Is Trump Pro-GMO?
For a variety of health concerns, it is no longer clear which political party is the most pro-natural health. A very long time ago, the democratic party used to be pro informed medical consent regarding vaccinations, and we all know that stance has dramatically shifted towards the direction of medical-state totalitarianism, police-forced immunizations, and child abductions by the hand of child and family services. However, the most recent example of a flop on stance, tossing the concerns of natural health advocates to the side, was committed by the President, Donald Trump himself.
Donald Trump was elected and supported by a large group of Republican and conservatives. One of Trump’s self-branded positions was that he was an outsider with no ties to the Republican part of the government. Because of this position, Trump promised to drain the swamp. While one may argue Trump has stood against the establishment on many issues, his actions regarding gun rights, vaccinations, and most recently, GMO development have warranted him scrutiny by the conservative base that elected him.
On June 11, 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) 13874 titled “Executive Order on Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products,” which might as well be called “the GMO Streamlining Act” [1]. Again, even though Trump clearly markets himself distantly from the category of establishment republican, EO 13874 does not put him in a good view with any natural, health-conscious American, regardless of their political affiliation.
According to The Associated Press (AP), “President Trump wants to make it easier for genetically engineered plants and animals to enter the food supply, and he signed an executive order Tuesday directing Federal agencies to simplify the ‘regulatory maze' for producers’ [2].
“The move comes as companies are turning to newer genetic engineering techniques that make it easier to tinker with the traits of plants and animals” [2]. As reported by AP, this EO 13874 directs Federal agencies, decrease regulation and oversight of these new genetic engineering technologies, which are still technologies we do not fully understand the safety of.
These newer techniques include the highly controversial CRISPR gene editing, which is highly contentious and allows genetic editing technology to be placed into the hand of small companies and individuals [3] [4].
Under the new, just-signed rules, the current genetically modified corn and soybean crops would have never been subjected to any safety testing, as AP reported, “Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed changing its regulations in a way that would mean much of the genetically modified corn and soy that is grown in the U.S. today would not necessarily have been subject to special oversight” [2].
Further, these new regulations also concern the development of genetically modified animals and their introduction into the American food supply, meaning the oversight of this technology would be relaxed. GMO animals are not science fiction, either.
On April 8, 2019, the FDA closed an import ban on genetically modified salmon from Canada, which allowed the company, AquaBounty, to “start raising genetically engineered (GMO) salmon eggs in America” [5]. While this may not seem troubling at first, these salmon “grow twice as fast, on less food, than a normal Atlantic salmon,” meaning if these salmon found their way into the wild, they could dramatically alter the natural ecosystem [5]. There is currently a fight between wild salmon fishers in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in Alaska where salmon is a billion-dollar industry, and AquaBounty to have a label on the genetically modified fish stating that they are genetically modified. Ironically, though, AquaBounty is forcefully back against in this fight, which proposes the question “What is wrong with labeling your product what it is if there is no problem its safety?”
As stated, GMO regulation is only one of the latest examples of when Trump has flipped and surprised a large chunk of his base.
The private media organization Information Liberation gave a withholding view of Trump’s GMO actions: “Americans have shown time and time again they don't want GMO garbage and they don't want to be Monsanto's guinea pigs. Nonetheless, they have to shove this garbage down our throats” [6].
During his campaign, Trump was an avid supporter of medical consent, regarding immunizations, and expressed concern of multiple vaccines being administered to infants and children. However, during the recent measles scare, Trump urged Americans to “get the shots” [7]. During his campaign, Trump even stated he met with Robert F. Kennedy and said he would have him chair a commission to investigate vaccine safety, but instead, Trump did the complete opposite.
In fairness, though, Americans did not have the best options to choose from during the 2016 election. Had Clinton been elected President, she would have aggressively pushed for non-consensual, mandatory vaccination and GMO production without oversight, so arguably, I guess we got the better side of the deal. Regardless, I genuinely hope someone is elected who is willing to stand up to the corporate greed that is running American.
Though I would never consider myself a supporter of the Democratic party because of their dramatic leftward shit towards leftist-fascism and socialism, I am slightly intrigued by Marianne Williamson, although I disagree with many of her stances.
During Williamson’s debate night on the Democratic stage, she took a jab at America’s health system but not in the way you would expect. When asked how Williamson would fix the system, she stated, “… we don’t have a health care system in the United States, we have a sickness care system in the United States. We just wait until somebody gets sick and then we talk about who is going pay for the treatment and how they’re going to be treated” [8].
Williamson continued, “What we need to talk about is why so many Americans have unnecessary chronic illnesses, so many more, compared to other countries. It gets back into not just Big Pharma, not just health insurance companies, but it has to do with chemical policies, it has to do with environmental policies, it has to do with food, it has to do with drug policies, and it has to do with environment policies” [8].
While Williamson did not name any companies or organizations specifically, she does make several agreeable points: America’s health care system treats symptoms, not the underlying cause; Americans have a lot of chronic illnesses, which can be attributed to Big Pharma and environmental policies [think glyphosate]. Though I do not necessarily want it to be accurate, perhaps it will take a Democrat to stand up to these organizations.
I was not able to vote in the 2016 election because I was not of age, so the 2020 election will be the first Presidential election that I can partake. I can only hope and pray that I have better options and can genuinely support and believe in one of the two candidates. Otherwise, I may have to vote third-party because I cannot vote for someone simply because of their party association; I need to support someone's character.
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References:
[2] https://www.apnews.com/2895e0f0ef344d16bfcf6f457ed2e759
[3] https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/genomeediting
[4] http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/god-s-red-pencil-crispr-and-three-myths-precise-genome-editing
[5] https://newfoodeconomy.org/fda-aquabounty-gmo-salmon-seafood-restriction-market/
[6] http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=60337
[7] https://www.statnews.com/2019/04/26/trump-vaccinations-measles/
