http://articles.mercola.com/si...

Convincing information to grow your own and find alternatives to the use of Round-Up on your own property.

They have done an extensive literature review.
It would take me a month to check them all out.

One way to tell if grocery store items are GMO is look at the bar code. Bar codes starting with 8 are GMO foods according to this article:

http://disinfo.com/2010/01/how...

Articles from 2009 documented that 70% or more of foods found in grocery store aisles were genetically modified. The situation today has not improved.

PLU Codes Don't Indicate GMO Produce
http://www.foodrenegade.com/pl...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Then we just don't know if the food we buy is healthy to eat and feed our families or not.

Better labelling is necessary for all food products.
And for gardening products too.

I don't know that that article is entirely scientific, but I do not have time at this time of year
to check on whether the research quoted is actually valid.

One study which said glyphosphate causes breast cancer----used a strain of mice or rats which have been bred
to be mammalary gland cancerous. So they really did not prove anything.

If the authors did not pick up on that then maybe they are more hype than facts?

Yes. I understand your concern. Many studies for diabetes use specially bred diabetic rats. But I don't think concerns about the effects of
GMOs on our health and soil are entirely hype. The body of research is just too large and consistent in results.

One more example:

http://articles.mercola.com/si...

GMOs and Glyphosphate are two separate issues which should not be conflated.
Yes, agri businesses do it all the time.

O.K. Here is one article which explains the relationship between GMOs and glyphosate (Monsanto's Round-Up).

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-...

GMOs --genetically modified crops were developed by Monsanto (and some others) to resist their pesticide -- Round-Up. This meant that farmers could kill weeds and grow weed killer resistant crops on the same soil. This is how we get glyphosate contaminated foods in our local super markets--unlabeled. By some estimates as much as 70% of the food we eat contains glyphosate residues.

Monsanto holds that this strategy will allow agricultural production to meet increasing world food demands. Others question this strategy--we will feed the world What??? In this country there is a growing sentiment that unlabeled GMO-glyphosate contaminated foods are flooding our supermarkets and there is no way for consumers to make a choice.

World-wide there is the ethical question of what this strategy is doing to health in third world countries where farmers have been employed to use the glyphosate-GMO system to produce agricultural produce. For example, in the search I just did there was research to suggest that GMO-glyphosate foods induce sterility in males. That is not feeding the world's population, it is undermining the health of world populations in fundamental ways.

I don't think this is hype to be dismissed. I think it should be every thinking plant person's concern.

Yes, GMOs are a threat, and the fact they are being used to promote the use of herbicides is deplorable.
But that does not mean that glyphosphate is making people sick.
I think it is the formulations with various surfactants which should be looked at.

I'm lurking and enjoying this thread; it's educational.

I have also heard about the surfactant issue but never did look further into it.

There have been so many GMO nightmares created here in Canada alone.
These are in agriculture mostly.
But the Canadian government has approved 3 GMO tomatoes for commercial growers.

And I am worried about the Grafted tomatoes as the root stock is patented by large agri business who also do GMO.

Don't get me wrong,--- as I do think the technology of genetic engineering can do some good.
This could help alleviate suffering in some genetic diseases.
But I think the agri companies have jumped in without thinking things through and doing enough research.
And governments have been caught without the money to do the research that is necessary.

This is why I support the small heirloom seed producers---they are doing a service which is very valuable.
They are protecting the diversity of crop gene pools.

I agree on both counts. open pollinated non-hybrid seed is getting harder and harder to find -- and the basic diversity of our food crops has been compromised. Im planting peppers now--but there are just a few available. I am reading a book on curries from India. Where are those peppers and why can't I grow them?

But still, many are born with genetically fixable diseases--like Type 1 diabetes that could be given longer lifespans with genetic modifications.

But the bottom line is the right to information so that people can make intelligent choices.

Discussion of gene therapy and genetic modification.

http://ethics.missouri.edu/Gen...

I think there is a site which offers many varieties of peppers---I'll try to find it.
Shall we return this forum to permaculture,
and continue our GMO and herbicide discussion next winter when there is more time?

Somewhere in the back of my mind---I think the article you first gave---was a reply to another which
supported the idea that glyphosphate did not make people sick.
I am into gardening now and don't have time to do searches.

Happy gardening! Here were are having more rain days than gardening days. But our gardening season is nearly full year --well maybe 10 months.