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More Reasons to Stop Consuming GMOs
Earlier this summer, Monsanto was ordered to pay over $250 million in damages to a groundskeeper who developed terminal cancer. He used Roundup weed killer an estimated 30 times a year, and the defense team was able to prove that his cancer was not just linked to its use but could have also been prevented if Monsanto had proper warnings on the product label (Robbins, 2018).
Why does this matter and what does it have to do with consuming GMOs? One of the main reasons GMOs or genetically modified organisms have been created in agriculture is for them to be resistant to Roundup type products.
Roundup is sprayed over crops to prevent weeds, insects, and other pests and diseases to develop in the crop. But, they are so effective they can also kill the crop. Crops from GMO seeds are able to withstand the onslaught from Roundup.
The problem is that we then consume produce and food that is laden with Roundup and other pesticides. The journal Environmental Sciences Europe predicted that 1.8 million tons of chemicals similar to Roundup were used in 1974 compared to 9.8 million in 2016 (Main, 2016). This chemical is named glyphosate.
Glyphosate is sprayed on 89% of corn and 94% of soybeans grown in the United States (Robbins, 2018). It is so prevalent in our food, that in a recent test conducted by the Environmental…
