GMOs fail to improve yields 'and will eventually lead to ruin'

Wednesday, April 23, 2014 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: GMOs, crop yields, genetic diversity

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(NaturalNews) A shocking report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has found that, when it comes to their supposed viability in modern farming, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hardly live up to the industry hype. In fact, the chief investment officer of a large firm recently declared that GMOs are destroying the natural order "and will eventually lead to ruin," presumably by contaminating natural crops and the earth with irreversible genetic pollution.

"Agriculture is heading for a wall," stated CNBC chief news correspondent Mark Koba, quoting the words of Universa Investments President and CIO Mark Spitznagel, during a recent broadcast. And the reason for this, as explained by microbiology professor and retired senior scientist Ramon J. Seidler, Ph.D., in a recent piece for MailTribune.com, is that GMOs appear to have set in motion the destruction of the natural order, not to mention the fact that they simply do not work.

"GMO seeds have not been shown to definitively increase yield potentials," admits the USDA report, which can be accessed in the source links at the bottom of this article. "[I]n fact, the yields of herbicide-tolerant or insect-resistant seeds may be occasionally lower than the yields of conventional varieties."

These statements are pretty self-explanatory, and the mainstream media has even fessed up that GMOs are not all that they have been cracked up to be. When it comes to crop technologies that are actually feeding the world, non-GMOs are organics are still the best options, according to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development. A 30-year investigation by the Rodale Institute also found that organics outperform GMOs on almost every metric.

"Agroeconomists have shown repeatedly that the best-yielding, most-affordable crop varieties, to 'feed the world,' are those derived from conventional non-GMO hybrids," wrote Seidler for MailTribune.com.

Roundup Ready GMOs nutritionally deficient, saturated with chemical toxins

Even if they do not necessarily produce higher yields, as many GMO advocates have had to admit, surely transgenic crops have reduced farmers' dependency on chemicals, right? Wrong. More chemicals are being applied to commercial crops than ever, and recent studies have found that the chemicals linger on crops.

Pesticides and herbicides also appear to damage the nutritional composition of GM crops, as evidenced in a recent study out of Scandinavia. Not only did Norwegian researchers detect the presence of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide on 100 percent of the Roundup Ready soybean samples tested, but they also found abnormal nutrient levels in the "Frankencrops."

"[T]he nutritional composition of soybeans grown on 31 Ohio farms differed depending upon the type of farm management system employed," explained Seidler, reporting on a study published in the journal Food Chemistry. "Soybeans harvested from organic farms had higher concentrations of protein and essential amino acids, and higher concentrations of two minerals, and no Roundup residues."

GM sugar beets destroying natural chard crops

Cross-contamination continues to be an ever-present issue with GMOs as well. Because of the strong likelihood of genetic drift and cross-pollination from GM crops, many non-GM and organic farmers are having to cancel their seed contracts or grow other crops to avoid suffering major crop losses, not to mention a loss of their livelihoods.

"Unfortunately, seed buyers have canceled local Swiss chard contracts because of the likelihood of cross-pollination by sugar beets," added Seidler. "Sugar beet pollen travels two to four miles... and cross-pollination is likely with chard because GMO farms are usually secretly located."

You can access the full USDA report admitting that GMOs have failed and are no better than non-GMOs here:
http://www.ers.usda.gov.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ers.usda.gov

http://www.mailtribune.com

http://www.reuters.com

http://www.universa.net

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com