Hey Steemians! Here are some photos from the GMO rally in Toronto yesterday.

Guys this is such an important issue and I don’t even know where to begin. Unless we support non-GMO products, farmers and corporations, and vote for elected members of our government who are actually going to ban GMO’s all together, the problem can only get worse. Look at Scotland, their Prime Minister actually banned GMO’s from the country. Pretty amazing! That’s the direction we have to be moving in in Canada and all over.

There are so many ways that GMO ingredients can show up in our food. For starters, most of the grain feed that is given to livestock, and even farmed fish, is largely GMO. There are non-GMO grain alternatives but it is not used as often, as it is more expensive and often difficult for farmers to afford. This is why it is so important to get grass-fed or non-GMO grain fed meat whenever possible.

Then there’s the GMO crops themselves. 88% of corn crops in the U.S are genetically modified. And then this is used in many processed foods and is commonly used in animal feed. Moreover, 93% of soy crops in the U.S. are genetically modified. And this particular product is a staple of processed foods in North America. It shows up on ingredients labels under a number of different names, such as lecithin, hydrogenated oils, tocopherol and emulsifiers.

William Engdahl's book “Seeds of Destruction” is the best overall depiction of the effects of GMO that I have been able to find. One German farmer (the guy Engdahl dedicated the book to) had GMO corn with a bacteria in it meant to kill a bug that was deminishing the amount of corn that would grow on his farm by 20%. He kept a record of exactly what happened to his cornfield and the dairy cows he fed on the field from 1997 to 2001. At first everything went well and there was more corn growing per unit of field. He planted more, and no apparent side effects in the cows. Then in about 1999-2000 he moved the cows over to a 100% GMO corn diet. Well then the problem became apparent. He found blood in the milk, calves dying all over the place and he basically lost all 70 of his cows one way or another.

So this tells us that having partial GMO ingredients in their diet didn't appear to affect them, however when moved over to a 100% diet of GMO they subsequently died. What this says is that there isn't adequate nutrition in these genetically modified crops for the body to survive. And when eating partial amounts of the crops one may not notice the effects, but the lack of nutrition is certainly taking it's toll on the body one away or another. Then with a 100% GMO diet we see the true colours of these crops and their effects on the body -- utter lack of nutrition.

I highly recommend this book by William Engdahl to anyone interested in finding out about GMOs.

Okay so then when trying to reduce the amount of GMO in your food and products it’s important to know that unless a product is certified as non-GMO (“Non-GMO project certification” is the best thing to look for), you can be fairly certain that the soybeans and/or corn used have been genetically modified. Additionally, products marked "USDA Organic" should be non-GMO, but have been found on occasion to contain GMOs.

Here’s a list of some certifications and their meanings:

"Non-GMO project certification" is the best for GMO. This process is the most thorough in certifying the foods are actually non-GMO and a lot of actions are taken to make sure of this, such as monitoring the different stages of the food processing.

"100% Organic" means that the food is made entirely with organic and non-GMO ingredients and processing methods.

"Certified Organic" means that 95% of the ingredients are organic and non-GMO. (You can still find some GMO ingredients with this certification.)

"American Grass-fed Assocation Certification" means that your animals were fed a lifetime diet of 100% forage, they were raised on pasture, not in confinement, and were never treated with hormones or antibiotics (used to increase milk production in dairy cows).

So there's a brief summary of my research into GMOs. Hope you guys find this information useful!

These are all original photos.

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