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Question

why does Trader Joes not use GMO and is the healthiest grocery store? But all the major grocery stores do and cause Canser?

Submitted by: 3FFECT


Answer

Expert response from Community Manager

Moderator for GMOAnswers.com

Thursday, 04/12/2014 23:30

We cannot comment on specific company practices or products. However, Trader Joe’s released a customer update in October 2013 about the company’s decision to source products with non-GMO ingredients.

 

While GMOs have never been linked to cancer or any other illness, we often receive questions about a possible connection between GM crops and various illnesses. Dan Goldstein, Senior Science Fellow and Lead of Medical Sciences and Outreach at Monsanto, provided a response to the question “Will I get cancer?”:

 

“Cancer is a frightening prospect.  Some time back an in-law asked me what would be the most effective thing he could do to avoid dying of cancer.  My answer was simple – stop taking your cholesterol medication. As sarcastic as that answer may sound – this is our reality: if you look at medical causes of death in aging adults, about half of us will die of cancer (all types combined) and half will die of heart disease.  Heart disease used to be way ahead of cancer as a cause of death, but we have gotten much better at prevention and treatment for heart conditions and done not-so-well on cancer. Will you get cancer?  I can’t answer that question yes for you in particular – but for the average person, it’s about a 50-50 chance right now, so it is reasonable to ask about things that may increase or decrease risk.  In this context, I take your question to be specifically about GMO crops.

 

“So – do GM crops increase cancer risk?  The short answer is no and this is because of the process that is used to assess differences between GM crops and the conventional crop.  This comparative safety assessment process, which is used in all international crop biotechnology assessment guidelines, is a method of identifying similarities and differences between the newly developed food or feed crop and a conventional counterpart that has a history of safe use.  Every product goes through this assessment.  Using this process it is necessary to understand DNARNA, resulting proteins, and composition of the plant…”

 

If you have any additional questions, please ask.