EP 47 | Dr. Michelle Perro: GMOs & Biosecurity - Building Africa's Food Sovereignty

This discourse was about **GMOs, biosecurity, food sovereignty -lessons from Northern America to adapt for Africa food sovereignty**, with the continent's food insecurity situation and weak regulation, and how unregulated/dangerous synthetic chemicals (pesticides/herbicides) and food manipulation procedures could have disastrous effects. The guest **Dr. Michelle Perro**, is a veteran pediatrician with over 40 years' experience in acute and integrative medicine, focusing on environmental health, pesticides, and GMO advocacy, and children wellness. She has extensively lectured on these both locally and globally. She authored the books *"Making our Children Well"* and *"What's Making Our Children Sick?: How Industrial Food Is Causing an Epidemic of Chronic Illness, and What Parents (and Doctors) Can Do about It"*. Based in Northern California, she runs Down to Earth Pediatrics and serves as Executive Director of @gmoscience (https://gmoscience.org/), focusing on restoring children’s health through food and reducing toxic exposures. We discussed the current food issues in N/America (the United States in particular), increasing disorders/diseases correlated with GMOs and associated chemicals, and the biosecurity/regulation of the food system. It was discussed vis-a-vis Africa's prevailing realities and Dr. Perro's books/works and about Africa, to advise on actionable ways to strengthen Africa's food system for safer, healthier and rich foods. The conversation had special focus on children and African children in particular. 👶Fetuses and infants have developing immune system and dependent on their mothers -connected by placenta and breast-feeding. There’s been reports of pesticides found in breast milk and milk formulas 🧑‍🍼. The chemicals have also been reported to cross blood-brain barrier in developing fetuses. 🦠Gut microbiome play a huge role in the developing immune system of foetuses and infants. However, pesticides, for instance glyphosate, has been shown to have antibiotic effects. Thus, capable of eradicating good microbes in the gut and promoting harmful microbes, leading to microbial imbalance and toxic actions. 🚨Also, when genetically modified microbes (GMMs) are passed on to foetuses and infants from their mothers, horizontal gene transfer can occur between the introduced microbes that may carry resistant genes and and those in the little beings. ‼️This all could pose risk and possibly lead to immune dysregulation and resistance to medications. The presence of these xenobiotics have been correlated to rise in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic diseases, esp in children. 🧑‍🍼Children interact more with the environment, have broader surface area, and with increased temperature and attending perspiration promote increased absorption of sprayed pesticides accelerated by hot climate of the tropics, this make African and Nigerian children at particular risk. Dr Michelle talked about what found researching GMOs and pesticides in Nigeria -GMOs adopted and commercialized, flooding the market unlabeled without proper verification of safety based on long-term and balanced study of safety, toxic agrochemicals (toxic at low conc) still sold in the market despite being banned, and also the international great lobby and local actors shoving down these food instruments in Nigeria. The full conversation features many important topics: ✅ Broader definition of GMMs that’s often hidden and the potential risks ✅ Explanation on how modified microbes and pesticides could pose risks to children ✅ Alleged GMO Ginger and Nigeria export woe ✅ New threat -Glyphosate-Aluminium-Fluoride complex ✅ Pesticides & GMOs and Africa's food security #DrMichellePerro #GMOScience #TheLasgidiFarmerPodcast #AfricaGMOs #GutHealth #Transgene #Microbiome #InfantHealth #SoilHealth #FoodTechnology #GeneticEngineering #GeneticallyModifiedMicrobes #NigerianChildren #AfricanChildren #FoodSovereignty