GMO Bananas and Humans: Untested, Unneeded, and Unwise

Photo credit: bigstock

Photo credit: bigstock

Yep, they’ve gone and done it again. GMO bananas this time with artificially high levels of vitamin A and beta-carotene. On top of that, they are going to start doing human testing this fall, without doing any animal studies first. Not even the typically ridiculous 90 day animal testing, Big Agri is just going all out and testing their frankenfruit on college students attending Iowa State University.

12 female students were selected out of the 500 who responded for volunteers, according to The Des Moines Register. These volunteers will spend four days eating GM bananas in three separate study time periods. Although each subject will receive 900 dollars in compensation, the outcome of this test is entirely up in the air, as these bananas have never been tested before, on animals or humans.

This special kind of stupid project is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These GM bananas are intended to be grown and eaten in poor countries in Africa where there is a severe vitamin A deficiency. The idea that we need a GM banana as a solution for those with vitamin A deficiencies is completely ridiculous when there are plenty of other crops that are high in vitamin A, such as sweet potatoes and mangos, which could be grown in those areas without using dangerous GMO crops. Read more what myths GMO companies want us to believe.

You really have to ask yourself why aren’t these GM foods being tested on animals first? Regulations in Europe demand that any new GM food be tested on animals for a minimum of 90 days, but in the case of bananas, scientists are going directly to human trials.

This is gross negligence on the part of these scientists. GM foods have been shown over and over to have nutrients and pesticides that cause harm to human beings and animals alike. This is reminiscent of the Nazi’s who performed horrific experiments on those in concentration camps. The only difference here is that these students are going willingly.

Scientists were told that bananas that were rich beta carotene already exist in nature. Their reply? The people living in East Africa wouldn’t eat them because they were too sweet. So people aren’t smart enough to eat something that tastes good and can save their lives because it might not be something they are accustomed to? Seriously? They need Bill Gates to save the day with his GMO bananas that can kill most of the African population? What world do these people live in?

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Brown Rice

Photo credit: bigstock

This is the type of crazy thinking that is pushing these scientists to continue to create GM foods that people do not want and do not trust. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper, easier, and safer to simply teach the people in these countries to grow and consume natural foods that are high in vitamin A, such as mangos?

If you remember, more than a decade ago, researchers created GM rice they dubbed “golden rice” that contained high levels of beta carotene for the people of the Philippines. However, this was something that the Philippine people did not want. Activists destroyed a test plot of the rice in their country. Researchers then tried a trial involving feeding this rice to Chinese children. This quickly turned into a huge scandal as Chinese officials stated that they were not told that this was GM rice. In fact, no government on the planet would allow, or has allowed the cultivation of this “golden rice”.

However, even if these trials prove that this banana does indeed raise vitamin A levels in the blood of test subjects, that doesn’t mean that it’s a “green light” for these super bananas. Many practical, as well as regulatory, obstacles would still have to be overcome. First, governments would have to approve it, farmers would have to agree to grow it, and people would have to be convinced that eating this banana was safe.

 

SEE ALSO: If GMO’s are Safe and Healthy then Why Doesn’t Big Agra Want Them Labeled?

Now there has actually already been success in Uganda and Mozambique with a deep orange colored sweet potato that is super packed with vitamin A, far more than what’s in these GM bananas. This crop was quickly planted and needed no prior approval because it was made not by altering the plants genes, but simply by cross breeding several existing varieties. Why isn’t this sweet potato being offered throughout Africa? And why didn’t the Bill Gates foundation consider this option, the cross breeding of different types of bananas, before creating another GM monster food?

It appears that when it comes to money, it outweighs both common sense as well as a concern for the health of the world.

Sources:

Truthwiki.org

Gmwatch.eu

Desmoinesregister.com

Independentsciencenews.org

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3 Comments

  1. daveinks

    Nov 20, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    This article is a special kind of stupid.
    Even MotherJones – hardly a friend to corporate interests of any type states that “GMO’s won’t harm your health”.
    Please list even on corroborated death caused by GMO food and then we can talk. Until then, you’re just another writer trying to drum up page views by attempting to add a little to the uninformed hysteria surrounding this issue by those who don’t know any better.

  2. Ginger p.

    Nov 22, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    Your “share” is a special kind of IGNORANCE. Educate yourself about the TRUTH about GMO’s, then comment. An educational source is: Wheat Belly” tells the story. It’s all being kept “under wraps” ( in other words: we’re being kept IGNORANT for the sake of the almighty $$ — big surprise). 64 other countries who get GMO- tainted foods from the USA require it to be LABELED as such for their customers. That means many 3rd World countries — where do we fit in? Not at the TOP, like were led to believe. Death is not the worse case scenario, all the maladies and on-going SLOW destruction of humanity is what’s at risk. We’ll still be the RICHEST country, but it’s only for the FEW MONEY-MONGERS. The rest will be in ill health and declining over time. Hip hip hooray!

  3. Mary

    Nov 29, 2014 at 5:20 pm

    Students are given 900 dollars for the experiment that may result in a disastrous situation and costing them more than 9000 dollars! in the future. I feel sorry for the naive students.