Our Food Is In Trouble!

“Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” (Deut. 22:9)

“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” (Justice William O. Douglas from Common Ground, Issue 172 November 2005). At the time of the mailing of this magazine we are in the middle of summer and fresh produce is on the shelves of our grocery stores and local markets. It all looks so good doesn’t it; all fresh and colourful, but how good is it really? Here in British Columbia, Canada we look forward every year to buying fresh produce from local vendors and from our Okanagan Valley that has the most wonderful fruits and vegetables you can get, but is this now under threat?

I recently saw a news item on TV about a move to grow GMO apples in our lovely Okanagan Valley. This new apple is engineered so that it will stop going brown after being cut. “A small BC company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits has just submitted a request to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for approval of a genetically modified (GM, also called genetically engineered) “non-browning” apple…BC apple growers stopped the GM apple from being field tested in Canada in 2001. The federal agricultural research station in Summerland in the Okanagan valley, an important fruit growing area, was preparing to start field trials, but BC growers who were concerned about contamination stopped them from happening. Many apple grower associations in Canada and the US oppose the GM apple, including the BC Fruit Tree Association.”

Our food is definitely under threat. I can’t help but think that so many of our health problems and diseases are due to the quality of our food. In the last 2 years I personally have had one friend die of a brain tumour, and another childhood friend who is terminal as well with a brain tumour, also a good friend I used to work with died of cancer of the esophagus. The ages of these 3 people are all around 62! There are a few more people I have heard of by association who have died who are also in their 60’s. This is too young. My sister-in-law’s brother has a health problem that the doctors cannot even diagnose. Our bodies are not getting the nutrients they need and when you add on stress and poor life styles it is hard for our bodies to be healthy. God gave us truly amazing bodies and under the right conditions they can function amazingly and heal themselves. This is what is so scary about GMO foods, as they are truly foreign substances to our bodies and add great stress when our bodies try to deal with them.

In the January 2006 TKC magazine I wrote the following regarding GMO foods: “I recently went to a lecture by Dr. Pat Howard, Professor of Science & Public Policy, School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, dealing with the Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods. These foods have quietly been filling our grocery stores for the past ten years. We have been consuming them without even knowing it, as they are not labeled. ‘Genetic engineering (GE) is a relatively new technology. It is the alteration of the genetic make-up of a plant or animal, usually by inserting genes from another species. For example, GE canola, an ingredient found in many foods, has been crossed with a soil bacterium gene to make the canola resistant to certain herbicides. Other popular GE ingredients include GE corn and GE soybean. Many more varieties are currently under development in laboratories around the world.’ (From: Do you know what you ate today? by The Council of Canadians). These foods are different from traditional plant breeding as they are crossing the plant/animal barrier. Dr. Howard said that this is a new science and the methods are not very precise and therefore unpredictable.” This is why when I heard about the possible new GMO apple I was astounded. Who does this even benefit? Most of us when we eat an apple eat the whole thing before it gets brown and if it does we just cut off the brown bit and eat the rest. Could it be that it is for the benefit of the biotech companies who make these foods or for the restaurant and food industries who want their food to look good! I’m sure it is not for our (the consumer’s) health!

Dr. Howard further stated that these GE foods are compromising our immune systems and leaving us vulnerable to many diseases, especially cancer. Genetically modified foods have not been adequately tested and many scientists are highly critical of them. Our food is in trouble. Many people are awakening to this fact but it is a hard battle. GE foods are found in 7 out of 10 processed foods so they are good ones to avoid if possible. We must do our best to follow God’s food laws. He knows that we cannot control all these things around our food but He gave us the basis for the food that is good for us and He will guide us if we follow Him. The light at the end of the tunnel is that our lands will be healed when Jesus Christ returns. “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”(Revelation 22:1-2)