Allergies, a defense mechanism mounted by the immune system, were on the march. Several sources estimated that allergies had doubled or tripled in the past 20 years, and that included only those easiest to count, like the relatively benign hay fever or the lethal anaphylaxis.
Allergic reactions can be induced by, literally, anything, from the food we eat, to the medicine we take, to the air we breath and more. Symptoms are often vague and general, making it impossible to get an accurate fix on their prevalence. Was that stomach upset caused by an allergy or was it bad food? Was the headache due to an allergic reaction or stress? Was the death due to a sudden allergy-induced heart attack or was it something else?
The medical community has yet to come to grips with the fact that allergic reactions can cause absolutely any random symptom, disorder or consequence, limited only by the tolerance and ingenuity of the human body. But they know for sure that there is a lot more of it than there used to be.
Also beginning in the 1990s, the ever-increasing, legal, adulteration of the U.S. food supply went into high gear.
We got used to the long list of unpronounceable words on the ingredient labels of processed food: the assortment of modifiers, stabilizers, flavors, fillers, colors, preservatives and whatever added to food.
Now, packages of meat were treated with gas to preserve the surface appearance and therefore the shelf life. The gasses also made their way into the food and us, the FDA's magical thinking notwithstanding.
No testing or labeling required.
Food was now irradiated to more efficiently eliminate bugs and bacteria so that processors weren't bothered providing safe and sanitary food. Radiation damages the structure and nutritional content of the food.
No testing or labeling required.
Nanoparticles, which research is showing to be extremely toxic to everything from sperm growth to brain cells, is entering the food supply and migrating into our bodies from sunscreen, treated fabric and more.
No testing or labeling required.
But there was an even more unsettling change at the grocery
store. Many basic foods, the stuff that had successfully sustained life
for eons, was being altered through the genetic modification of their
DNA into something never seen in nature. The vast majority
of soy, sugar beets, canola, and corn crops are today genetically
engineered. They are processed into those unpronounceable food
additives, and can be found in virtually every kitchen in America.
Genetic engineering means that we now ingest foods that are
themselves pesticides, herbicides, and may contain transgenic DNA from
other animal species. Does the human body give us a pass? Or are there
serious, as yet unidentified, consequences?
Although nature doesn't allow cross breeding between species; although many studies have found serious health issues with GM food; although GM food has been largely rejected in Europe, in the U.S. it remains unlabeled, untested and ubiquitous.
The American media keeps U.S. citizens in the dark about the
genetic modification of the food supply, a subject that has roiled the
populations of other countries. Monsanto fights continuously to suppress the results of negative tests and to prevent the labeling of genetically modified food.
"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it." -- Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, 1994
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