Story skipped over dangers of GMOs

Regarding the article “GMO fuss impacts smaller firms” in Business

Outlook, Monday, Aug. 8, once again the media just doesn’t get it.

The problem with crops genetically modified to resist the use of herbicides and pesticides is that they are liberally sprayed with those substances. The primary herbicide, Monsanto’s Roundup (glyphosate), is a known carcinogen, can cause genetic mutations in humans, and is toxic to a variety of life. It is poisoning our surface waters and contributing to deadly algae blooms.

And weeds are becoming resistant to it, which means that more and more of it is needed to kill them, or other herbicides must be used with it. Objections to GMOs are largely based, not on the crops themselves, but on the increasing doses of toxins with which they are infused.

And, too, the GMO Labeling Act that President Obama was duped into signing into law is actually a “GMO Hiding Act.” The existence of GMOs will be hidden in squiggles decipherable only by smartphones, which are not available to millions of Americans, or the shopper is directed to a website to retrieve the information. How many people are going to do that while they are shopping?

The act also forbids states to require plain English labeling, and forbids products from telling the shopper that they are GMO free. It also leaves out a whole lot of foods from any sort of labeling at all, plain English or obscure.

I am sorry that small manufacturers are faced with increased costs to comply with this law. But I am sorrier for the millions of Americans who will unknowingly be consuming products that are harmful to their health and deadly to the environment. Adele E Zimmermann Embudo, N.M.