Gen-M, "Generation
Monsanto," the first generation of humans force-fed genetically modified foods, hasn't reached reproductive age yet (they were born in the late 1990s). But, if a critical mass of animal feeding
studies are any indication, the millennial generation, reared on
Food Inc.'s unlabeled "Frankenfoods" can look forward to a long-term epidemic of
cancer,
food allergies,
sterility,
learning disabilities, and
birth defects.
Corn (85% of U.S. production is GM), soy (91% GM), cotton (88% GM), canola (85% GM) and sugar beets (95% GM) are all genetically engineered by Monsanto to withstand massive doses of the company's glyphosate herbicide Round Up, or else to exude their own pesticide,
Bacillus Thuriengensis (Bt). Round Up, the favorite weedkiller poison of non-organic farmers and gardeners,
causes brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. And
scientists warn that Round Up, the most extensively used herbicide in the history of agriculture, "may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious." In addition,
hundreds of thousands of US dairy cows are injected with genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (developed by Monsanto) in spite of studies linking
rBGH with
cancer, and longstanding bans on the drug in the EU, Japan, Canada, and most industrialized nations.