Genetically modified foods reflect a much larger problem—greed in the marketplace and the powerful drive for profits. The desire for more and more money can cause producers to overlook the possible adverse effects that these products could have on consumers.
Some smart chickens are telling us that something foul is in our food supply!
A few months ago Strilli Oppenheimer's chickens refused to eat the feed she bought from a large supplier.
It was not big news at the time. But now word of the event is spreading around the world.
Strilli's famous chickens
When Strilli's indigenous African chickens refused the maize, she took a sample to a testing facility at the University of the Free State (in South Africa).
The results confirmed what Strilli had suspected. The maize had been genetically engineered to produce proteins that are toxic to certain weeds and insects.
The Oppenheimer family immediately stopped eating eggs produced by the chickens and changed the feed to organically grown vegetable sources.
If chickens refuse to eat genetically modified (GM) food, is it safe for human consumption? Many researchers have serious concerns.
Research results
One well known scientist, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, demonstrated that rats fed on GM potatoes suffered from a weakened immune system and stunted growth of their internal organs including the liver, kidneys, and brain. Dr. Pusztai was fired by the Rowett Research Institute in the UK in 1998 after his research into the adverse effects of GM foods on humans.
Biowatch director Rose Williams said that there is global concern that GM products have not been adequately tested in terms of their effect on people, animals, and the environment. GM food is now being marketed all over the world despite that fact that very little research has been done to determine what the consequences might be.
In his book Seeds of Deception, Jeffrey Smith provides an in-depth overview of the extent of these modified foods. According to his research you have a 75 percent chance of picking a food with genetically modified ingredients every time you visit a grocery store. In other words, three out of four items on the shelves contain genetically modified ingredients.
Culprits and symptoms
The four main culprits are soy, corn, cottonseed, and canola. Common ingredients that come from these GM sources include maltodextrin, soy lecithin, and high fructose corn syrup. Other GMO products include milk containing rbGH, Rennet, and Aspartame. It is shocking how widespread these ingredients are.
Symptoms in people traced back to GM foods include: severe pain, hair loss, memory loss, muscle weakness, and skin problems. Smith has documented that food related illnesses such as allergies doubled between the years 1994 and 2001—the same time that genetically modified foods flooded the market.
Genetically modified foods are also affecting our farm animals. Farmers in the United States are reporting sterility or fertility problems among livestock fed on GM corn. In 2003 Indian farmers reported the deaths of thousands of sheep and other small livestock after they had grazed on post-harvest Bt cotton crops. Bt is a synthentic gene designed to be toxin to the bollworm, a major cotton pest.
Genetically modified foods reflect a much larger problem—greed in the marketplace and the powerful drive for profits. The desire for more and more money can cause producers to overlook the possible adverse effects that these products could have on consumers.
Helpful guides and advice
If we want to be as smart as Strilli's chickens, what can we do? Guides—such as The GMO Food Guide—are available to help concerned consumers with food selection. Having your own vegetable garden is another way.
Our Creator intended and desires for us to be healthy in spirit, mind, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23), but we must do our part in partnership with Him for that to be a reality. That God wants us to be healthy is also indicated in the last letter of the Apostle John, "I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you" (3 John 2, New International Version).
As modern nations drift farther and farther away from biblical teachings, our Creator's warnings through Moses warrant our attention. His words of caution are: "If you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees…all these curses will come upon you and overtake you" (Deuteronomy 28:15, New International Version). These curses will afflict "your basket and your kneading trough" and "the crops of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks" (verses 17-18, NIV).
By genetically modifying foods created to make us healthy, we also could be in danger of reaping those types of consequences.
To learn more about the life that your Creator desires for you to lead and enjoy—including principles for maintaining your health—simply request, download or read online our free, informative booklets: Making Life Work.
Rex Sexton grew up in Illinois and graduated from Ambassador College in Big Sandy, TX in 1976. He began a career as a construction engineer in the Nuclear industry at Hanford, WA , and was hired full time in the ministry in 1982, and earned a Certified Financial Planner certification in 1994. He and his wife, Patricia, have served congregations in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. In addition to pastoring responsibilities, they have also taught at and directed youth summer camps for many years. Rex has authored many articles for church publications over the years and produced or appeared in several hundred Television programs.
