Food Choices for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet

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GMO food — boon or bane?

In Food Politics, Food to Avoid, GMO's, Take Action,
  • Posted on March 23, 2012
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Sustainability means living so that future generations have enough to live on. As it happens, a billion people today don’t have enough to eat. Advocates of biotechnology say that we can’t feed the hungry of the world without using genetically modified foods that are engineered to withstand droughts and other unfavorable growing conditions. This is hotly disputed by other people. At any rate, the GMOs we hear most about in this country are engineered to withstand pesticides – so that more pesticides can be applied to the fields they grow in. did you know that a large percentage of pesticides end up in soil, waterways, and our bodies?

The GMO science is complex, but if the products are safe to eat, perhaps the manufacturers should just label them. They have so far refused. Until April 22, you can add your name to a California petition to require labeling of GMO foods. That’s it – just label it so we know what we’re choosing to eat.

 

 

We need citizen action because of the famous “revolving door” – government officials can get lucrative jobs after their public service, or even before. Monsanto is one of the biggest chemical companies and fights hard to push its products. Is it a coincidence that so many Monsanto executives have gone into government – or vice versa? See this astounding chart. A few examples: William Ruckelshaus was the first Chief Administrator of the EPA – and one of his other resume items is Member of the Monsanto Board of Directors. Carol Tucker-Foreman was a Monsanto lobbyist and became a consumer advocate in the Clinton White House. Hillary Clinton, now Secretary of State, worked at the Rose Law Firm, Monsanto’s counsel. Clarence Thomas, on the Supreme Court, worked for Monsanto as an attorney. The list of these people, representing both political parties, is very long.

In the meantime, you can choose organic food, which is not allowed to have GMO, and check out the Non GMO Shopping Guide for additional tips. It’s regrettable that an article about food has to deal with politics — but that’s where the future of sustainable food is taking place.


How to avoid GMO food—and why

In Food Politics, Food to Avoid, GMO's, Useful tools,
  • Posted on December 27, 2011
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Let’s start with why you might want to avoid food that contains genetically modified ingredients. Basically, it’s simple, sensible caution. We don’t yet know how GMO foods will affect the health of person and planet – but we do know that agri-corporations that push GMO foods are desperate to avoid having them labeled. They are banned in Europe.

Now let’s look at how to avoid GMO. The easiest way is to choose organic foods as often as you can find and afford them. A new guide to avoiding GMO (the Center for Food Safety’s True Food Shopper’s Guide, available as a pdf or for mobile devices) has three more easy-to-remember tips: 1. Look at labels and buy foods that come right out and say “Non-GMO.”  2. Avoid ingredients that come from the most heavily modified crops (corn, soybeans, and canola). 3. Use the True Food Shopper’s Guide to identify the companies that do not use GMO.

Finally, there’s something you can do about this. In California, an initiative to require GMO food to be labeled has been submitted, and early next year you’ll be hearing more about it. The Organic Consumers’ Association has more on this. When the time comes, you can sign the petition to get the initiative on November’s ballot, and tell your friends.


Attack of the Frankenfoods

In Food to Avoid, GMO's, Uncategorized,
  • Posted on July 5, 2011
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You may be conscientious about choosing foods that are good for the earth as well as for yourself – organic, local, minimally processed – but you may still be buying foods that are not earth-friendly. Or people-friendly. Yes, we’re talking about GMO – genetically modified organisms.

What is a genetically modified organism, and what does it mean to you? A GMO is typically a plant into which scientists have inserted altered DNA, which causes resistance to a pesticide, hardiness, or superior growth. This allows farmers to drench the growing plants in pesticides, or it causes the plants to create their own pesticides as they grow. So unless you’re eating USDA Organic Certified corn, soy, meat, and a myriad of other foods, you may be ingesting pesticides.

Doesn’t sound healthy to us!

Even wise shoppers in the aisles of stores such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, who wince at the very thought of genetically modified frankenfoods, may consume them unknowingly. 90% of corn and soybeans raised in the U.S. are GMO’s. 20% of Trader Joe’s products contain GMO’s. Whole Foods has some, too.

So what can you do? If you buy products such as soy, cotton, corn, canola, sugar from sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, some zucchini, and crookneck squash, make sure they’re USDA Certified Organic. Join the Millions against Monsanto Campaign, and let companies like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s know that they need to clearly label GMO foods, or else go 100% GMO-free.

Contributed by Mina Arasteh


There are Plenty of (Other) Fish in the Sea! – GMO Salmon

In Food, Food to Avoid, GMO's, Take Action,
  • Posted on September 23, 2010
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Recently there has been a debate on genetically modified salmon since there are supposedly not enough fish in the ocean to feed everyone. According to this Opinion article on CNN.com, there is only one modified gene in the salmon. It will help benefit the farming of salmon because they eat less and will produce more fish faster, and the added hormone has not effect to humans. (That we know of yet!) One of the biggest concerns is that some of these farmed salmon will escape into the wild and contaminate the other fish by breeding and endangering the environment in a way that we can no longer control or reverse.

In my opinion although these instant benefits seem wonderful and easy, the long run results may turn out detrimental to other fish as well as us. There are plenty of other fish in the ocean. We can cut back  on our consumption on salmon. Honestly I’d rather not eat salmon then eat anything genetically modified. To  tell the FDA you won’t eat GMO Salmon, please sign this petition by FoodDemocracyNow!!!! There are only 48 hours left to sign!

What are your concerns with this? What are your thoughts on GMO salmon?

 


HECK NO TO GMOs!

In Food, Food to Avoid, GMO's,
  • Posted on May 18, 2010
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After the SF Green Festival, I had an exponential increase of interest in learning about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) after listening to information from the company, Alter Eco. The guest speaker, Mathieu Senard, has taken a poll on whether or not to use GMO packaging or continue to use plastic packaging for another 2 years until stable biodegradable packaging was available. The crowd favored the continuous use of plastic.

Not too familiar with the effects of GMO’s, I informed myself when I read the magazine “Common Ground” with the article called, “There’s a Non-GMO Revolution Coming, and You’re in Charge.” (pg. 47-51)

Did you know that there has been evidence since the mid-1990’s that GM food tests have detrimental effects on their test subjects? Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the world’s top scientist, was in charge of the experimenting of GM potatoes. “He got quite shocked when the rats developed potentially precancerous cell growth, partially atrophied livers, damaged immune systems, and smaller brains, livers, and testicles—in just 10 days!” When he went to the public with his concerns the was “fired, gagged, and defamed. His safety testing protocols were never implemented.” There has also been other studies and recent findings that GMOs are contributing to infertility, food allergies, autism, diabetes, and other mounting health trends. We see these effects on the farm animals that are consuming GM corn or Bt-toxin crops. These GMOs are typically found in soy, corn, cottonseed, canola, and sugar beets.

Since the FDA has turned its nose to such information regarding GMOs, it is up to us to take matters into our own hands. If “5% of citizens—15 million people—start choosing brands based on GMO content, that should be more then enough to hit the tipping point” to start the non-GMO revolution. To help support this movement, you can visit HealthierEathing.org and take action. They have a Facebook and Twitter that you can follow.

Also the Non-GMO Project is a helpful site that provides information on what companies to avoid. You can also follow them of Facebook and Twitter for additional information.


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