Do you know you are eating genetically modified foods? Do you know how they are affecting your body?

The Justice and Agricultural Departments are holding hearings across the Farm Belt on how to find ways to limit the reach of crop biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke today at the first of five such meetings. The issue seems to be that farmers and the seed companies that license genes from Monsanto are complaining about prices and limits on competition.

Did you know that Monsanto has at least one of its patented genes in 90% of soybeans grown in the U.S. and about 80% of corn? I learned that from reading a March 11 Wall Street Journal article by Scott Kilman. A friend loaned us a book entitled Genetic Roulette by Jeffrey M. Smith. That book addresses what may be the health risks of genetically engineered foods. Are they causing sterility, infant mortality, allergies, organ defects, and other childhood diseases?

In his introduction, Smith points out that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed that no safety studies are necessary, and that "Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety." This policy was put in place in 1992 during the Clinton presidency. Genetically modified foods thus have never been fed to animals in rigorous safety studies and probably never fed to humans at all are approved for sale in grocery stores!

In the mid-1990s the UK government did institute rigorous long-term safety testing. Three years later its scientists discovered that "potatoes engineered to produce a harmless insecticide caused extensive health damage to rats." The trials funded or conducted by GM (Genetically Modified) crop producers, according to Smith, "typically fail to investigate the impacts of GM food on gut function, liver function, kidney function, the immune system, the endocrine system, blood composition, allergic response, effects on the unborn, the potential to cause cancer, or impacts on gut bacteria."

It seems that Monsanto has quite a good thing going for it. When farmers buy HT (herbicide tolerant) seeds, they are required to also buy the company's corresponding herbicide. Another popular trait of GM is a built-in pesticide, which is inserted into corn and cotton DNA, where it produces pesticidal toxins in every cell.

I think we need to know more about genetically modified crops. Why is there not as much information about this subject as there is about global warming? This is something that is going right into our bodies nearly every day!