Nanotechnology -
the New GMO?
Nathan Batalion, Global Health Activist, Healingtalks Editor
(Healingtalks) As with GMOS, many food companies are now using unregulated and undisclosed nanomaterials in agriculture, processing, and packaging.
Food Navigator reports that experts are demanding public debate and regulation of nanomaterials in foods. Without that, they warn, nanotechnology risks “facing the same fate as genetically modified (GM) foods in consumer perceptions.”
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is about manipulating materials on the scale of atoms or molecules, measured in nanometers (nm), one billionth, or 10−9, of a meter. Many companies are already using nanomaterials in agriculture, food processing, food packaging, and supplements. Food companies themselves often don’t know whether they are using these materials or not!
Another unregulated technology
Nanotechnology science is new and unregulated. The FDA’s only guidance is to try to tell companies how they can find out whether they are using nano-materials or not. Jumping into that gap, As You Sow has issued a manual on Products Containing Nanomaterials. As You Sow says:
” Not only is this technology unregulated and untested for its implications on public health but companies may not even be aware if they are using products made with nanomaterials. In consultation with food companies such as: Kraft, McDonald’s (which has adopted a “no nano” policy), Whole Foods, Yum! Brands, and Pepsi, the non-profit organization As You Sow developed this practical tool which clearly outlines what companies should ask their suppliers regarding the safety of products containing nanomaterials.”
The report fills an important gap. Companies using this technology should be telling the public more about it. Nanotechnology is technical, difficult to grasp intuitively, “foreign,” and not under personal control. This places it high on the scale of “dread-and-outrage.”
Are there health threats to nanotechnology?
Who knows if there are health threats? The sooner we do know, the better. Otherwise nanotechnology products risks become the new GMOs of our time. The answer is a likely yes because this is the product of another mechanical (dead) view of nature, with the vision projected ever more deeply onto the fabrics of nature.
Based on an article by Marion Nestle, Atlantic Monthly website
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Keywords
Nanotechnology technology, nanoscale, nanoscience, nanomaterials, nanomedicine, silver nanoparticles, applications for nanotechnology, science nanotechnology
