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Monsanto BT Toxin Corn Is Ready For Your Plate, Among 17 Year Low Yield

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Monsanto Corn

Monsanto, probably the world’s most controversial company, is ready to hit shelves with their GMO sweet corn. Frankencorn, as some call it, MON 810 aka YieldGard as Monsanto calls it, has been genetically modified to resist its own Roundup herbicide and insects. The corn is engineered to contain Bt toxin, which tears up the digest system of insects when they eat it.

The corn’s DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It’s a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.

But Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.

Oops. A study just proved them wrong.-mercola.com “Dangerous Toxins From Genetically Modified Corn Found in Blood of Women and Fetuses”

The study, at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec, Canada, found the corn’s Bt toxin in the blood streams of pregnant women and in the umbilical blood of their babies, as well as non-pregnant women. This means the toxin isn’t destroyed in our digestive system like Monsanto  and the EPA claim. There are also links to allergies, auto-immune disease and flu-like symptoms as a result of exposure to Bt toxin in food and cotton. And the toxin triggers immune responses in the body.
You’d think that would give a valid reason to pull back the distribution of this science project to the masses. Well in many countries in the European Union it has but not in the good ol’ U.S.A. Germany, Poland, France, Austria, Greece and others have banned Monsanto’s MON 810. Some of the concerns are health reasons, others are environmental ones. With the link between Monsanto and the FDA, it’s not surprising that MON 810 is approved and shipping in the U.S. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the second highest-ranking official at the FDA, Food Safety Czar Michael Taylor, is a former Monsanto executive. Also, aside from Taylor’s FDA position, he was Administrator of the Food Safety & Inspection Service at the USDA in the 90’s.
As it turns out, nature is a badass and proves it in this case in the form of the rootworm. The we-can-do-it-better-than-nature corn is supposed to kill so-called pests to protect the corn yield. Hence the YieldGard name I assume. But, the rootworm decided it was going to eat the corn anyway and not die.

A growing number of rootworms are now able to devour genetically modified corn specifically designed by Monsanto to kill those same pests. A new study shows that while the biotech giant may triumph in Congress, it will never be able to outsmart nature. – RT.com “Superbug vs. Monsanto: Nature rebels against biotech titan”

Ok, so let’s get this straight. Bt toxin in the corn is harmful to humans but, according to Monsanto, it is supposed to completely breakdown in the digestive process but it apparently doesn’t. The point of genetically modifying the corn is to protect crops from bugs. It fails to do that as well. So why are we going to sell it? Because that’s the point of GMO. You can’t patent corn itself but you can patent your scientifically made corn and reap huge profits from that.
Corn Rootworm

Certified Badass

There may be a bit of sanity going on among this mess though as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and General Mills have said they won’t use or sell the corn. That’s good news for consumers of those companies. In other news, Walmart can’t wait to stock it. Unfortunately, GMO labeling isn’t required by law so you won’t know who else  is selling you Frankencorn. Not to mention that high fructose corn syrup is in practically everything. So, good luck with that.
Coincidently, America is expecting the worst domestic corn harvest in 17 years.
This year’s corn yield is projected to be the lowest since 1995, according to an Agriculture Department report that sharply cut production estimates for some major crops because of damage from the nation’s worst drought in 56 years. – nytimes.com “Citing Drought, U.S. Expects Lowest Corn Yield in 17 Years”
Monsanto’s corn can’t beat Mother Nature on that front either. However, with globalization our lack of domestic corn will lead to the need to import from other countries. While there are a handful of countries that ban the cultivation of YieldGard there are many more that actively grow it. Again, without GMO labeling, we won’t have any idea what kind of corn we’re about to eat.
FrankenCorn
So uh, chew on that.

A helpful writer at Examiner.com put together a list of 15 things you can do to take a stand against Monsanto and avoid GMO foods. http://www.examiner.com/article/15-ways-to-take-a-stand-against-monsanto-and-avoid-gmo-foods

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2 Responses

  1. MeMyselfandI says:
    August 10, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Guess Monsanto won’t be satisfied until we are all choking on their creations. I definitely don’t want to eat that.

    Reply
  1. Will the Millions March On Against Monsanto? | IndiePundit.com
    May 28, 2013

    […] But is it? Sure Monsanto is seeing great resistance but they are still going strong. Even several countries have banned Monsanto and many of their Frankenfoods. The United States however isn’t really seeing such action. […]

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