Our Real Healthcare Crisis: The Devastating Domino Effect of GMO “Foods” (And What You Can Do About It)

By  Jack Adam Weber

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Dear WUW Readers,

GMO stands for “Genetically Modified Organism.” A GMO is a plant or animal genetically modified through the addition of a small amount of genetic material from other organisms by inserting DNA (in genes) from one organism to another. “GM foods,” or “GMO foods,” are foods with GMO ingredients. GMO food crops have been given genetic traits to provide protection from pests and tolerance to herbicides.

For simplicity, GMO food crops fall into two main categories. One is the Roundup Ready GMO group, which consists of plants resistant to the herbicide Roundup. Current Roundup Ready crops include, soy, corn, sorghum, canola, alfalfa, and cotton, with wheat now under development.  The second group is the Bt-toxin group, which consists of plants genetically modified to produce a pesticide, called Bt-toxin.

Bt-toxin is a concentrated from of naturally occurring pesticide produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium. Bt-toxin is also used in organic farming and gardening, but the Bt-toxin engineered by Monsanto is thousands times more powerful and a genetically modified variation of the naturally occurring one produced by Bacillus thuringiensis. Current Bt-toxin GM crops include cotton, corn, sweet corn, and potatoes.

Here is a sampling of information I gleaned from the articles and video linked below:

1)   Growing research has linked GMO foods to cancer, degenerative disease and birth defects, among other degenerative disorders such as arthritis and autoimmune disorders.

2)   175 million acres of farmland in the US are now planted with GMO crops. Yikes!

3)   One human study found its subjects to have Round Up Ready bacterial flora. The Round Up Ready-resistant gene spliced into GMO plants had transferred into the DNA of bacteria living inside their intestines—from eating even just one meal of GMO foods, such as GMO soybeans, at some time in their life. This means that we could have dangerous GM proteins being produced inside us for years to come, even after we stop consuming GMO foods. Read more here:  http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/1412

4)   It is possible that the Bt-toxin gene could also transfer to our bacterial flora, thereby converting our otherwise beneficial flora into “living pesticide factories.”

5)   Monsanto and other biotech companies have bought out US Congress and Federal regulatory agencies with campaign contributions and lobby donations, essentially forcing their lethal GMO products onto America, despite the fact that polls show that 85-95% of American consumers want mandatory labels on genetically engineered foods.

6)   If a food label lists sugar as an ingredient and it doesn’t say it’s solely from cane, then it’s possible that some of the sugar comes from GMO sugar beets.

7)   From a trip to India, Jeffrey Smith reports, “I visited one village where for seven to eight years they allowed their buffalo to graze on natural cotton plants without incident. But on January 3rd, 2008, they allowed their 13 buffalo to graze on Bt (GMO cotton, my insert) cotton plants for the first time. After just one day’s exposure, all died. The village also lost 26 goats and sheep.”

Time is of the essence to join forces to destabilize the GMO food industry by what the author and founder of the Organic Consumers Association is calling the “Achilles heel of the Goliath biotech companies,” companies such as Monsanto that are poisoning you, your family and generations to come in ways that you likely would never have imagined possible.

Read the full article here:  http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23693.cfm

As a holistic physician, I experience the onslaught of nature and the devitalizing consequences on the foundational structures (air, water, soil, food quality) that support our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as the major, most urgent (an insane) healthcare issues of our times. Holistic medicine was founded on the cycles and wild wisdom of nature. When nature fails, or in this case collapses, holistic healthcare collapses with it.

As health-conscious citizens most of us focus on personal health care and holistic lifestyle routines. While many spiritual aspirants are busy spinning bliss bubbles, the monolithic mega-corporations—such as Monsanto and their GMO brigade—are undermining the very foundation of health and vitality of our entire planet. Read more about this here.

Without the structures that support our basic health, the beneficial effects of our personal wellness practices are diminished and may one day become relatively meaningless in the face of further environmental collapse. At the same time, whatever we can do to maintain our health from the inside out is and will become increasingly important as our exterior sources of nourishment and security decline.

If we practice and advocate yoga, meditation, organic gardening, and holistic medicine, we must now become environmental activists in every way we can in order to truly support the essence of these practices. Our healthcare “practice” must now extend—as it never has before—to becoming passionate advocates and active supporters of natural health in the body of nature itself: our living Earth.

It is no longer enough that we simply live our “conscious & healthy” lives, work our human-oriented healing modality of choice, and call this our contribution to a better world. Each of us needs to begin, or continue, to educate ourselves and our loved ones about the current environmental realities. If we want to save humanity and build a viable future each of us now has to invest time, energy, resources, and conscious effort into environmental protection.

It may not seem “fair” to have to clean up the mess that we and the biotech world have spilled onto the Earth, but it is what we need to do.

This means making an effort every chance you get to bring environmental awareness to anyone you interact with. It means acting to protect the land that you love.  It means making convenience sacrifices to support responsible businesses and not to support irresponsible and dirty corporations with your dollar votes (purchases).

Learn which foods have GMO’s in them (you will be amazed at the pervasive use of GMO’s in common foods; a link to a non-GMO shopping guide is linked in the responsible technology article mentioned above) and do not buy them! Pick up a copy of pocket sized The Better World Handbook: Small Changes That Make a Big Difference to learn who the corporate angels and villains are.

If you don’t have time for this, you will likely soon be forced to make time for it. Our world is changing quickly and menacingly. At the same time, the crisis is bringing out our most compassionate, passionate, unified qualities. Let’s maximize the positive gains and bolster our solidarity and care for one another, the plants and animals and fragile ecosytems of this Earth, which in reality is our heaven.

Begin to minimize your life. Cut out non-essentials of all kinds in order to free up resources, time, and energy for the pro-active and preventive measures you can take to save our beloved planet and your loved ones. For starters, plant a garden and begin to sign all the petitions you can to support the brave groups out there fighting for sanity. I could bombard you with names and web-links but I won’t. There is enough information here and in the links above to get you fired up for a long time.

And just in case you are still lukewarm about GMO’s, did you know that Obama, Inc. now supports the planting of more than 50 national wildlife refuges in the USA with GMO crops in order to provide edible ground cover (such as Monsanto Round Up Ready soy & corn) to wildlife there? Gee, ya think he might be getting some kickback from the Monster Santo?

http://www.truth-out.org/emails-show-white-house-promotes-ge-crops-wildlife-refuges/1311621066

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION FAR AND WIDE. IF YOU DO ONLY ONE THING, PLEASE SIGN ON TO THE CAMPAIGN TO DESTABILIZE MONSANTO WHICH AT THE SAME BOLSTERS NATURAL FARMING METHODS.

http://www.millionsagainstmonsanto.org

Add to this the ongoing threats of radiation poisoning and Big Oil spills and the obvious is even clearer: it’s time to join forces and raise some Cain, just as we are doing on Wall Street and all over the world today. Let’s continue to join together and begin this still peaceful yet fierce grass roots revolution in earnest. We must do this for our very lives. Put down the mug of New-Age ale, shake off the spiritual delirium, and get your earth-scrubs on!

The Nourish Practice

Jack Adam Weber’s “The Nourish Practice”  is an easy, guided meditation-Qi Gong practice in radical gratitude and self-love. It is an Earth-based, body-centered practice — at once physiological and mythological — that is deeply relaxing and replenishing, especially for modern-day burn-out syndrome, and requires little physical effort.

The Nourish Practice  “resets your nervous system” and fosters a rich inner life. You  can  purchase The Nourish Practice as a CD or Digital Download here.

Previous  articles by Jack Adam Weber:

• Relationships: The Costs of Staying When We Should Leave
• Sex, Love and Attachment
• Emotional Work
• Choosing a Partner – How to Avoid Relationship Suicide
• Re-Thinking Love: Why Our Hearts Must Also Be Minded
• Spirituality – Reality Check
• 11 Crucial Tips for Better Digestive Health
• Shadow Work: Becoming a Sustainable Light Worker (Part 1)
• Oneness in Action: The GMO Eradication Movement
• After the Hurricane: Lessons from the Heart of Nature
• Relationships: How They Can Make Us Happier
• Heartbreak – Loving Ourselves Through Difficult Times

About the author:

Jack Adam Weber, L.Ac. is a Chinese medicine physician, author, celebrated poet, organic farmer, and activist for body-centered spirituality. His books, artwork, and provocative poems can be found at his website PoeticHealing.com. He is also the creator of The Nourish Practice, an Earth-based rejuvenation meditation. Weber is available by phone for medical consultations and life-coaching.

You can connect with Jack Adam Weber on Facebook or by emailing [email protected].