Has anyone else paid attention to the fact that there is such thing as chemically and genetically-altered food?
It still blows my mind after researching this for years. We literally have two kinds of food; natural and unnatural. Why would this be, and how did this happen?
"The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison" - Ann Wigmore
This might be one of the most fundamentally important topics to understand when it comes to our overall well-being. The entire animal kingdom, including humans, require quality nutrients from the food they eat to survive and thrive. Once upon a time organic food was all that existed. There was only one agricultural standard when it came to growing food. Everything about our existence on this planet is intended to follow the laws of nature, and deviating from this can prove to be quite damaging long-term. If we truly look around, we can see it for ourselves. Illness has sky-rocketed globally like never before. Children are sicker than ever, premature-aging has become the norm, and infertility is increasingly prevalent. Never mind the exploding numbers of illnesses like cancer and diabetes.
For years we have been increasingly moving towards an unnatural world. Our diets, lifestyles and elevated exposure to toxins, all play an enormous role in the degradation of our health. We seem to have forgotten how life once was, and how humans did in fact once live according to nature.
If we just focus on the current agricultural system, we could see there have been monumental changes in the way we grow food. There now exists two types of food; organic and non-organic, and can lead any of us to sit back and wonder why that is. What exactly does "Organic" mean? Organic refers to food grown without any modifications to the seeds, without the use of chemical pesticides and in a way that respects the laws of nature. To grow crops in a way that is sustainable to the earth and ensures the soil's integrity as well as the nutritional value of the food itself, there is a method to follow. Rotating crops is an essential part of this process.
Different plants soak up different quantities of nutrients from the soil and rotating them avoids complete mineral depletion. The decomposition of organic material is a healthy way to replenish the soil nutritionally each year, ensuring a quality end product onwards.
The result is nutritious food grown completely naturally and with no foreign materials or chemicals. For centuries this was the way it was done, until the introduction of genetic modification, mono-cropping and the widespread use of chemical pesticides.
Consuming non-organic food can not only result in malnourishment, but can burden our bodies with countless chemicals quite damaging to our health. If chemical pesticides are designed to kill microorganisms on our food, what are they doing to our own internal colony of beneficial microorganisms once we eat them?
"There will come a time when only those who know how to plant, will be eating" - Chief Oren Lyons
In the early 1970's, two scientists successfully engineered the first genetically modified organism (GMO); a process of altering the genetic makeup (DNA) of one organism and inserting it into another. They injected foreign genetic material into a mouse and created the first ever genetically modified animal.
By the early 1990's, this technology was used in the commercial production of food on a mass scale. This genetic manipulation changes the characteristics of crops by changing their appearance; size, texture, color and taste. This process also causes them to preserve longer without spoiling; something quite questionable as oxidation is a natural occurrence and should always be. Genetically modifying crops followed a similar existing concept, known as hybridization. A method of manipulation where plants from the same family or of similar genetic structure, are cross-bred to produce different traits. This results in different colored crops, ones with less seeds or that are much sweeter in taste.
However, genetic engineering differs from this in that it takes genes from completely different species that are then altered, and combines them with plants they would otherwise never come into contact with in nature. This complete manipulation destroys the natural integrity of the crops. This inadvertently defies the laws of nature, and in my opinion, is something incredibly concerning. Using chemical fertilizers made with synthetic nutrients and spraying pesticides all over our crops, nutritionally depletes our soils and the quality of our food. When crops are doused in chemicals, the full absorption of the sun's vital energy can be interrupted. This can result in an end product that is less nutritious.
As with all living things, the sun's energy plays an essential role in ensuring proper growth and development. Our food is no different. Over time chemical fertilizers and pesticides can sterilize the soil, which creates a perpetual need for new agricultural lots.
We can see this by the rate in which we are ravaging through land, and cutting down trees to make more fields for growing food. If our methods were sustainable, would we need to be doing this? And if they are not, why are we continuing to allow this modification of one of the most essential sources for our survival and vitality? The significance of our relationship with nature in all that we do, may be one of the most underestimated connections of our modern era. Ultimately, I found myself asking what this new modern farming practice means for us all moving forward... How is this affecting each of us as individuals? How is this affecting the planet at large? How much does consuming genetically-altered food negatively impact our health? And most importantly, have there been any conclusive long-term health studies proving genetic engineering is safe, and why have we diverted from natural growing practices and accepted consuming unnatural food as the norm?
Well, for starters, I think it is clear how this is affecting us all individually and our health. We have more overall illness, obesity, allergies and auto-immune diseases than ever before seen, since the wide-spread use of genetically-modified organisms in our food over the last 3 decades.
When our food is such a huge part of what gives us vital energy and is a primary source of nourishment for our organs and bodies to function properly, how could eating nutrient-depleted and genetically-altered crops laced with chemicals, not result in monumental health issues in the short and long-term?
We don't need to be scientists to look around and connect the dots that eating unnatural, adulterated food for decades has been causing a massive degradation in the health of humans everywhere.
As for the planet, how could mono-cropping practices, chemical fertilizer run-off into our waters and the excessive annihilation of oxygenating trees, not damage our planet?
When crops are not rotated properly, the soil on which they grow gets depleted of vital nutrients resulting in food with far less nutritional value, until the soil is depleted completely. Without enough nutrients in our soil, food can not grow. This is a massive concern.
All of the carcinogenic pesticides used on our crops like Round-Up and Glyphosate (incredibly toxic stuff), not only completely destroy our cellular health, but also destroy the nutrients in the soil. Furthermore, all of the run-off of these chemicals into our ground water are polluting our water supply and the delicate eco-system of our oceans and sea life.
Constantly cutting down trees to make new lots to grow food because the use of modern practices are resulting in the permanent damage of our soils, is worrisome to say the least. We need trees to oxygenate this planet and all life that exists here, and we also need to ensure we are always able to grow food for our very survival.
As for whether there are long-term studies on genetic engineering, there are not. We, the humans, are actually the study, the experiment and guinea pigs that will prove just how much long-term damage it causes. Judging for ourselves by what we see so far, there are already clearly long-term health ramifications to consuming genetically-engineered food for 30 years.
We have been told that this was all necessary because we are over-populated and it is the only way to ensure we feed the whole world. That slowly feeding humans poison is the only way to ensure their survival... because that makes sense! Yet many countries around the world are still living in starvation.
It is these very practices that will not only destroy our health but our ability to continue growing food at all and survive on this planet!
We have more than enough ability to feed everyone growing food naturally, as we always did, without over-consumption. The same way that we are not over-populated, as there are uninhabited places all over this earth.
The issue is not lack of enough food or too many people as we've been told, the problem was the creation of this materialistic over-consumerist system that caused this kind of negative ecological footprint that monopolies are continuously trying to propagate.
There is an offal lot of money to be made by convincing the population we need all these toxic practices to "sustain" ourselves, after all.
The choices we, the people, make everyday when it comes to food, lifestyle, work, materials, technology and medicine, all dictate the chain of supply and demand. What we continue to demand, industries will continue to supply, so all of our lifestyle choices become incredibly important in effectuating a positive change back to a more natural existence.
I truly feel it's time to realize just how pressing it is that we move back towards a more natural way of living. If we continue to follow the current methods in place, we could permanently destroy our earth's ability to sustain us. Is this really a risk any of us are willing to take?
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