Answers to GM Food Safety Questions May Be on the Horizon

There are a lot of unanswered questions, regarding safety concerns about our food supply, that the general public would like to have addressed. It used to be our investigative journalist would go the extra mile, to keep the public in the loop. Things have changed drastically over the past decade though, and main stream media reporters are no longer looked upon as the Robin Hood / Sherlock Holmes heroes that they used to be. What happened to the days when a good journalist could get a hold of a story, like a dog with a bone, and worry it to death? Those days are gone.

Now reporters trying to expose a story, run the risk of being fired, as happened when the first of the controversial, genetically modified food products made their appearance on store shelves across America. A newly hired team of Fox news reporters tried to warn us of the dangers of consuming genetically modified milk and food products, and were subsequently fired after fighting to have the story air in it's entirety. Why would broadcast network go to such lengths to suppress a story?

Growth Hormone, or Rbgh, quietly entered our food chain, with little fan fair back then, already more than ten years ago. Genetically modified produce has been appearing on our store shelves for just about the same length of time. We have herbicides and pesticides incorporated at the molecular DNA level in a wide variety of our fruits and vegetables. Seeds that are generally cultivated by scientist, in what they term, 'naturally occurring E. Coli viruses'. HFCS, another possibly dangerous product has entered the food chain at saturation levels. This modified sweetener has replaced sugar in virtually every product that used to contain sugar. Scientist have managed to refine the syrup, until they created a product with theoretically, no expiration date. Even the scholarly journal articles were amazed, and have published jokes about cookies lasting two hundred years. If it is that hard to break down, shouldn't there be further testing to assure that the human body is able to process the product? If the studies have been done, shouldn't these results be readily available? What is it that keeps the lid on the mystery of modified foods?

These as well as other modified, technologically advanced, or genetically altered food items have been sent out into the food chain, of the American People, and the world, relatively untried and untested. While American families struggle to raise record numbers of Autistic children, and battle ever higher cancer incidence rates, main stream media has remained deathly silent on the pertinent matters that America citizens are asking. Are these foods safe? Is it possible that the introduction of these genetic creations are connected to the relatively new occurrences of mad cow, bird flu, autism, and cancer? Not to mention the massive food recalls of the past year?

Monopolistic, powerful corporations, like Monsanto, have worked to enact outrageous legislation, called food disparagement laws. These restrictions are not only an infringement of individual rights to freedom of speech, but have effectively silenced the main stream media in regards to speaking out against possible dangers present in of our food chain, for fear of legal repercussion. These corporations have spared no expense in their efforts to guarantee their products sell. They have spent millions, if not billions of dollars, developing these genetically modified foods, and unknown lobbying dollars obtaining the legislation that has effectively silenced their critics for so long.

There is some hope on the horizon that a change in these strong arm tactics could be forthcoming. The Government long ago established what was to be a coordinated framework, for the regulation of GE crops, yet, as stated December 5th, 2008, by the GAO, reported by The Center for Science in The Public Interest, the three regulatory agencies, the USDA, FDA, and EPA, have to date, still failed to adequately coordinate their regulations and supervision, to establish the safety, or possible environmental damages, these crops could cause. The GAO says this practice needs to change. Will President Obama's administration take a stand for the safety of the American people, over corporate profits, and stock market performance? We can begin to hope so, with the new legislation on the horizon, moved forward by the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office, demanding a future of greater accountability of these products. The release and coordination of past studies may prove crucial in shedding light on the escalation of current medical conditions, such as autism. The first step to a cure, is to find the cause, haven't we wasted enough time already? President Obama said he would bring change, accountability is a change we need.