Biotechnologists at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Kenya and Peru have discovered that thousands of years ago, bacteria naturally produced genetically modified changes in sweet potatoes.
They want to use that as proof that genetically modified foods have been around a long time and that you should thing they’re safe.
But that discovery doesn’t make modern-day, lab-created genes that are inserted into foods any safer.
Lab tests show that a bacteria called Agrobacterium probably produced what is called a horizontal gene transfer long ago – exchanging DNA material between the microbes’ genes and the sweet potato’s genome.
“The natural presence of Agrobacterium T-DNA in sweet potato and its stable inheritance during evolution is a beautiful example of the possibility of DNA exchange across species barriers,” says researcher Lieve Gheysen. “It demonstrates that genetic modification also happens in nature. In comparison to ‘natural’ gmos, that are beyond our control, human-made gmos have the advantage that we know exactly which characteristic we add to the plant.”
Of course Gheysen’s reassurance is a gross overstatement if not an outright lie. And you can add that to the misleading claims made over the years by Monsanto and other international corporations that have tried to make huge profits from marketing GMO crops.
It’s one thing for a living bacteria like Agrobacterium to make a rather benign change to a plant thousands of years ago, and then for people to safely consume that plant (like the sweet potato) for generations. It’s quite another for humans to create new genes that are not natural and have never existed on earth before, insert them into plants and immediately assume they are safe and worthwhile to grow and eat.
Interestingly, sweet potatoes have previously been the subject of other bogus claims by GMO proponents.
Back in 2002 and 2003, Monsanto researchers were claiming that their GMO sweet potatoes in Africa were a vast improvement over standard sweet potatoes. They said acres planted with GMO sweet potatoes were producing yields that were far more productive than the standard variety.
And it all turned out to be a lie. When farmers tried to grow GMO sweet potatoes, their acres basically produced the same amount of crops as conventional farmers.
As noted by Aaron deGrassi, a researcher in the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom: GMO schemes by companies like Monsanto, divert resources into profit-making ventures that don’t benefit local economies or provide extra food at reasonable costs.
DeGrass says – “the excitement over certain genetic engineering procedures can divert financial, human, and intellectual resources from focusing on productive research that meets the needs of poor farmers.”
Companies that make GMO foods like GMO corn and soy, use viruses to introduce genetic material into these species. The entire process is a lot less precise than the companies let on, and potentially introduce unknown changes in these foods that can affect your health.
Most often, the genetic changes are engineered to allow crops to be doused with heavy applications of herbicides. The long term effects of those herbicides on the environment and human health is worrisome, although you’d never know it from the propaganda produced from GMO corporations’ PR departments.
The corporate philosophy of these companies is backwards. For them, profit comes before safety when it should be the other way around.
You should protect yourself by eating organic foods and seeking out foods that are labeled as GMO-free.
