If GMOs are not safe, as the Americans never eat them for ten years without any problems?

What is Monsanto?

Monsanto is a part of the industry that has built its business success on the chemistry today 'enhanced' thanks to biotechnology, which of course is presented as an environmentally friendly technologies and able to alleviate the negative impacts of pesticides. Monsanto is the multinational company became famous for having produced Agent Orange, the toxic and carcinogenic defoliant used in the Vietnam War; subsequently focused on PCBs, organochlorine compounds more dangerous harmful DDT now banned almost everywhere, but that will continue for thousands of years to pollute rivers and seas, because of their persistence. The big business of Monsanto is now the biotechnology, for which he has sustained large financial investments related to the acquisition of several companies such as research or that patent holders should in the short term to ensure the compensation of committed capital to avoid bankruptcy. A bet that explains the arrogance that characterizes this multinational in supporting the promotion of GM crops. The process of oligopolistic concentration of the biotechnology industry affects other corporations involved in mergers between giant or absorption of small business research. The control in a few hands of biotechnological patents and seeds derived therefrom, seriously jeopardizes quell'agricoltura plural, sustainable and 'bio-different' which still occupies 50% of the world's labor force, for which access to land and genetic resources is literally a source of survival. That's why Monsanto is brought, for example, a commercial policy is sensitive to the sun logic of the market and indifferent to the many negative consequences of environmental and socio-economic development.

But when it comes to GMOs because we talk so much soy and corn?

About 60% of the processed products on the shelves of our supermarkets contain at least one ingredient originated from one of these two crops. These are plants that give a product and the seed for agricultural uses as there are also other parts of the plant, it is extremely flexible and versatile, able to give rise to numerous applications in the food industry is that animal feed. These virtues also make corn and soy particularly suited to international trade and you can tell that they play a role as a pathfinder for the globalization of agriculture, still being far away by the massive flows of import / export of food limited at around 10% of production agricultural world.

What are the characteristics of soy?

The soybean is colloquially called a proteoleaginosa because its seed is rich in both fat protein; the initial extraction of oily substances used primarily in food leaves a human byproduct particularly rich in protein highly sought after for feeding livestock. Unlike the corn, the distinction between food and feed is less important for soybeans, for which both the flour that the oil coming from the same process. From this it is clear that if the entire market of soybean oil is an orientation to the exclusion of GMOs, you would get the same result for the soy flour (made from the same plant non-GMO). One such choice is however limited by the fact that the oil - in particular when subjected to refining processes intense - contains neither protein nor DNA (both instead present in the flour). It is therefore impossible to know whether an oil derived from a GM source, unless you monitor the supply chain in its entirety through a proper system of traceability.

In what foods is soy?

The soybean is located in a large amount of processed foods because its derivatives are commonly used in the form of flour, oil and lecithin. Lecithin is an emulsifier sourced almost exclusively from soybeans, while the words "vegetable fats" or "hydrogenated vegetable fat" is in about 80% of cases with soybean oil.

What are the characteristics of the corn?

Maize is an important source of animal feed given to cattle is 'such and such' and after a process of transformation. With regard to other modes of use, the corn interesting the food industry for many consumer products, in the form of a sweetener (such as corn syrup, high-fructose) or starch, or as a source of ethanol (used in the production of beverages as well as the mechanical engineering). A by-product of many of the processes mentioned is the corn gluten used as a food of the animals bred.

I've heard of "Bt corn". What's this?

The Bt corn is a genetically modified product Ciba Geigy, which contains a gene for the production of the Bt toxin of Bacillus thuringiensis insecticide action, mainly against the larvae of Lepidoptera (butterflies). This corn was also engineered by incorporating a factor for resistance to Basta (a herbicide of Hoechst, affiliated to Ciba), and a gene for resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin as a marker.

Why Bt crops pose a danger to organic farming?

The Bacillus thuringiensis even before they find use in transgenic crops was an effective and 'ecological' natural insecticide often used in organic farming, spreading the spores of the bacterium. When the spore is engulfed by a larva it is activated in the stomach and produces a toxin that kills normally. The Bt plants, however, consistently produce the toxin, with three main consequences: 1. Pests that begin to attack the corn does not always die, in which case you may be able to move to a neighboring field exerting the parasitic activity; 2. Pass the toxin to the soil through the roots or the burying of stubble, which is characterized by a remarkable persistence and for many soil organisms harmful to profits; 3. The spread of the toxin on a large scale increases the probability of occurrence of forms of resistance by the target insect populations, triggering a selection process that favors the resistant insects. The progressive acquisition of resistance makes fatally ineffective application of Bt, as well as in engineered crops, including by organic farmers for whom the Bacillus thuringiensis is one of not many viable solutions to contain the parasitic attacks.

GMO foods are among the most controlled, such as drugs?

The process leading to the issuance of permits marketing of new drugs involves a first phase of the study followed by laboratory testing on humans that is normally divided into three phases, each of which can last up to four years. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to escape damage appraisal and it is necessary to withdraw the drugs even some years after their marketing. Even for some food additives manufacturers are required to submit the results of research conducted that can last for years. For the approval of GMOs in food, on the contrary, recourse was made to a pseudo-scientific concept, the substantial equivalence. The argument is that by changing small portions of DNA characteristics of the organism, however, would not be different from those of non-manipulated organisms. In fact, toxicological studies on animals fed Roundup Ready Soy resistant to the herbicide (both seed and herbicide produced by Monsanto), show significant differences in the biochemical composition such as to lead to delays in growth and alterations of pancreatic cells. The lack of an effective traceability process from farm to plate of transgenic crops prevents Finally, any inspection. For this is pure demagoguery to say that GMOs are controlled as drugs.

If GMOs are not safe, as the Americans never eat them for ten years without any problems?

In the U.S., GM foods are far more numerous than those in the old continent and are in the market for over a decade, without the U.S. consumer has been granted the right to know what they fed through appropriate labeling of products. For this reason, it is virtually impossible to know who consume genetically modified foods, what kind, how much and for how long, all essential information in order to properly assess the possible health effects induced by the consumption of GM foods. What makes it impracticable an accurate assessment of the health impacts of GMOs is the fact that the entire population is equally exposed, preventing any analysis of epidemiological type to which it is necessary to compare data of the population exposed to the agent that you want to study, in this case GMOs, with a portion of the population as more similar to the study of the characteristics considered (area of residence, exposure to pollutants, age distribution, behavior and eating habits, lifestyle etc..) is not fed with food transgenics. Only through a study prepared as you possibly can to be able to define the changes induced by the consumption of GMOs in food.

The health impact of GMOs have to be assessed on the basis of long-term studies, contrary to what is required by legislation granting the marketing that is 'satisfied' more limited experimental tests must also be taken into account that more and more scientific evidence correlating the consumption of GMOs and the onset of ipersensibilizzazioni or allergies. These diseases are already in a steep increase in the populations of industrialized countries as a result of immune defenses and exposure to environmental allergens, and is likely to increase and moltipicarsi because of GMOs. So those who argue that we should look to the U.S. for reassurance on the safety of GMOs for health grossly underestimates the complexity of the issue, or deliberately deceive the public.
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