Free 100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Le Page B

omega-3/omega-6 balances (like insects and free-ranging chickens that forage on insects), and replacing vegetable oils that are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, such as corn oil, with animal fats.
    *   *   *
    We have considered the obstacles that people face in obtaining healthier meat and fish: the mental blocks that make game meat (and insects) unpalatable to many people, the laws preventing the sale of game in North America, the burdensome costs of raising wild animals like elk and salmon in confined spaces, the pollution that accompanies farmed salmon. A new frontier in agricultural science that aims to circumvent the risks of dwindling populations and disease is the widespread use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to produce more robust and plentiful stocks of animals and plants. The use of salmon genetically modified to grow much faster is still in the exploratory phase and is being closely watched by environmental groups. GMOs are hotly contested in many places in the world, particularly outside North America. Is this reaction just knee-jerk fear, or are our neighbors in this world justified in their apprehension?
    One might think that the most prudent attitude is that we don’t know what the long-term consequences are of growing and eating GMO corn, soybean, rice, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, peas, and canola. Not enough studies have been done because these high-tech plants, which are more resistant to weed killers and pests, were only introduced starting in 1996. 20 Unfortunately, as with nutritional research on soft drinks and milk, GMO studies conducted by scientists with connections to the industry tend to find no harmful effects, while scientists without such ties are more likely to observe adverse events. 21
    For instance, academic scientists in France discovered that rats fed with corn genetically modified to produce insecticides and withstand herbicides showed signs of toxicity in their kidneys and livers; in Italy, adverse genetic effects on embryos born from parental rats that ate herbicide-resistant genetically modified soybeans were observed; a team in Denmark found differences in weights of the small intestine, stomach, and pancreas in rats that ate rice genetically modified with an insecticidal gene spliced from kidney beans. Not exactly smoking guns, but given the history of industry interference in safety matters, such studies seem to argue for follow-up research and caution in releasing genetically modified foods to the public. Furthermore, weed resistance to Roundup, the herbicide developed by Monsanto, is spreading among American farms. China has seen increases in secondary pest infestations as a result of reliance on genetically modified cotton engineered to resist moths. Because the genetic modifications concocted by biotech scientists represent the most rapid instances of plant evolution and ecosystem alteration ever to have taken place on Earth, the sensible thing to do would be to conduct more tests on long-term safety and ban genetically modified foods in the interim, the approach adopted by Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. 22
    The United States, Canada, and other countries in the Americas have chosen a different route, the one heading to the hills of Profit. Genetically modified foods have risen to comprise a huge swath of American and Canadian agricultural production. After less than two decades, 93 percent of soy, 90 percent of corn, 95 percent of sugarbeet, 93 percent of rapeseed, and 30 percent of alfalfa crops are GMOs. 23 Since soy and corn enter the food system through myriad ways, such as through high-fructose corn syrup and animal feed, virtually everyone in North America consumes GM foods on a daily basis. The U.S. and Canadian governments authorize biotech companies to conduct their own health studies and their farmers to sell GM foods in supermarkets without informing consumers. Americans and Canadians have overwhelmingly stated in polls