I’m not one to get political here
on my blog as I don’t think this is the appropriate forum (or Facebook for that
matter), but I am passionate about something that affects us all and it does
have to do with health and nutrition, it’s a non-partisan issue, oh, and it’s
my blog…the issue is about GMO vs. Non-GMO.
California has an initiative on its ballot this year that at face value seems like a no brainer. At issue is whether or not the food industry should label products GMO (Genetically Modified Organics) if, in fact the ingredients they use are. A great deal of our corn, soybean, cotton, wheat, canola, sorghum and sugar cane products in this country (and around the world) are grown with GMO seeds (in the 90-98% range), and since so many of our products contain some or all of either of these ingredients, it will be on a lot of labels from fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, baked goods containing flour and drinks containing high fructose corn syrup.
A little history about my
thinking on this. Back when they were
first proposing modifying the genetics of our food in order to make them more
drought and pest resistant (the 1980S) and to grow bigger crops that produce
higher yields, I was all for it. I
thought that if they could come up with a way to “improve” upon what we already
have, that’s where science shines. Since
then I have evolved in my thinking, which is ok to do if you make an informed
evolution.
The GMO products on the market
are modified to kill weeds and insects, be more drought tolerant and make those
delicious tomatoes that we buy in the store nowadays that look beautiful but
are completely devoid of flavor. Now
maybe it’s just me, but if I’m eating something that is modified to kill an
insect or weed like you do with Raid or Roundup, I have to believe there’s low
levels of something that can’t be good for humans either. And I really do believe that initially they
won’t kill us. I don’t think you’ll drop
dead from drinking a soda. The problem
for me, and though these foods have been “generally regarded as safe” by the
FDA, is that there was never any long term study done as to their effects on us
over time. Now they’re finding that low
doses in animals actually do cause rather rapid and large tumors as well as
kidney and liver failure. I’m sure the
study that they did will have its detractors, usually doctors and scientists
paid by the industry, but what it seems like to me is that we, the consumer,
are becoming the lab rats for the industry and at some point down the road the
effects of this practice will become known.
What Proposition 37 does is offer
the consumer a choice to decide whether they want to gamble on the agricultural
industry. Recently there was a big
announcement that Organic Food is not nutritionally any better for you than
non-Organic food. I, personally, never
thought it was. For me buying Organic
was making a choice not to ingest pesticides period. By labeling our food GMO and non GMO we get
to make a decision on what we eat and drink.
This requirement doesn’t come into effect until 2014, and buy then I
think the industry can change their labelling without added cost….they’re just
asking them to print on the label whether ingredients used in the end product
contain Genetically Modified Organics.
California, which is one of the
largest producers of rice in the world, won’t use GMO rice seeds as the Asian
Market who buys most of the rice, won’t buy it.
The Anti-Prop 37 (no on
Proposition 37) people that are throwing millions of dollars at the initiative
are Monsanto, the people that bring us GMO seeds (they hold most of the seed
patents) and are manufacturers of roundup (remember the old Disneyland ride to
the future), Dow Agroscience, Conagra, Bayer Cropscience (the company that makes the
product they suspect killed off the bee population over the last several
years), Kraft, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and others in the food and agriculture
industry…you get the picture.
I just think we have a right to
know what we’re eating and make an informed choice.
I’m just sayin!
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