Monsanto's Newest Unregulated, Unlabeled Frankenfood - Sweet Corn

It has finally happened - THE SKY IS FALLING (or it may as well be) - Monsato has produced it's first genetically modified frankenfood that will be sold directly to U.S. and Canadian consumers. That's right folks, Monsanto has bioteched a new sweet corn and it will be showing up on your grocery produce aisle before the end of the year (and you won't be able to tell the difference between it and conventionally produced corn). This sweet corn is the first Monsanto GMO product created that will be sold directly to consumers. Previously, Monsanto's GMO crops were only used in processing sugar and oils, as animal feed, made into fibers and in highly processed foods and ingredients.

These new seeds - which have been engineered to kill insects above and below ground, produce Bt toxin (a genetically modified form of a pesticide) and is "RoundUp Ready" - will be introduced to farmer's in the southeastern United States starting this fall. The franken-seeds will be distributed to the 250,000-acres currently serving the U.S. fresh corn market. Monsanto is also in talks with companies that would can or freeze the corn.

What does this mean to consumers? Well, until recently, Monsanto's Bt corn and cotton were mainly used for animal feed and in highly processed ingredients. However, even with this fairly limited exposure, Bt toxin has been found in the blood of pregnant women and fetuses. And Bt crops have proven deadly for grazing animals from livestock to monarch butterflies. No one knows what will happen to people who eat Monsanto's new Bt sweet corn.

And let us not forget that this GMO sweet corn is also "RoundUp Ready". What does that mean for the "new sweet corn crop"? It means it can tolerate unlimited amounts of Monsanto's herbicide, RoundUp.

What does that mean for us? Roundup has been shown to cause endocrine disruption, damage to DNA, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity and cancer, as well as birth defects. A Monsanto spokesperson said that they did not expect much consumer outcry. Really...

Once again, our "friends" at the FDA are giving carte blanche to Big Ag. This sweet corn was never reviewed by government regulators for safety or environmental impact and, like everything else on the shelves of U.S. grocery and healthfood stores, it won't be labeled as GMO. It was bad enough when they fed it to livestock, now they want us to eat it too?! This is outrageous! Please join with me to take action against Big Ag. Click on the link to tell the President, Congress and the USDA to label GMO foods!
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23767.cfm

This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.