Genetically modified foods are banned or at least labeled throughout most of the world, with the vast majority of GMOs currently being grown in just six countries according to a recent report from Friends of the Earth.
But in America, they are commonplace, with almost 90 percent of corn, 94 percent of soybeans and 91 percent of cotton currently genetically modified, along with the vast majority of sugar beet and canola crops.
Americans never signed up to be a part of the GMO experiment and GMOs are still not even labeled as they are in more than 60 countries across the world, just two reasons why the movement against them has grown to become so large and vocal in recent years.
In fact, the majority of Americans still don’t believe GMOs are safe according to one recent poll by ABC News.
Despite that poll and a growing tide of people avoiding GMO foods, Robert Fraley, a senior research specialist at Monsanto who is considered the “father of GMOs,” believes that there’s a little something wrong with people in the GMO Free movement.
“Those are Extreme Voices” Monsanto Exec. Says
Fraley recently was quoted in an article by the Nebraska Radio Network as that “those are extreme voices,” about people who don’t believe GMOs are safe, adding that the vast majority of people he speaks to are “in the middle.”
He also said that in his opinion, about 70 to 80% of Americans believe genetically modified foods are safe.
The ABC News poll completely contradicts his stats, however, as it found that 52 percent believe that GMOs are unsafe while another 13 percent are unsure about their safety.
Also in the ABC News poll, 93 percent of people said that the federal government should at least require labels on GMOs; nationwide polls have consistently been above the 90 percent mark in recent years.
Monsanto, however, has been busy spending historically high amounts, over $4 million in Oregon and $4.7 million Colorado, just to prevent Americans from knowing what’s in their food, and this strategy has worked thus far in Washington state and California with Colorado and Oregon pending this November.
Misleading national “labeling” acts like the so-called DARK Act and out-of-control corporate spending are designed to halt the progress of the GMO Free movement, but as the ABC News poll showed, the results are clear: most Americans are still concerned about the safety of GMOs, and they’re making their presence felt in many ways. Even as Monsanto and other agrochemical company execs deny their legitimacy,sales of GMO free foods continue to grow.
And with the popularity of GMOs actually declining around the world, it seems clear that millions of people not just in America, but everywhere, are questioning the safety and necessity of one of the biggest, and most unregulated, changes to our food system in history.
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