The winter weather continues to follow us; there was even a brief moment of hail today. With rain on and off, it was hard to work outside. On the summary front, Jen did some indoor work while Aaron fought the elements and finished digging a very long, one foot deep trench. But the real news was on the current events front.
New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof reported that President Obama's Cancer Panel just released "a landmark 200-page report...warning that our lackadaisical approach to regulation may have far-reaching consequences for our health...some 41% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and they include Democrats and Republicans alike." The cancer report suggests that all Americans of all ages should take serious initiative and change their lifestyle in order to reduce their risk of developing cancer. The report suggests regular doctor visits are not enough, and that many medicines may do little to combat cancer causing agents. Instead, the Cancer Panel indicates the need for a paradigm shift. Many chemicals in our society, which have never been federally tested, including chemicals in genetically engineered (GE) and genetically modified organisms (GMO), have been proven to cause cancer.
The Cancer Panel recommends Americans stop eating GE and GMO foods, and start eating a diet that consists of more organic fruits and vegetables. In the panel's letter to President Obama, they state: "Exposure to pesticides can be decreased by choosing food grown without chemicals and eating free-range meat raised without antibiotics, growth hormones, and toxic run-off from livestock feed lots." No developed country in the entire world aside from the U.S. and Canada allow GMO foods to be planted or sold. GE & GMO seeds contain chemicals and pesticides within every single plant cell, before they are ever planted. When the plants grow, every cell remains infested with the chemicals, and insects that eat these plants immediately die. Also, these plants have a resistance against the poisonous sprays "conventional farmers" use to curb unwanted weed growth. These engineered and modified foods are great at being resistant to pests and weeds, but are also great at giving livestock and humans who eat them serious health problems. Independent lab tests have proven again and again that animals who are fed GE and GMO foods develop cancerous growths, lesions, and several have even died suddenly after consumption.
The President's Cancer Panel also stated: "The American people-even before they are born-are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures. The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation's productivity, and devastate American lives."
In the United States a person is innocent until proven guilty. This is true with GE and GMO foods, i.e., they are harmless until proven harmful. The FDA continually allows these foods to be grown and sold all over this great land without labels or testing. All corn, soy, cotton seed, and canola products currently grown and sold within the United States are GE and GMO foods, unless specifically labeled as organic or GMO free. This report by the President's Cancer Panel implies that over 80% of foods purchased in supermarkets in the United States may be a leading cause in Cancer, because corn, soy, cotton seed, and canola are found in one form or another in the ingredient list on the labels of almost all foods in the supermarket. Open your cupboard. Do you see high fructose corn syrup on any of those labels?
Yikes! This is a ground breaking report. What will happen now?
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