Infographic: All The Genetically Modified Food You're Eating

Gee, the map is also a good indication of where in the world sleazy politicians are most easily bought. No surprises there.

Yep... USA and Canada.

Sorry, but the USA and Canada do not have a market lock on sleazy politicians or government leaders. That's a World wide problem.

That's very true.

For the fruitcake bunch that worry about GMO so much - just ask them to name one vegetable that is exactly as it was 200 years back. The heirloom vegetables the organic bunch gets wound up about are not natural.

I think the issue is not whether it (the vegetable) is the same as it was 200 years ago, but more about how the transition was made. I'm a lot more comfortable eating food that was morphed into it's present state via techniques such as crossing different types of corn to get a variant more drought or bug tolerant than I am with foods that essentially have man made DNA (insertion or deletion of genes). In the former, nature does the gene splicing in the latter man is doing it.

I am not saying GMO foods are good or bad. I'm am in favor of companies telling the public what's in the food they sell. Allow people to decide what they want to put in their body.

The purpose of using GMO to make crops more tolerant of bugs and drought is admirable, however, the ramifications of the changes (i.e. long term effects on human growth and development, environment, etc) are still unknown. Also, manufacturers making their GMO seeds genetically resistant to weed killer (sold by the same manufacturer) seems to border on unethical. I say border on it as I do see the practical aspect of such an arrangement. But if Microsoft isn't allowed to bundle their web browser with their OS, how can linking weed-killer resistant seed to the weed-killer be any better?

Actually, that bother me must less than GMO companies taking legal action against non-GMO farmers who's crops have been tainted by GMO via the wind for compensation since some of the non-GMO farmer's field has yielded GMO type crops.

Actually, that bother me must less than GMO companies taking legal action against non-GMO farmers who's crops have been tainted by GMO via the wind for compensation since some of the non-GMO farmer's field has yielded GMO type crops.

I have seen accusations of this on green sites but not in the real world - not sure as to the accuracy of the claims.

I usually agree with you russ, but not this time.

Not only do they not know the long term effects on humans, they don't know the effects on wildlife, (particularly honey bees, on which we depend), nor do they know the extent/result of cross pollination with non GMO species.

The concerns about GMO are more than just a left wing rant. The sick relationship between government and Monsanto is also disturbing.

There's some good links here for more info.

GMO is not Hybrid-- Do some research. Hybrid is interbreeding to get desired characteristics not gene splicing in to the organism an antibiotic, weed killer, or some other toxic product that can spread via pollen or interbreeding or in other ways of which the world has no control. Hybrids did not cause 250,000 Indian farmers to commit suicide because they could not pay Monsanto's prices and the GMO cotton stalks poisoned and killed their beast of burden the buffalo. Hybrids to date have not caused mass disruption of our food crops nor poisoned masses of humans and animals. Smart countries are banning GMO but I have not found any record of a hybrid being banned for causing harm.

Your post is full of a load of garbage. I lived there for fifteen years - I am well aware of the trash debate the politicians and greens run up against anything different and in particular anything of foreign origin.

Your 250,000 number is pure smoke!

The poisonings are more pure smoke!

Hybrids have been made using harsh chemicals to cause damage to the plant DNA to foster modifications in plants - same with radiation. This has been done for many year back - well in excess of 50 that I am aware of.

Your 250,000 number is pure smoke!
You're right. It'a only 182,936.

That is a great source of propaganda but facts in it? I doubt it.

There are many reasons for the farmers plight in India - mainly that they are stuck on a low rung of the development ladder and virtually no there cares. They are only of interest to people in charge as for votes and political reasons.

It was either on here or on Treehugger (I always read the links to find the source instead of listing to their unedited dribble) that I saw there is a superbug that is now resistant to Roundup. Some scientists believe the GMO crops alterred the DNA of the bug over time to produce this superbug version, others think it is natural selection (the ones that survive the spraying pass on their genes that are resistant). Here are some links:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23910.cfm

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/09/01/monsanto-corn-under-attack-superbugs

The other downside that I just noticed in the Food Republic article is farmers have been producing corn year after year without rotation. This depletes the soils and doesn't allow the natural microbes in the soil to survive. This makes the farmers more dependent on fertilizers which further dont feed the microbes and further depletes the soils and requires even more fertilizers. When will the farmers realize that depleted soils produce less bushels per acre no matter what GM they plant. Our agricultural practices in the US need to be changed. Some of the farmers in my area take the biosolids from the wastewater treatment plants to fertilize their fields. Most use the Monsanto s**t. A great small scale example is my neighbors garden. She has her own monoculture in raised beds with the same thing planted in the same place every year. She turns the soil with a bagged fertilizer (not sure of what it is or how much she adds) every spring. She gave us some cucumbers and tomatoes this past summer. The tomatoes tasted like dirt, literally. The cucumbers had little to no taste.

We buy organic as much as possible/affordable. It doesn't have all those chemicals with a side benefit of having more nutrients and is much better tasting.

Note: I know this is a little vague. I am not by any means a soil scientist and have just been starting to look into it since I will need some understanding for the organic garden I am putting in next year.

Your comments are accurate.

I am amazed at what green proponents can come up with - Any farmer that plans to stay in business manages his soil - just like his crops.

There are those that will deplete/ruin the soil and they are stupid.

Some scientists is a rather lose term - were they soil scientists or were they involved with soil research? Kind of like the old commercial '4 out of 5 dentists surveyed recommended XXX' - that was equally meaningless.

It is well known in agriculture that bugs and diseases modify themselves to suit conditions - for many, many years, say 50 that I am aware of, Pesticides are used sparingly and in rotation due to this. This is simply saying that the work is constant and ongoing.

Anyone that claims they can tell the difference in taste between organic and non organic has no idea of what they are talking about. You can tell the difference between veggies that are raised with proper nutrition and those that were raised without it though. Your neighbor has no idea how to garden apparently.

With organic food you can be sure that they are using some of the older and more potent chemicals available for pests - the newer safer 'stuff' isn't certified for organic.

Where in heck does Russ get his information First Hybrid the definition

In biology and specifically, genetics, the term hybrid has several meanings, all referring to the offspring of sexual reproduction.^[1]

1. In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the mating of two distinctly homozygousindividuals
2. a genetic hybrid carries two different alleles of the same gene
3. a structural hybrid results from the fusion of gametes that have differing structure in at least one chromosome, as a result ofstructural abnormalities
4. a numerical hybrid results from the fusion of gametes having different haploid numbers of chromosomes
5. a permanent hybrid is a situation where only the heterozygous genotype occurs, because all homozygous combinations are lethal.

From a taxonomic perspective, hybrid refers to offspring resulting from the interbreeding between two animals or plants of different taxa.^[2]

1. Hybrids between different subspecies within a species (such as between the Bengal tiger and Siberian tiger) are known as intra-specific hybrids. Hybrids between different species within the same genus (such as between lions and tigers) are sometimes known as interspecific hybrids or crosses. Hybrids between different genera (such as between sheep and goats) are known as intergenerichybrids. Extremely rare interfamilial hybrids have been known to occur (such as the guineafowl hybrids).^[3] No interordinal(between different orders) animal hybrids are known.
2. The second type of hybrid consists of crosses between populations, breeds or cultivars within a single species. This meaning is often used in plant and animal breeding, where hybrids are commonly produced and selected because they have desirable characteristics not found or inconsistently present in the parent individuals or populations. This flow of genetic material between populations or races is often called hybridization.
3. As for organic there is no chemical fertilizer, pest control or weed control used if you wish to be certified organic neither are GMO's allowed under organic guidelines as they stand. As for the comment you may not tell the difference in Organic and GMO true humans have lost that but animals in test after test have when given the choice ignored GMO until such time as they were starving. I could send web sites on the results of animal studies but with your obvious limited capabilities of digesting facts it is best not to pursue this direction.

Roy Hammy - I have no idea what hybrid garbage your are busy discussing with yourself but have fun.

Sulfur is not a chemical? All pesticides and fertilizers are chemical - unless you are Klingon which sounds like a distinct possibility.

Your Made up stories about animals refusing GMO material are laughable but there is a certain crowd that likes to amuse each other by repeating such stuff.

I made that comment about the difference between the taste of organic and regular food if you can understand English - GMO was not in that sentence but the same holds true.

I have no interest in your little web sites filled with nonsense so please don't post them.

Maybe you believe that if you repeat such junk enough times people may come to believe it - there are many fools around that will.

I bought a commercially grown Honey-crisp apple, and an organic honey-crisp apple from safeway last week (personal taste test). The commercially grown apple was huge and beautiful, and tasted good. The Organic apple was small and imperfect, but tasted ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. There was no comparison between the two as far as flavor is concerned. It doesn't matter to me what the farmers did, or what the fruit was labeled, how big it is, or how much it costs, but what does matter to me is that it tastes as good as it can. The organic apple completely blew the commercial apple out of the water!

First hand experience FYI.

Too many of the commercial types of fruits and veggies have been designed for easy picking, mechanical picking, tendency not to be damaged in handling, shape, color, shipability and on and on. Flavor has little part in the equation.

The flavor difference you noticed probably little to do with organic/non organic and a lot to do with other factors.

Here are a few of the studies that I found yesterday discussing nutrient depletion in farm soils. Based on what I have read from them it appears that the nutrients in foods may alter the flavor (conjecture at this point since no study is evaluating taste of the foods or their comparisons).

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5066e/y5066e0a.htm#TopOfPage

http://www.soils.wisc.edu/~barak/poster_gallery/minneapolis2000a/index.html

http://www.nutritionsecurity.org/PDF/NSI_White%20Paper_Web.pdf

http://www.canadianlongevity.net/misc/mineral_depletion.php

I have also been looking into permaculture which is touting increased yield and lower pests by 7 crop rotation, continuous ground cover and other techniques. So far, I have learned alfalfa is a nutrient fixer (mainly nitrogen) and an excellent ground cover for corn fields. I haven't been saving the links. It probably won't take me much time to find them again as they were all from a Google search. I don't have time to look them up today because of a meeting. I will try to get them for you tomorrow if you are interested.

You may be right. It may be all of those other factors that change the taste. It may also be that many of the fertilizers used end up running off into our rivers and lakes. Farmers can only apply these fertilizers twice a year and those times fall during the rainy seasons. River water degradation has been a serious issue in the farming states. Here in Indiana it shows up as blue-green algae. Eagle Creek Reservoir (Indy water supply) has had issues. There is mostly farm land in the watershed. I just know that what I grew up eating on the chemical based farm, have been getting from my grandma's neighbor's chemical based farm, and from the regular grocery store don't taste as good as what comes from the organic farmers market in my town.

On the importance of organic farming - In fact, all those Organic acres put together still only represent 0.71% of the 370 million acres of US cropland. The amount of that cropland that was actually harvested in 2008 represented only 0.52% of the total. Organic cropland areahas been growing, but only at 0.0385% per year on an absolute basis (see chart below). At that rate of growth, US Organic cropland will still represent less than 2.5% of the total in the year 2050. The math suggests that Organic will remain as a small niche market.

http://appliedmythology.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50

From an agricultural scientist - the only thing big about organic is the advertising and PR plus a lot of very loud proponents.

"Organic consumers are often surprised about the imports. In a famous case, a frozen vegetable mix called "California Blend" was sold at Whole Foods. In small font on the back of the package were the words, "produced in China." It is even more difficult to get statistics on the extent of Organic imports or to know which food products contain imported ingredients."

The "produced in China" part explains how Walmart is able to provide organic foods. I really despise that company and its gimmicks! Continue the imports from China and the next thing we will hear about is lead in our food! lol

Just an interesting tidbit for everyone.

We are entering the season of those hard, pale, grocery store tomatoes here. I don't think they are GMO, but bred for a long shelf life.

Here's the good news. If you take them home and set them on your window sill for about a week, maybe more, they actually get redder, softer, tastier, and are more like a real tomato.

Call me simple, but I got real excited when I discovered this.

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13024-scientist-warns-us-and-eu-administrations-of-glyphosate-caused-crisis-in-agriculture

Search for "Don Huber" a retired professor at Purdue University! The above link is a warning issued by him.

A lot of the attributed plant illnesses are described there.

Here in Germany and nearby other European states we have a new type of cow-disease that is spreading to farmers and veterinaries. At first look it is chronically low level Botulism. But we have learned to live with low level Botulism bacteria and spore input.

So something has changed this tolerance. There are some indications that this something is "Roundup" or its main ingredient Glyphosate.

The cows and farmers get it by massive amounts of Glyphosate in fodder. In US and South-America based products this is often made from "roundup-ready" soy. In Europe farmers spray the wheat and other plants before harvesting to get it dry with less cost. (Also potatoes and onions!)

So these products have a lot of Glyphosate - that is not so toxic to be of immediate danger, but plays havoc with the immune system.

Then cows and farmers and others, now also all other farm animals and pets show up with the disease.

In Germany there are thousands of farms affected - but nothing officially acknowledged.

But only one farm that is operated biologically is affected - likely by wind drift of neighbours- sprayings.

So we face a new monster!

The first cases of this new illness came up in 1996, 1 year after approval of roundup here.

RHABE

Don Huber who is a agricultural scientist has apparently gone off the deep end in an attempt to get publicity.

Items mentioned in the previous post about Huber seem not to be peer reviewed works but bits and pieces he has grabbed from where ever convenient with no backup.

Quote, 'Anastasia Bodnar has published an excellent critique of Huber's claims on the site Biofortified. In her post she provides links to various academic departments that have published skeptical assessments of Huber's claims. Suffice it to say that Dr. Huber has little "cred" among agricultural scientists. However, because he is saying that something terrible is happening that can be blamed on Monsanto and GMO technology, he has automatic credibility with certain constituencies.'

http://appliedmythology.blogspot.com/2011/08/some-thoughts-about-cred-and-don-huber.html

Huber is working hard to get invited to all the green parties- maybe he has a new girl friend? The wonderful thing for him is that his audience could care less about science or methods as long as what he says supports their point of view.

I do not claim that Don Huber is right.

But I do know that often the "authorities" and "peers" have been wrong - totally.

(Galileo to Wegeners continental drift to the story of Mad Cow Disease are examples!)

So we may see this as an approach to clarify an obscure situation.

No doubt is existing on some facts:

Glyphosate is not very toxic, so a high concentration has been approved.

Glyphosate is attacking some bacteria so helping others: what is the new equilibrum?

Glyphosate is a strong chelating agent so depleting not only trace minerals!

So I will continue to question until more is known.

And the role of Monsanto is not so clear.

Think about the withheld results from the early 50ies to the late 90ies related to tobacco smoking toxicity!

RHABE

We shouldn't overlook that much of the produce in grocery stores is picked way before they are ripe and what you get in a farmer's market is 2 things: closer to ripening on the plant/tree and closer to the time of picking. Grow something in your back yard and pick it at the right time and it will almost always taste better than what's generally on the produce shelf at the grocery store.