Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) are organisms created when the gene from one species is transferred by means of a plasmid into another species.  This is not an example of hybridization, which happens in nature and poses no threat to our food supply.  Hybridization means you let two strains of a species breed or even two separate species and you see what the offspring are.  A GMO is created when a gene from one kind of organism (eg: fish) is transmitted to a completely unrelated species (eg: tomato). 

GMO's are not desirable for a number of reasons.

First, the health risks of GMO’s are unknown and there is no way to really test for their long term impacts on humans.  We are in the midst of a huge experiment, which most people will not be able to avoid because they don’t even know it is going on.  Hungry African and Asian nations are concerned enough about it that they are refusing food aid from us where the food contains GMO's.  Europe has been very suspicious of GMO's.  There have been examples of health impacts from use of GMO's.  In Japan, a bacterium modified to synthesize amino acids, did a wonderful job of pumping out the amino acids, but it also made a new one not found in nature.  The new amino acid, in a food supplement powder caused some deaths and a lot of irreversible mental and metabolic damage to hundreds of people until the product was recalled.  Japan does not want GMO food.  Europe does not want GMOP food.  Australia does not want GMO food.  Hungry populations in Africa are refusing GMO food aid.  Why would we eat GMO food?

Beyond the direct risk associated with consuming GMO's, there is a risk of contamination of the existing varieties of seed with GMO genetic material.  This is more like a certainty than a risk.  If you grow your canola or corn across the road from a GMO field, the pollen from the GMO's blows across and your field is also GMO.  In Ontario it is now virtually impossible to grow non-GMO corn.    So much of the corn crop is GMO that anyone attempting to grown corn that does not carry the GMO traits will without exception, have their crop contaminated.  There is no way for them to provide corn to market that can be certified as being free of GMO's.

The traits being bred into food plants will escape to non-target species.  Ten percent already have (that we are aware of) and more are likely to.  The most famous example of this is the milkweed that was cross pollinated by a Bt corn and became toxic to Monarch Butterflies.  Milkweed is the main food of these endangered and amazing butterflies.  Many of them died.

Other traits, such as herbicide resistance being bred into canola, wheat and other crops will escape and make their way into non-food species.  These “weeds” will then carry resistance to the herbicide.  Ironic, isn’t it?  In time, the GMO's are likely to make our herbicides completely ineffective.

A particular concern, which I think reflects the mind set of the biotechnology industry is that of “terminator” technology.  This is a kind of wheat which is only viable if sprayed with roundup (which the biotech company also makes).  This isn’t such a terrible thing, unless you happen to be across the road from a terminator crop and you don’t use roundup (as organic farmers will not).  Your own crop will not germinate because of cross pollination from the terminator field, or you’ll have a reduced germination rate and will never really know how much of your seed will be viable – since the wind direction during pollination will determine how much of your seed is terminator infected.  You won’t know how densely to plant your crop, since you can’t tell what the germination rate will be, and even with germination testing, you can’t say if the wheat at the top of the bin was from the strip along the road by the terminator crop, or from the middle of the field or from over by the coulee.  Some parts of your field might come up, and other areas not.

The agent that transfers the genetic material from the one species to the other is called a PLASMID.  This is a small protein molecule that functions kind of like a virus, easily inserting into the DNA of the host (infected) plant.   Plasmids can be attached to genes from one species (eg: fish) and then inserted into another species (eg: tomato).  The result is a tomato that keeps for a very long time, only ripening when exposed to a gas which switches off the fish gene.  Another example is the Bacillus thuringensis gene which produces a toxin which kills chewing insects.  It can be inserted into corn or other plants to control insects that might damage the crop.  The problem with plasmids is that they can jump out just as they can jump in.  Ten percent of biotechnology genes have already escaped into the environment, entering species for which they were not intended.  One famous result of this was the deaths of millions of monarch butterflies which fed on milkweed infected by the Bacillus Thuringensis toxin gene from cross pollination with BT corn. 

Lab rats displayed signs of chronic wasting when fed GMO potatoes.

In Canada, certain products are likely to be GMO if not organic.  Over half the soy, corn and canola crops are GMO.  The pollen from corn and canola spread so far, that here are few places in Canada where organic farmers can successfully grown organic canola or corn without high levels of GMO contamination.  There are as yet no GMO wheat or potatoes registered for use in Canada. 

For a vegan, can they trust the tomato to be a vegan tomato, or must they worry about the fish that may have been crossed with it?  Should Muslims or Jews have to worry about pork genes in the flour used to make their Knish? 

Should any of us have to worry about the long term impact on our children of eating such unproven foods?  And the really crazy thing is that GMO's are absolutely unnecessary.  Why take such chances just to fuel the profits of big corporations who are only worried about maximizing profits and have no corporate mandate to worry about the possible impacts on our people?  One of our mottoes is “ESCAPE THE EXPERIMENT, EAT ORGANIC FOODS!”

While we sell a few foods that are not organic, when we can’t find an organic version of the same food, we will not knowingly sell any GMO foods.  If you sport something in the store, point it out to us and it will soon be gone.

For more information on GMO's, look at the following:

Greenpeace - Say No to GMO's;

Consumers Union Briefs;

Union of Concerned Scientists.