8 Ways Monsanto is Destroying Our Health

• Delia Quigley

“The deeper you can manipulate living structures, the more you can  control food and medicine.” Dr. Vandana Shiva

Lots of talk these days about the bullying of young boys and girls in school  by more aggressive students. This brings to my mind the biggest bully of all:  the biotech company, Monsanto Corporation. Taken in context, Monsanto’s list of  corporate crimes should have been enough to pull their corporate charter years  ago. And yet we allow them to continue to destroy our food supply, our health  and the planet. Monsanto or Monsatan? Take a look at the company’s track record  and decide for yourself.

Agent Orange: Monsanto was the major financial beneficiary  of this herbicide used to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam and destroy the  health of American troops and their offspring. It also allowed Monsanto and  other chemical companies to appeal for and receive protection from veterans  seeking damages for their exposure to Agent Orange and any future biotech  creations.

Aspartame: as far back as 1994 the U.S. Department of Health  and Human Services released a report listing 94 health issues caused by Aspartame. It has been shown to  cause slow but serious damage to the human body and yet it is used extensively  in many commercial products.

Saccharin: studies have shown that saccharin caused cancer  in test rats and mice; and in six human studies, including one done by the  National Cancer Institute, that consuming artificial sweeteners, such as  saccharin and cyclamate, resulted in bladder cancer.

Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH): a genetically modified hormone  injected into dairy cows to produce more milk, despite the fact that more milk  was needed. The cows suffer excruciating pain due to swollen udders and  mastitis. The pus from the infection enters the milk supply requiring more  antibiotics to be given to the cows. BST milk may also cause breast cancer,  colon cancer and prostate cancer in humans.

RoundUp: the worlds most commonly used herbicide and weed killer has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s  lymphoma, in a study by eminent oncologists Dr. Lennart Hardell and Dr. Mikael  Eriksson of Sweden. Used on genetically modified crops resistant to RoundUps  active ingredient glyphosate, environmentalists and health professionals are  concerned that far from reducing herbicide use, glyphosate resistant crops may  result in increased residues in food to which consumers will be exposed.

Genetically Modified Crops (GMO): Monsanto created  Frankenfoods by gene-splicing corn, cotton, soy, and canola with DNA from a  foreign source. Consequently these crops are resistant to massive doses of the  herbicide, RoundUp, but in turn herbicide-resistant Superweeds are taking  over.  After running into resistance in the west, Monsanto is pushing GMO  crops in third world countries. According to physicist, ecologist and activist Dr. Vandana  Shiva, “Syugenta and Monsanto are rushing ahead with the mapping and  patenting of the rice genome. If they could, they would own rice and its genes,  even though the 200,000 rice varieties that give us diverse traits have been  bred and evolved by rice farmers of Asia collectively over millennia. Their  claim to inventing rice is a violence against the integrity of biodiversity and  life-forms; it is a violence against the knowledge of Third World  farmers.”

Get Monsanto GM corn off the supermarket shelves! Click here to sign the petition.

Terminator Seeds: a technology that produces sterile grains  unable to germinate, forcing farmers to buy seeds from Monsanto rather than save  and reuse the seeds from their harvest. Terminators can cross-pollinate and  contaminate local non-sterile crops putting in danger the future seed supply and  eventually giving control of the world’s food supply to Monsanto and the GM  industry.

Standard American Diet: According to the Organic Consumers Association, “There is a direct  correlation between our genetically engineered food supply and the $2 trillion  the US spends annually on medical care, namely an epidemic of diet-related  chronic diseases. Instead of healthy fruits, vegetables, grains, and grass-fed  animal products, US factory farms and food processors produce a glut of  genetically engineered junk foods that generate heart disease, stroke, diabetes  and cancer. Low fruit and vegetable consumption is directly costing the United  States $56 billion a year in diet-related chronic diseases.”

For more information on taking action against Monsanto, visit the website of  the Organic Consumers Association and stand up against GM foods.