The term GMO in regards to crops, animals or any other living things is not widely know by most consumers so an explanation might be in order. A basic explanation can be found at Wikipedia:

A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are used to add DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified genes. So GMOs, are organisms which have inserted DNA that originated in a different species.

These experimental combinations of genes from different species cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding.
Virtually all-commercial GMOs are engineered to withstand direct application of herbicide and/or to produce an insecticide. Despite biotech industry promises, none of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit.
Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage and violation of farmers’ and consumers’ rights. The company that has championed and developed GMO’s is “Monsanto”.
It is the opinion of many consumer advocate groups that Monsanto has produced chemicals that cause long-term damage to life on this planet – despite the claims of their short-term benefits such as higher yields. Would you eat a plant that cannot be killed by Round-Up – a weed killer which kills or damages all natural plants? They have engineered plants that can be sprayed with huge doses of Round-Up and live (for us to eat) while the weeds around them die.

The Organic Consumer.org group states that Monsanto is bad for humanity for several reasons:

1. They use genetically modified seeds with something called terminator technology. When a harvest happens, the seeds produced by the new crops are rendered useless. Although in 1999, Monsanto agreed to not commercialize terminator technology. This means farmers have to repeatedly purchase these seeds.

2. Most crops Monsanto grows are heavily fertilized. In essence your eating pesticides, fertilizer, antibiotics etc.

3. They have uprooted countless agricultural traditions in places like India, Mongolia, and Vietnam. For example in India sesame seed oil was once the way people made their money and cooked their food cheaper. Monsanto lobbied the Indian government to use soybean oil (soy is their main product). This destroyed the economic stability of India’s subsistence farmers. It is awful for their economy, but also for their health. Immediate heavy intakes of soy can be extremely harmful for the body do to the high levels of plant chemicals soy contains that cause toxic Estrogen like reactions in our bodies.

4. Monsanto because of its recent growth by buying out its competitors is imposing a monopoly on the world grain trade…this largest agricultural market in the world. The grain trade feeds cows, pigs, chickens, us, everything we eat come from grain food. Monsanto by having a monopoly kills smaller businesses, makes us unhealthy, uproots local agriculture etc.

Are Monsato’s GMOs safe?
Natural News.com reports that most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. In the U.S., the government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale. Increasingly, Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the GMO experiment.

Are GMOs labeled?
Unfortunately, even though polls consistently show that a significant majority of Americans want to know if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs, the powerful biotech lobby has succeeded in keeping this information from the public. Candidate Obama promised to help accomplish the labeling of GMO foods. Obama said in 2007 that he would “immediately” work to label GM foods if elected, However on July 7, 2009, Obama appointed a Monsanto executive Michael Taylor as his senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner. On January 13, 2010, he was appointed to another newly created post at the FDA, this time as Deputy Commissioner for Foods.

This is certainly a huge disappointment, and a concern for all of us who have read about GMOs being linked to organ damage (in 13 scientific studies), toxins from GM crops being found in humans’ blood, and GMOs being linked to livestock reproduction problems (such as animal miscarriages).

Do Americans want non-GMO foods and supplements?

Polls consistently show that a significant majority of North Americans would like to be able to tell if the food they’re purchasing contains GMOs (a 2008 CBS News Poll found that 87% of consumers wanted GMOs labeled). And, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll, 53% of consumers said they would not buy food that has been genetically modified. The Non-GMO Project’s seal for verified products will, for the first time, give the public an opportunity to make an informed choice when it comes to GMOs.
How common are GMOs?

In the U.S., GMOs are in as much as 80% of conventional processed food.
Why does the Non-GMO Project.org verify products that have a low risk of containing GMOs?
Some ingredients that seem low-risk may have less-visible high-risk ingredients. Take, for example, dried fruit. Raisins and similar fruit are sometimes packed with a small quantity of oil to keep them moist. This oil, when used, is sometimes high-GMO-risk. As such, it is critical that we do take the time to look carefully at ingredient spec sheets during the verification process, to ensure that risks like this are effectively mitigated, even in apparently low-risk products.

Contamination incidents have occurred with seemingly “low-risk” products (rice, starling corn, flax). Non-GMO Project Verification supports manufacturers in being able to quickly and proactively respond to unexpected contamination issues.

Verifying only high-risk products puts a heavy burden on consumers to know what products are at risk of containing GMOs. Many people, even in the world of Natural Foods, don’t know what a GMO is, let alone which crops and processed ingredients are high-risk. As such, labeling only products that contain high-risk ingredients could give an unfair competitive advantage to products that contain ingredients containing corn, soy, etc. Taking the cereal aisle for our example, if we verified only high-risk products, a shopper might see the seal on a box of verified corn flakes, but not on the wheat-based cereal box next to them, produced with the same high standards by the same company. This could leave them thinking the corn flakes were non-GMO, but that they should avoid the wheat product, even though there’s no GMO wheat on the market. Given the lack of understanding of the issue, this presents some serious issues.

What are the impacts of GMOs on the environment ?
Over 80% of all GMOs grown worldwide are engineered for herbicide tolerance. As a result, use of toxic herbicides like Roundup has increased 15 times since GMOs were introduced. GMO crops are also responsible for the emergence of “super weeds” and “super bugs:’ which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons like 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture, and are developed and sold by the world’s biggest chemical companies. The long-term impacts of GMOs are unknown, and once released into the environment these novel organisms cannot be recalled.

How do GMOs affect farmers?
Because GMOs are novel life forms, biotechnology companies have been able to obtain patents with which to restrict their use. As a result, the companies that make GMOs now have the power to sue farmers whose fields are contaminated with GMOs, even when it is the result of inevitable drift from neighboring fields. GMOs therefore pose a serious threat to farmer sovereignty and to the national food security of any country where they are grown, including the United States.

How can I avoid GMOs?
Choose food and products that are Non-GMO Project Verified! Click here to see a complete list.
“The ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ signed into Law by President Obama.
The following was reported by Mother earth news.com;
1.) “The ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future.” (Studies have revealed severe adverse health effects related to the consumption of genetically modified foods.)

2.) “The provision’s language was written in collusion with Monsanto… the fact that Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri worked with Monsanto on a provision that in effect allows them to keep selling seeds, which can then go on to be planted, even if it is found to be harmful to consumers, is stunning.”

3.) “Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ existed within the bill they were voting on.” HR 933 was a spending bill aimed at averting a government shutdown.

“In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. [Barbara] Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety said in a statement. “This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in the Senate.”

4.) “On Tuesday, Obama signed HR 933 while the rest of the nation fixated on gay marriage as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument concerning California’s Proposition 8.” (250,000 voters signed a petition opposing the provision.)

5.) This as a precedent, sends the message it sends is that corporations can get around consumer protections and safety. It suggests that court challenges are a privilege, not a right.)

Opponents of the provision say it was jammed through Congress without a proper hearing in relevant committees. I wonder why that would be….

Hidden Provision (deep into a homeland security section)
Carl Gibson explains the anatomy of this secret slip. “Thanks to Monsanto’s aggressive lobbying, Congress hid a provision deep into a homeland security section of their recently passed budget, by way of a long-winded paragraph loaded with indecipherable legalese.” The legalese, however, has a purpose. It allows the agribusiness giant to plant genetically modified (GM) crops without judicial review, judicial review aimed at determining whether or not their crops are unsafe. “Essentially, Monsanto bought enough influence to bypass the system of checks and balances.”