Day 136

Thoughts: What does "genetically modified food" mean? Are we are becoming genetically modified people?

Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms. Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering, using a process of either Cisgenesis or Transgenesis. Which means human interfering and machinary. The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. Genetically Modified foods promise to meet this need in a number of ways for example pest resistance, crop losses from insect pests can be staggering, cold tolerance and nutrition. Malnutrition is common in third world countries where impoverished peoples rely on a single crop such as rice for the main staple of their diet. However, rice does not contain adequate amounts of all necessary nutrients to prevent malnutrition. If rice could be genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins and minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be alleviated. Is it possible to continue living on the Earth without GMF?

A beautiful and intelligent friend of mine Leanne Bridges thinks not....

"Genetically Modified food? What harm can a diddled tomato or a fiddled carrot do to your body?

PLENTY! And it does not stop there.
While ignorant scientists, confined in their dogmatic views were fiddling with our food and playing god, they happily forgot/omitted/ignored a vary important scientific fact (I struggle with science because it is only what we know at this point with what we have but....) called: Gene Transfer.

We all 'know' that we receive our DNA and therefore genes from our parents, but some may not know that we evolve thanks to all species. As Pennisi (2001) puts it 'we can no longer comfortably say what is a species anymore'. Genetic transfer means (as I understand it and I am certainly no expert - but there are experts who have provided some very strong evidence/proof) that we receive genes from many/all species which enables a faster evolution. We can receive specialist information and learnt experiences from any organism, regardless of species.

A way that I explain it in my mind is this:
If you consider a community to be made up of many, than a cell is a mini community (nucleus, organelles, plasma membrane, cytoplasm), notch it up a level and an organ is a community, up again and you have an organ system as a community and finally a human is a community. You are as individual as the 50 trillion + cells that make you what you are. I said 'finally' before, but it is not 'finally'. Up another level and than another and another until you get to the planet community.

Cells learn, differentiate, grow and reproduce at the most basic level of the individual cell, so given that we live in a community of unlimited cells if you look at the planet level, it is not so hard to understand/believe that we, as cells of a massive organismal community that is Earth, learn, differentiate, grow and reproduce thanks to many outside contributors.

So what does this mean when we look at genetically modified foods? Nothing good I assure you. When you modify the genes of a potato, you are introducing artificially created cells into your bodies cell environment and beyond. These genes attack our internal environment.

There are also reports of 'superweeds' growing around the genetically modified crops.

If you think about these 'superweeds' in that environment, than I don't know about you but the first thing that pops into my head is the same 'superweeds' could appear in my internal environment (not as weeds, you get my drift).

Genetically modified foods, in my opinion do not have a place in our environment. Because like atomic bombs and nuclear waste, they have the potential to effect us all, but that we do not have a say. Millions of lives could be exterminated at the press of a button or the injection of an ignorant scientist."

Leanne Bridges - studying Anatomy and Physiology at Uni "Bruce Lipton is a great writer on this subject and has a holistic view to life as we know it."

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food

Challenges: I totally agree with Leanne, I don't believe GMF have a place on Earth. It seems with all these new inventions and machines we are moving further away from who we are, the earth, and the health of the planet and ourselves. Are we are becoming genetically modified people?

Triumphs: Thank you Leanne for making me and others from around the world aware of GMF! You are amazing and inspiring, a human being that is out to make a difference with people and the planet :)

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: Chocolate balls. A pear. A avocado with mixed sprouts, beans, lentils and chickpeas.

Lunch: A avocado with mixed sprouts, beans, lentils and chickpeas.

Dinner: Indian rice with spices, green chilli and corriander.

Dessert: Chocolate balls with brazil nuts.

Snacks: A pear.

Exercise: Walking to the film set in the Alabama woods :) Running away from the 'lady with the lantern' in scene 9! Hahaaa!

229 days to go!