Letter to the Editor: More on GMOs

Instead, the reporter spouts the “party line,” stating more than once, that “federal testing has confirmed GMO wheat and other products are safe.”

The GMO issue is a huge, serious one, and has many layers to it that go far beyond a discussion of whether or not the world will buy US or Oregon products that are or could be genetically modified.

Indeed, globally, there are more scientists than not attesting to the fact that there are long-range health and safety issues associated with the consumption of and exposure to BT-resistant genetically modified food sources. It doesn’t help matters that our own USDA is headed by a Monsanto-phile. Please note that Monsanto, the creator of this rogue wheat (which by the way was outlawed a decade ago for real scientific reasons, not just some whim and fancy on the part of buyers in Japan and Europe) is the world’s largest biotech corporation. Monsanto brought us Roundup weed killer, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange — which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans.

The press should get beyond the surface of all this, and resist simplifying an issue that is complex, scary, and grounded in science, with long-range implications. Indeed, several recent and not so recent studies link the BT toxin and the main ingredient of Roundup to autism, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. This is not new information. Nor is it obscure, believed by only a few conspiracy-theorists or tree-huggers.

Please do better at the facts here. To fix this, your paper should run a separate article examining the GMO issue. Please be a more responsible reporter, or stop writing altogether. You are hurting people with your ignorance.

Corenne Stewart

Dallesport