Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have quite the negative reputation. but are GMOs really a vegan issue? does buying them harm the vegan cause?
Are genetically modified organisms, more commonly known as GMOs, a vegan issue? Does purchasing foods containing GMOs contribute to the animal products industry and harm the vegan cause? In this interview segment, I ask vegan activist Gary Yourofsky for his views on the GMO issue.
To hear Gary’s full take on the GMO issue, check out the video for this post, but here is an excerpt:
“Let me just say this about GMOs: I don’t think this is a vegan issue. I think everybody should be appalled at the fact that we are altering plants, plant life. And by the way…all the animals and the meat dairy and egg industries have been genetically modified. there is not one animal on this planet that people eat that hasn’t been genetically modified. So again if you are opposed to GMOs, you’ve still got to be vegan and just have to be an organic vegan, which is a simple solution to this problem.”
Now I’d love to hear from you on this. Do you avoid GMOs in your own food? Do you think that they are a vegan issue or something completely separate? Let me know in the comments!
And stay tuned for more installations of Gary’s interview series.
— Emily Moran Barwick
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Hey Emily & Gary, I totally agree that we should not be genetically modifying plants, but just wanted to suggest that you might want to talk about the difference between hybridization or cross-breeding – which has been done for centuries – and the genetic modification that is being done today.
Also, here is an article that I thought you might find interesting:
https://conservationmagazine.org/2008/09/the-sterile-banana/
Thanks!
Debbie
I think of you guys as Experts on the ground in this issue. I have several people that contribute to he GMO issue and support it because they need viable evidence to refute it. Can you guys in any way supply me with actual studies on GMO’s harming the human body??? I think this could really change some more upper level minds if I do. Thank you so much for all you do.
Hi Emily,
As a vegan for the majority of approx 22 years, I only found out about Gmos about 10 years ago. Yes I agree that it is everyone’s issue, but I will also say that if you watch Jeffrey M Smiths docos about Gmos, and then listen to experts on the way Gmo products are produced, you will soon learn that some plants are injected with animal genes at a DNA level (e.g. Fish or pig etc genes are genetically combined in some circumstances to the plant’s DNA).. but because of lack of labeling, we won’t know which products or plant crops have animal genes. I’ve been trying to let people know this for a long time.
Dr David Suzuki has also spoken about this issue previously. I personally suggest to everyone to avoid Gmo’s, but also please note that if a product is genetically modified, then it may not be vegan. I.e. Just because it says “corn” (or derivatives of) doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have animal genes in the product (unless of course if it’s ‘certified organic’ or ‘gmo free project’)… that’s one reason why people have termed gmo foods as “frankenfoods”. Hope this info helps.