added to the products. Anyway, I could talk extensively about this topic. Thanks for sharing and reading! 😁
My mom made homemade meals and her own granola (truth) and rarely bought junk food. We drank plenty of Kool aide (red dye) but rarely soda. Last thing… I am always surprised by the number of people who say they don’t cook. What do they eat? 😕 Good night. 🤗
Happy Saturday Michele! That is amazing you were able to give up dairy altogether that is really tough at first. Before we were able to raise our own animals for meat and dairy products I had given up both and it was really hard. I think I could live on a glass of fresh milk and butter! All joking aside I do love dairy products but I found when I had cut out the store bought dairy from our families diet as well it was life changing. Now that we have our own dairy animal we do just fine and have no allergies or stomach issues. I agree that sadly it is all the crap in it that is the real issue. It’s really unfortunate and I always think those poor factory farmed animals, what are we doing?
That is so awesome about your mom I love homemade granola but rarely make, you’ve inspired me to give it a go soon. I wonder the same I have a lot of friends who do not cook either and it always blows me away of what they are consuming? Hope you have a blessed and relaxing weekend!
I thought it would be hard, but after enjoying the benefits of a life without allergies, it wasn’t hard at all. My mom is quite talented in many ways. 💞 Thank you! It has been pleasant. Wishing the same for you!