GMO foods and Herbicides

I honestly haven't done much research on GMO foods and their effects on health, but I generally shy away from them if possible. When given the choice, I always gravitate towards organic foods and will sometimes buy nothing if only non-organic is available.

Given just this article:

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers

- it rants and raves about the horrors of GMO foods, but doesn't site any real scientific evidence. People used to say margarine was good for you and now the news is that it contains trans-fatty acids and nobody wants that. But just because I read a link on the internet saying "something is bad but I'm giving no scientific evidence to support that radical claim", I tend to dismiss it as Chicken Little Hearsay.

The article has a much more scientific-sounding PDF file attached at:

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/docs/145.pdf

- and that at least sounds like they did some research. I'd have to verify the studies they refer to to figure out if they were legitimate claims of terror or just speculation.

Most of the genetically modified crops seem to come in the way of crops that can withstand herbicides such as roundup. Monsanto is the famous culprit here. I hate when my weeds grow so out of control that I can no longer pull them by hand and must resort to herbicides. I've tried using vinegar but the weeds just laugh at it. I did however see a herbicidal flamethrower that burns the weeds rather than using herbicide, so I am saving my pennies in hopes to buy one someday. (How can you not love a flamethrower for getting rid of weeds?)

An interesting show we watched on PBS called Grow A Greener World had an episode on weedless gardens. They showed a few ways you can reduce weeds in your garden but also talked about potential problems with using manure in your garden compost. Apparently the host has horses and fed his horses hay which they then consumed and disposed of as manure. He found out the hard way that the farmer who he bought the hay from had used a "persistent herbicide" to kill weeds growing in the hay fields, then he fed the hay to his horses, the horses pooped it out as manure, and he put the manure on his garden -- and it promptly killed his vegetable seedlings. The persistent herbicide is so persistent that not only does it last year to year to prevent weeds, but it gets into the hay that the horses eat, it is digested by the horses, pooped back out of the horses, and is still strong enough to kill your plants after the fact. One, you should be scared for the health of the horses, two, you should be scared that if it made it from the hay, through the horses and onto your vegetables, you should be afraid of your health. But three, think of the enormous cascade effect. You can't get rid of this stuff. You can't wash it away. You can't digest it. It won't break down. That scared the bejeebus out of my husband and I watching the show. The host tried to remain calm and simply said "ask your farmer what herbicides he may use" but I don't think I could have been that calm.

Here's a link to the Grow A Greener World show and associated episode on persistent herbicides:

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/weedless-gardening/