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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Green Living / Unlabeled GMO Bananas Coming to a Supermarket Near You

Unlabeled GMO Bananas Coming to a Supermarket Near You

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • GM Bananas for Anemia?
  • GM Bananas Pushed in Uganda
  • Opposition to GMO Bananas due to Safety Concerns +−
    • References

GMO bananasThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are aggressively funding development of genetically modified bananas, aka GMO bananas, to fight third world hunger and malnutrition.

In Australia, an iron and vitamin rich version of the humble fruit has already been created and plans are underway to share this technology with India.

Other GMO strains are resistant to deadly fungal infection. The biotech industry says GMO bananas are needed to “save” the fruit from possible extinction.

GM Bananas for Anemia?

Professor James Dale of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) says iron deficiency anemia is a major cause of maternal death during childbirth in India.

“The reason that we’re targeting iron is that much of the Indian population has a high level of iron-deficiency anemia because many of them are vegetarians and it’s very difficult from a vegetarian diet to get enough iron.”

The four year agreement between QUT and India’s Department of Biotechnology is an extension of the Australian research backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This new strategy which uses genetic modification of staple crops like GM bananas to overcome micronutrient deficiency is in response to the failure of other approaches such as supplements and food fortification which local populations have typically resisted.

India is the largest producer of bananas in the world with basically all of them consumed on a local level.   Therefore, it seems probable that the cheap, targeted strategy of artificially creating an iron rich GM banana and then distributing these plants to poor and subsistence farmers will be effective.

GM Bananas Pushed in Uganda

The Australian team headed by Professor Dale is also developing an artificially nutrient dense GM banana high in beta carotene for Ugandan farmers.  Uganda grows 10 million tons of bananas each year, the largest in the world second only to India.

Bananas are everything in Uganda where they are consumed for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There is even a local beer made from bananas.

In recent years, disease and blight have affected about 30% of Uganda’s annual banana harvest.  Scientists at the The National Banana Research Program, an arm of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, feel that genetic modification of bananas is the only way to solve the problem as traditional methods such as selective breeding and hybridization have apparently failed.

Professor Wilberforce Tushemereirwe at The National Banana Research Program says that the majority of Ugandans are skeptical of GM foods although 95% of Ugandan farmers are willing to grown them.

GM crops are currently illegal in Uganda but despite this, confined field trials of GM bananas are already underway due to the special license The National Banana Research Program has which permits them to grow genetically modified organisms for research purposes only.

Opposition to GMO Bananas due to Safety Concerns

Strong local opposition to GM foods threaten the outcome of the GM banana project says Professor Tushemereirwe. He says that “voices against the scientific approach we are employing are threatening the opportunity”.

Proving that the GMO banana and products made from it like banana flour are safe is key to overcoming barriers to the marketplace.

This seems a difficult hurdle given the serious health implications of other GM crops.

One notable example is the worrisome problem of umbilical cord deformities in pregnant women consuming GM soy as warned by Ibu Robin Lim, 2011 CNN Hero of the Year.

References

India Goes Bananas for GM Fruit

Genetic Modification Used to Fight Uganda’s Banana Blight

The Only Way to Save Your Beloved Bananas Might Be Genetic Engineering

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Category: Green Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

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