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GMOs: more facts to consider

Editor: Reading the health article In Consideration of GMOs, (Coast Reporter, Jan. 31), I wish I could agree that all GMOs are benign.

Editor:

Reading the health article In Consideration of GMOs, (Coast Reporter, Jan. 31), I wish I could agree that all GMOs are benign. It's worth noting that large-scale farms use GMO corn to fatten up cattle, leading to higher incidences of E-coli and runoff that was linked to contaminated organic produce.

Farmers have been adapting plants and cross breeding them long back into history. Now there are more sinister GMOs. Their safety has not been proven, and we are the guinea pigs.

GMO crops are designed to withstand chemicals, and as the bugs and infections are becoming more resistant, the amount of pesticides and herbicides have to be increased. This government-subsidized farming is unsustainable and extremely destructive to the environment and to human health. These chemicals get into our water and the oceans, affect bee populations and make the soil infertile and toxic, amongst many other detrimental effects. However, there are large profits for the company that owns the patented GMO seeds and the chemicals, which are increasingly needed in higher doses.

Canadian people deserve chemical-free food and water. Like the rest of the developed world, we deserve to know if our food is GMO.

We are facing a tipping point for our environment, and it is not in anyone's interest to spread fear about organic food or lull people into trusting laboratory created crops which have not been proven to be safe for us to eat.

Sophie Smith, Halfmoon Bay