I was having a conversation with a co-worker about the herbicides and pesticides on food today. Recalling a story I heard of a woman who found a spider in some organic produce, she complained that organic produce was full of bugs because they were not sprayed with pesticide, another chimed in saying “I’ll have what the spider is having”. Another co-worker came into the conversation saying a little pesticide won’t hurt you. Lets talk about that, some GMOs today have a built-in pesticide BT-toxin a bacteria. How does this work? you might ask (or I would hope you would).
What is Bt toxin?
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacteria that produces proteins which are toxic to insects. Bt’s extreme toxicity is not a surprise. It’s in the same family of bacteria as B. anthracis, which causes anthrax, and B. cereus, which causes food poisoning. Bacillus (genus Bacillus), any of a group of rod-shaped, gram-positive, aerobic or (under some conditions) anaerobic bacteria widely found in soil and water. Basically an insect eats the plant, the bacteria binds to its stomach and its stomach breaks down or pokes holes in the stomach in turn killing it. Now remember there has been no official safety testing on this bacteria when it is built into the plants.
In 2011, doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found Bt-toxin in the blood of:
- 93 percent of pregnant women tested
- 80 percent of umbilical blood in their babies
- 67 percent of non-pregnant women
“But a little pesticide won’t hurt you.”
How does this affect us?
Well one theory is that the BT-toxin is poking holes in our stomach causing leaky gut syndrome which can lead to allergies, autism and premature aging. If we remember science class our body will fight anything foreign introduce into our body. Why is our body interpreting this food as foreign? Because it is leaking into your blood instead of staying in your intestines where it belongs. Then in turn will produce antibodies whenever these foods (aka foreign objects) enter your body. BT-toxin has been sprayed on our food since the 1920s they were sprayed on but at least they left no residue on plants and were harmless to mammals, birds and non-target insect species.GMOs with BT-toxin were introduced in 1996. Now we are ingesting this toxin because it is part of the plants production. According to a study released in 2013 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food allergies among children increased approximately 50% between 1997 and 2011 just one year after GMOs were introduced. I don’t think that is a coincidence.