Inbox An Interesting Place Regarding GMOs

The ‘ear of corn with syringe’ is one of the most iconic images associated with the anti-GMO movement

This post is yet another about how I changed from anti-GMO to accepting of the science and evidence that indicates that GMOs are beneficial and not dangerous or toxic to eat.  My blog changed from anti GMO to pro science.  Notice I don’t say pro GMO.  I am pro fact and pro evidence.  I don’t have an agenda for GMOs and I don’t get paid by biotech companies… shock to a lot of people, I know.  But these two emails, from the same person,  illustrate how so many folks have a difficult time with my change of heart. The funny thing is, I don’t see it really as a change of heart.  I use that expression because it is familiar.  What I experienced was simply a change in knowledge.  I can’t fear that which I understand.

I left every bit of anti-GMO writing on my blog and the record is intact and every once in awhile someone reads an older post and thinks I am a soldier for the antis.  It is a reminder to me how my wrongness is still influencing people.

Hello Julee,

 

I learned of you online today & I’m quite glad I did as I’m very conscious about ingredients and if they might be GMO. You sound like you’re quite informed in this area. If possible, I am wondering if certain ingredients in my supplements may be GMO. I THOUGHT I was well-informed as I don’t eat fast food, processed foods, sodas, or basically anything in a package; BUT, after reading your list of possible GMO ingredients, I suspect I may have to throw all my supplements away. At any rate, here they are:

 

((Keep in mind, these are just supplements & not regular grocery store food))

 

Glycerin: I read that this may be either a GMO or it may be natural, like in some soaps. Do you have any idea if Glycerin in my Vitamin D-3 and probiotic may be one or the other? (??)

 

Vegetable Cellulose: You list Cellulose as a possible GMO, but this is vegetable cellulose. (??)

 

Vegetable Stearic Acid: You list Stearic Acid as a possible GMO, but this is Vegetable Stearic Acid. (??)

 

Soybean Oil: I don’t think you listed this particular ingredient, but Naturalnews.com reported in one of their articles that it was a GMO. (??)

 

Caramel: You listed Caramel Color as a GMO, but not Caramel. (??)

 

Sugar: I chew on some Altoids breath mints quite often, & I thought this was safe as it had the ingredient of sugar. You reported that if it isn’t preceded by “cane” it’s GMO beet sugar. Is that right? (??)

 

Lastly, if any of the above ingredients are GMO, would you yourself take that  particular supplement? I ask because these supplements are important to my wife’s health & mine. (IE, Vitamin K2, from Jarrow Formulas, has this soybean oil, glycerin and caramel in it, but at the same time it’s an essential vitamin as it regulates where calcium is deposited in our bodies).

 

I would very much appreciate if you could tell me your opinion on these ingredients when you have enough time. Every time I research the Internet on health-related topics, it becomes frustrating & oftentimes depressing to learn that our food/water/supplement supply is practically all contaminated to one degree or another.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Bryan N.

Not long after reading the above, I received the following email with the all too familiar suggestion that Monsanto must be paying me.  Damn I am still waiting for that big paycheck!

Sorry for bothering you earlier, Julee, about my question of GM ingredients in my supplements. I just read a recent blog where you’ve done a 180 on GMOs, now in favor of them.

Dunno what you researched, whom you talked with, but you’re the first person (in my experience, anyway) that’s flipped in that direction. Some of your quotes (Konnikova) & conclusions (emotionally-driven fear) are waaay out there in left field. GMOs are proven to be unhealthy in every sense and anyone who says otherwise is one of the following:

 

A) a corporate shill seeking approval from those who trend our society;

 

B) a futurist who likes the idea of RFID chips & nano-inspired Morgellons disease, turning the human species into a bunch of mindless trans-humanist cyborgs.

 

C)  one who is lacking long-term insight (or compassion) into where this road leads, for both the human species & nature.

 

What’s going on, Julee? It’s hard to fathom that anyone not associated with Monsanto could come to this conclusion. Not here to be angry with you, just express my disappointment that a bright woman like yourself can take this position. Sterility, carcinogens, you name it. You don’t mind your children eating this stuff?? For Christ sake, even Monsanto doesn’t allow their employees to eat GMO foods at their corporate headquarters and both the royal family and US President’s family doesn’t eat this stuff, having their own organic gardens instead. GMOs are so damn healthy for us that Monsanto has to keep changing the names of the ingredients; also spending millions recently on focus groups in CA to see how to run their  TV ads & influence voters to defeat legislation that would require labeling on all GMOs.

 

But it’s okay for us non-elites, though, because it will evolve us, no doubt …right into a rigid matrix where individuality is scraped & everyone is plugged into the general singular consciousness (trans-humanism). Is that what you want for humanity, Julee? You wouldn’t mind your grandchildren being a homogenized vessel to serve the State? No thanks. God willing, (oops, I said God, how about Higher Consciousness?) naturalists and other emotionally-driven people like myself branch off & form another separate reality from the one you want: a mechanized, homogenized, empty, nature-less, sterile reality. Will keep my fingers crossed on that one.

Whatever, Julee, just as long as you formed this opinion yourself & not for monetary gain. At least I could respect the former even if I vehemently disagreed with it.

This just makes me feel sad and kind of lonely out here on this island of change all by myself.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the the anti-GMO activists are barking up the wrong tree.   There are much MUCH worse things out there than GMOs.  Here is a post I wrote awhile back about one such threat that goes largely unnoticed:  PBDE Flame Retardants Proven Dangerous But Activists Focus Only On GMOs.  Why?

Anyway, back to the email topic…  If you’re curious, this was Sleuth4Health’s response:

I ask only one thing.  Please supply evidence to back up all that you are saying.  I used to believe as you do but I researched.  I did real in depth research and talked to real experts.  I did research that is not just one google click after typing in “GMOs”.  Please supply me with peer reviewed scientific evidence that has appeared in a well respected journal, a journal that is taken seriously, that proves GMOs have caused harm to people.  The truth is, there is no such evidence.  That is why I changed my mind.

The following is an update to my original post and is the response, followed by my response.

Real in-depth, peer-reviewed research? What, from pseudo-scientific hacks designed to support this industry? Come on, Julie, don’t be naive. The research is frickin’ EVERYWHERE. You talked in one of your blogs about being fluid with your perceptions, but it sounds like you’re as entrenched in this viewpoint as a dem or repub is in his/her respective ideology. 

 

You’ve obviously mainstreamed your opinions with that of corporations like Dupont & Monsanto, even mainstream news supports your viewpoints. Of course you’ll find “real in-depth, peer-reviewed research” as a result. Goodness, snap out of it, Julie.

 

Don’t want to get in a pissing contest with you so I won’t write anymore. Take Care.

 

My response:

My only response is that it’s sad you only believe anti-GMO activist literature, psuedo-science and conspiracy theorists.  No pissing contest necessary. https://sleuth4health.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/is-gm-food-safe-experts-around-the-globe-answer/

Julee K/Sleuth4Health

email:  Sleuth4health@gmail.com

this article updated 8/24 10:12 AM PST