12/26/2010 Documents you should see regarding spread of GMOs to non-GMO life forms. We'll add these articles on the home page, and expanded with comments on their significance here in the page in individual posts. Here is the first one. As sad as this is, keep in mind we may blow out the fuse as easily as having 5% of people refusing to eating any. You are our hope, so you must keep hope.
GMO genes spread into fungus (that means everywhere....) You know that our concern has always been that GMOs will spread like lightning once they go from plant to microorganism back to plant. Forget about crop contamination- we'd be dealing with losing the ecosystem that makes human life, and all precious life possible because its all replaced with this unstable dangerous material. We've talked about horizontal gene transfer (GMO genes getting into different non-GMO life forms) but focused on plant>bacteria>new plant. The fungi have microorganism members too. Some folks know this from education or permaculture work, etc. but most people don't realize just how ubiquitous and vital fungi are in the environment. Fungus is everywhere. Mycorrhizae are interconnected with nearly all plants roots. Its thought they actually helped plants first move from sea to land by aiding the plant in obtaining water. Think of fungus as you would bacteria, air or water contamination. Note: if you see only the abstract or a summary for any links, I can not publish the article but I can legally make personal arrangements to show you full text in a way that is never distributed. Please email us for these or any full article you want to see.
And if you hear anyone say the genes won't spread unless they occasionally confer an advantage, meaning natural selection will take care of the problem so who cares, here is why that is wrong: The genes can be thought of as a virus and the life form merely a host. All they have to do is survive long enough to spread into a new plant.
GMO genes spread into fungus (that means everywhere....) You know that our concern has always been that GMOs will spread like lightning once they go from plant to microorganism back to plant. Forget about crop contamination- we'd be dealing with losing the ecosystem that makes human life, and all precious life possible because its all replaced with this unstable dangerous material. We've talked about horizontal gene transfer (GMO genes getting into different non-GMO life forms) but focused on plant>bacteria>new plant. The fungi have microorganism members too. Some folks know this from education or permaculture work, etc. but most people don't realize just how ubiquitous and vital fungi are in the environment. Fungus is everywhere. Mycorrhizae are interconnected with nearly all plants roots. Its thought they actually helped plants first move from sea to land by aiding the plant in obtaining water. Think of fungus as you would bacteria, air or water contamination. Note: if you see only the abstract or a summary for any links, I can not publish the article but I can legally make personal arrangements to show you full text in a way that is never distributed. Please email us for these or any full article you want to see.
And if you hear anyone say the genes won't spread unless they occasionally confer an advantage, meaning natural selection will take care of the problem so who cares, here is why that is wrong: The genes can be thought of as a virus and the life form merely a host. All they have to do is survive long enough to spread into a new plant.
That whole patch of host plants can die for all this independent pseudo-organism (the string of GMO genes) cares- it is still surviving. GMO genes are going to transcend what we thought of as fitness- they are a fundamentally new kind of life. Don't be confused thinking of the host's survival. If the genes survive in it and spread, this pseudo-organism or viral entity that the GMO DNA is, has successfully reproduced and the life cycle is complete. People joke about the Darwin awards- where people do such idiotic things they get killed so they don't pass on their bad genes- nature is taking care of itself. But when I read them I always think, yes but did they breed first? That's the question- did some DNA replicate and move to a new host before it killed the infected plant? My idea that this DNA behaves like, and is by nature, a new kind of virus is something I talk about on the Mission page as the motivation. This is why stopping this is a planet life-and-death matter.
The bottom line: while research is being kept under wraps so GMOs appear safe to the public, they are replacing normal plants- erasing the natural genetic information of life with the escaped experimental gene-contaminated life. That means whatever we find the GMOs do, they'll do to all life on the planet. "GMOs are against my religion" is a legitimate dogma if you focus on the fact that they attack life through this contamination as some of us do. The good news is that if you stop eating it, they'll stop growing it, the money will stop pushing it, the truth can then come out and we can start trying to save our planet in a worldwide effort. We are close to this "Tipping Point" in the public opinion as Jeffrey Smith calls it. If GMOs are recognized as UNsafe by the public, we're half-way to a cure. It is possible we could find something to inoculate life against these genes one day. But the scientists are barely even looking at this as something to investigate. Even the ones finding evidence are trying to be fashionable by talking about why its no big deal. We, the human race, have changed the genetic information that makes life what it is- over the face of our entire world with the most alien thing life has ever seen- and most of it in the last decade. It seems a lot of scientists have their own bestselling books painted on the inside of their glasses when they should be taking a look at what is going on now.
Meanwhile, we have to save our seeds. Seed banks exist, and we need to keep the dirty paws out of them. We may have to literally replant the Earth. The sad thing is, once you change an ecosystem, you can't just bring plants and animals that were native back all the time. There is no Noah's Ark solution for extinctions quite often. We have to start the recovery now- and that won't happen until the companies aren't making a ton of money and able to control all the forces that would be turning people away from GMOs and toward sustainable food sources. If they can't keep their grip, the world will leave GMOs behind- and they're starting to shake so we have to keep the pressure on.
So ... if you refuse to eat them, you might just save our future....
More on that tomorrow.
The bottom line: while research is being kept under wraps so GMOs appear safe to the public, they are replacing normal plants- erasing the natural genetic information of life with the escaped experimental gene-contaminated life. That means whatever we find the GMOs do, they'll do to all life on the planet. "GMOs are against my religion" is a legitimate dogma if you focus on the fact that they attack life through this contamination as some of us do. The good news is that if you stop eating it, they'll stop growing it, the money will stop pushing it, the truth can then come out and we can start trying to save our planet in a worldwide effort. We are close to this "Tipping Point" in the public opinion as Jeffrey Smith calls it. If GMOs are recognized as UNsafe by the public, we're half-way to a cure. It is possible we could find something to inoculate life against these genes one day. But the scientists are barely even looking at this as something to investigate. Even the ones finding evidence are trying to be fashionable by talking about why its no big deal. We, the human race, have changed the genetic information that makes life what it is- over the face of our entire world with the most alien thing life has ever seen- and most of it in the last decade. It seems a lot of scientists have their own bestselling books painted on the inside of their glasses when they should be taking a look at what is going on now.
Meanwhile, we have to save our seeds. Seed banks exist, and we need to keep the dirty paws out of them. We may have to literally replant the Earth. The sad thing is, once you change an ecosystem, you can't just bring plants and animals that were native back all the time. There is no Noah's Ark solution for extinctions quite often. We have to start the recovery now- and that won't happen until the companies aren't making a ton of money and able to control all the forces that would be turning people away from GMOs and toward sustainable food sources. If they can't keep their grip, the world will leave GMOs behind- and they're starting to shake so we have to keep the pressure on.
So ... if you refuse to eat them, you might just save our future....
More on that tomorrow.