If you had to name the largest single threat to the environment that you could think of, what would it be? Climate change? Global warming? Deforestation? Overpopulation? Wars? Pollution? A Global Pandemic?

My answer is easy: The single greatest threat to Earth as we know it is the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply. Decimate our food supply, and the rest won’t matter.

But are GMOs really that dangerous?

YES!

And here’s why. GMO crops cross-contaminate. That means that non-GMO corn planted in a field next to genetically engineered (GE) corn will take on the GE characteristics in its next generation.

So if there’s anything –anything — remotely unsafe or undesirable about a GMO crop (like it’s lack of promised yield, for example), it can spread like wildfire through our food supply.

But aren’t GMO crops safe?

After all, if they weren’t safe, they wouldn’t be FDA approved, right? After this year’s peanut debacle, that question is almost laughable. But here’s an answer for you: There has been almost no testing done on the safety of GMOs — none.

They were passed through the FDA by giant agribusiness lobbyists arguing that GMOs aren’t substantially different from their non-GMO counterparts. In other words, it was just an argument. Just words. There weren’t actual clinical trials done on the safety of GMOs.

And the few trials that have been done have shown alarming results — allergies, increased cancer risks, damaged food quality. Many GMOs are created using antibiotic resistant genes, and the British Medical Association cited this as one reason why GMOs should be banned worldwide due to the threat they posed for the future efficacy of antibiotics.

But wait! It get’s worse.

Here in the U.S., GMOs aren’t required to be labeled.

That means that even if you had an allergic reaction to a GMO, you’d have no way of knowing that the GMO crop caused it.  In other words, the public health effects of GMOs are currently untraceable.

It also means that GMOs are in just about everything Americans consume (more than 75% of the food in the average supermarket contains GMOs).

Numerous polls have shown that 9 out of 10 Americans want GMO foods to be labeled, but giant biotech corporations are vehemently opposed to the idea.

Why?

ecause they know that if they were forced to be labeled (as they were in Europe), consumers would stop buying them.  Right now, they’re all pervasive and most people don’t even know they’re eating GMOs. If they saw the GMO ingredients in their tortillas, their cookies, their infant formula, they’d think twice about buying them.

Celebrate Earth Day by joining the No-GMO Challenge!

Today Real Food Media and the Institute for Responsible Technology are launching the No-GMO Challenge. It’s a rolling challenge, which means you can join at any time.

Our goal? To put pressure on food corporations to stop using GMOs in their foods. We believe that if just 5% of the U.S. population consciously started avoiding GMOs, they could be purged from our food supply.

That’s an amazing feat, but it’s totally doable!

The No-GMO challenge will feature contests & prizes, a weekly blog carnival so that bloggers can write about the dangers of GMOs with a united voice, and more!

If you’re interested in joining us, you can find out more information, download a GMO-free shopping guide, and sign up for the challenge here.

This post is part of the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival hosted by Cheeseslave. For more tips, recipes, and stories about Real Food, be sure to check it out!\n

(photo by jimmedia)

Liked what you read? You may find these other posts interesting:

1. GMOs and Pharmaceuticals
2. Bad News For Big Ag — GMO Crops Don’t Increase Yields
3. Vandana Shiva On the Dangers of GMOs
4. PLU Codes Don’t Indicate GMO Produce
5. Are GMOs Safe?