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GMOs are still a controversial issue. Are genetically modified organisms safe in the food supply? Should consumers be worried? The Food and Drug Administration assures they are not. But some consumer groups believe that GMOs should not be freely available in the agricultural sector, the Voice of Russia reports.

The history of GE-GMO is thoroughly explored in the 2007 work by investigative reporter F. William Engdahl, “Seeds of Destruction.” There was nothing accidental about this development. It was driven by the availability of cheap oil, and the desire to control the food supply.

During the 1990s, as food became a focus in the globalizing economy, the very same chemical companies discovered the way to sell more chemicals was in developing patentable seeds, which required use of their proprietary chemicals to poison other plants and insects. Selling chemicals was inextricably tied to the development of patentable seeds.

The seeds and chemicals ensured that farmers and then consumers paid these agri-chem firms twice for the same crop. To mask the deception, the agri-chem companies claimed that the seeds were super-effective, and would be able to feed the hungry world.

Facts show, however, the only goal these wonderful seeds and chemicals pursue is increasing the profits of the agri-chem companies.

On 29 May 1992 the Food and Drug Administration issued a policy statement with no scientific review or background. It was a purely political step to assert “equivalence” between GE-GMO and natural seeds. This political policy set the stage for the next 20 years of worldwide proliferation of, and resistance to, the GE-GMO movement.

On the one hand, the agri-chem companies assert “equivalence” to natural seeds, yet on the other hand they assert patent rights for the “unique differences” from natural seeds.

The first thing one should not forget about the GE-GMO techniques: they are distinctly different from natural plant breeding. GE-GMO forces changes to the genetic structure of plants, while natural plant breeding allows the plants to determine which genetic crosses survive. The GE-GMO process is artificially forced upon nature through complex laboratory procedures, while natural plant breeding works with nature to establish the viability of new plants. Differences between the processes are the source of controversy. Long-term tests produced by independent labs around the world clearly show that GE-GMO changes also bio-accumulate, and result in radical disruptions of plant, animal and eco-biological processes downstream from the initial introduction.

Agri-chem companies have tried to discredit the research, but the public is gradually becoming aware that the impacts are real and growing. It is imperative for all of us in agriculture to separate facts from fantasies, for the betterment of our industry and the world.