GMOs & Food: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea?

Many of my readers will no doubt remember Thelma Lee's splendid three part series in 2010 on Eating Animals. Well, Thelma Lee and I got to talking about GMOs, which are a topic of mutual fascination for us. Let me tell you, if you think the business of eating animals is difficult to parse, you ain't seen nuthin' until you've tried to find unhyped, accurate information about GMOs, and specifically GMO foods.

What do you know, or think you know about GMOs? Do you know about their applications in industry and medicine? Most people only know about genetically modified food organisms. What they know is pretty much summed up by images like this:

What you can find information-wise stretches from one end of the propaganda spectrum to the other. The two extremes can be summed up in a neat video format. You have, on the one hand, Monsanto:

and on the other hand, Greenpeace:

What's the truth? Of course, it lies in the middle, between these two handy extremes. Can GMO crops be deleterious? You bet they can. Can they be beneficial? You bet they can.

Are you eating GMOs right now? You frickin' bet you are, whether directly or indirectly, even if you don't want to and are practically eating all your food at/from Whole Foods or a similarly healthy foods retailer.

In terms of GMO agriculture, what about that report about organ failure and GMO corn? What about that video linking Michelle Obama, GMOs and Organ Failure? You know, the one with the annoying, ominous music? Did the US government, under the Bush administration, try to force the hand of European countries seeking to ban US GMOs? Wikileaks certainly found evidence it did.

Are all GMO foods potentially hazardous? And what about other GMOs, with applications in industry and medicine? 

Thelma Lee is finishing a six part series on GMOs that will introduce you to what GMOs are, how they are made, what the risks vs. benefits of GMOs are, to give us insight into this serious food topic.

Stay tuned for the facts, with hype pared away as much as we can.

And for those of you who have asked for Jen's blog post on hunting, she's giving it some serious thought.

© Bright Nepenthe, 2011