Category Archives: GMO

GMO

Consumer Beware: Corporate Takeover of our foods

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Consumer Beware: Corporate Takeover of our foods Places to check on the quality of foods you eat and buy. Big food has brought us the National Uniformity of Food Bill, which was passed by the house in 2006. This bill calls for voiding perhaps two hundred state food safety laws ie: standards for lead, arsenic and food additives content, milk and shellfish safety. Big Food has weakened organic standards re synthetics and pasture rules in 2005.

See http://organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm for recent changes in organic standards for corporate takeover, see http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/04/stop-the-corporate-takeover-of-organics/ Big Food has brought us unregulated, untested genetically engineered, food as soy and corn both ubiquitous in our daily diet. See http://www.responsibletechnology.org/10-Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs for the list of 10 reasons to avoid GMOs. Jeffrey Smith is another name to follow at www.responsibletechnology.org . Big Food has organized against NYS first-in-the-nation regulation of biotech food bills supported by NOFA-NY, NY-SAGE, NY Farm Bureau Be informed! Be involved!

Sign up for action alerts at:

www.centerforfoodsafety.org

www.organicconsumers.org

www.ucsusa.org

www.foe.org

www.ewg.org

Support labeling of genetically engineered foods and ingredients. Milk with unlabeled GE growth hormone (note: GE=GM=GMO) Soy and its products, as lecithin in many baked and processed foods (80%GE) Corn products and processed foods with corn starch, sweeteners, oils (45% GE_ GE corn( aka Bt is licensed by the EPA as a pesticide! Products from GE grain-fed animals (meats,eggs) Zucchini, papaya, canola & cotton seeds oils, alfalfa Non-GE foods are at strong risk from drift or cross-contamination Other GE foods, including wheat and fish, are being readied for the market. GE biopharm rice contained three human genes is being grown in open fields. *Shop organic for these TOP Pesticide fruits and vegetables: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, strawberries.

GMO

GMO Foods: Reasons to care to about what you eat

There are many reasons that being aware of the quality of food you eat and the effects that food could have on your body.

#1. The food you eat is part of your body’s biochemistry.  That means your body is affected by what you eat.  If your energy is low, or gets low at certain times, or you’re hungry most of the time, just feel bad, or have headaches, have sugar cravings, any of these functional aspects of your body you could benefit from better choices in your nutrition.

#2 Many chemicals are in prepared foods, dyes, colorings, and GM ingredients and foods both in Restaurants and on grocery shelves.

#3. The quality of farming and quality of soil affects the foods grown in that soil.

These are only a few aspects to consider when purchasing your family’s foods. On this web site I am planning to write about your body’s chemistry and the effects of problem foods on your body.

Food choices are not innocent any more. It seems everywhere I turn around I see clues to the contamination of our food and water. So if you want to be in the driver seat about your choices your job has just gotten more complicated.

WHAT’S HAPPENING politically?  Right now genetically engineered sweet corn from Monsanto is headed for Walmart store shelves, the first GMO product to travel from farms directly to consumer plates. Should that be a concern to you? Let me fill you in some more.

Congress buckled to corporate lobbyists and removed the provision from the Farm Bill. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the corn at the end of 2011.  It is designed to be resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and to produce a Bt toxin that kills insects that try to feed on the plants.  That might sound great since who wants to share our gardens with insects. One fact here seems innocent enough but looking further we realize if we eat these foods these chemicals are going into our cells.  The next question damage do these chemicals do to our bodies?

There are many stores who will not sell genetically engineered foods. Trader Joe’s Whole Foods, General Mills are stores that have stood up for us as consumers. It’s clear for me to spend my money at stores and restaurants which care about my health and wellbeing. Monsanto says their corn is safer and less toxic (key ingredient in it is Agent Orange). Scientists have cast doubt go to reports beyond pesticides.

GE crops also present cross-pollination risks for organic farms, the subject of an ongoing dispute over patents between Monsanto and local farmers.  More than 300,000 people including farmers, seed growers and agricultural organizations participated in the suit against Monsanto.  A federal judge dismissed the case in, but the organics community has appealed ( check out FEDERAL GMO Labeling Measure Thwarted: Federal_GMO_Thwarted ).

Many feel GMO labeling should be required in the US. The signatures collected in the USA last year to establish the labeling of GMO foods amounted to over 1 million people.  The effort was ignored by the FDA.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) remains committed to getting the labeling of GMO foods passed this November in California.

If you want to know what you can do about this call your senator or congress representatives and commit to getting the labeling bill passed.

Almost 50 countries already require GMO labeling. Contact the Food and Drug Administration to express your support for labeling.

Check a peer-reviewed report by Earth Open Source. “GMO Myths and Truths.” To summarize this report concludes GMOs can create toxins and allergens in foods, and they will encourage new strains of herbicide-resistant superweeds as more farm and communities are exposed to these

Chemicals. There is also a link between herbicide use and birth defects and cancer. In short much evidence shows a need concern and proceed be leery of  using GMO’s.

Monsanto has driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy and many organic and non-GMO farmers are now afraid to plant seeds. Every year Monsanto investigates more than 500 farmers with “seed police.” Farmers believe they have the right to farm the way they choose and not to be forced into farming Monsanto’s chemicals.

Download the “GMO Myths and Truths” report.

Website: http://earthopensource.org/files/pdfs/GMO_Myths_and_Truths/GMO_Myths_and_Truths_1.3.pdf