- Genetically modified foods have never been subjected to any safety testing because of the current FDA policy
- The Food Safety Working Group appointed by President Obama needs to revise and update the genetically modified foods policy to protect the safety of the population
- The White House is only allowed to serve organic foods, to prevent the chance of any genetically modified foods being consumed, and the cafeteria at Monsanto will not serve foods the company engineered to employees
President Obama has unveiled a new program, called the Food Safety Working Group, and this group is aimed at making the food supply safer, and with fewer recalls. The problem is that if the program is successful it may protect thousands of individuals at the expense of the safety of millions of individuals. In the last ten years the number of food related ailments has seen a rapid growth that is frightening. These ailments include allergies, infertility, learning disabilities, asthma, autism, and many more. The cause of this growth may be due to many causes, but one of the biggest dangers in the past decade to food safety has been allowing genetically modified foods to be introduced into the main food supply, with no labeling or safety data available. This fact has been shown by the increase of chronic ailments that are experienced after these genetically modified foods were first introduced. Before these spliced foods, chronic ailments were present in just seven percent of the population, but since these foods were made available to the public the percentage of chronic ailments has almost doubled in the population, up to around thirteen percent.
One of the biggest dangers of genetically modified foods is the current food policy in place by the United States government. The Food and Drug Administration policy states that no safety studies are needed on these foods, due to the fact that organisms which are genetically modified, also called GMOs, are substantially equivalent to foods that are natural. Even the president has acknowledged that food safety laws in this country are not current and do not go far enough to protect the American public, and this policy just highlights the fact. In this case science shows that these foods are not the equivalent, and should be forced to undergo safety studies, labeling, and packaging requirements, but government policy takes the opposite view. When the food policy for genetically modified foods was first implemented, in May of the year 1992, it was not strong enough even then. A lawsuit which revealed documents from the FDA during this time frame show that a number of scientists at the agency wanted to give the public a strong warning that these foods can cause health problems, including many which are serious. This did not happen, thanks to pressure on the FDA from the White House at the time to hurry the approval for these foods up. It is also no coincidence that the person behind FDA policy at the time happened to be a former lawyer for Monsanto, a giant biotech company. This person went on afterwards to become the vice president of this company, and politics and corporate greed trumped over science and food safety.
Since GM foods have been fed to animals, both in laboratories and on farms across the globe, these same animals have shown signs of a number of diseases that are also affecting the US population. This is a big reason for the Food Safety Team chosen by the president, and Dr. Margaret Hamburg who is the FDA Commissioner, to revise the genetically modified food policy. It needs to be updated, with a complete ban of the current crops that are genetically modified until safety studies can be done to evaluate the safety of these foods to the population. Mandatory labeling must also be required once these altered foods are deemed safe, and President Obama promised this during the election campaign, so that consumers can make the choice.
The first family does not take a risk of consuming genetically modified foods, and they do this by insisting on organic foods only as the policy. The feeling is so strong that First Lady Michelle Obama will be planting an organic garden on the grounds of the White House, and even Laura Bush insisted on organic only foods but never advertised the fact. Employees at biotech leader Monsanto may also be adamant on not consuming the foods that the company produces, with the company cafeteria refusing to serve any genetically modified foods and some employees insisting on the use of only organic milk for their families. Milk is an issue with employees because of the genetically engineered bovine growth hormone the company has created and injected into cows. The time has come to merge science with the national food safety policy, and eliminate all genetically modified foods from the food supply to allow further safety testing. If it is not safe for presidents and employees of companies that create these dangerous foods, then it is not safe for the general public either, and the experimentation with Americans and the global population must end.
