Archive for November, 2010

Why didn’t I know about GMO’s?

Why didn’t I know about GMO’s?

A friend who is learning about GMO’s told me that she felt badly that she didn’t know about them before now. It got me thinking as I felt the same way when I first learned about what was going on with our food supply.

Here’s a great description of GMO’s from the Non-GMO Project Shopping guide:

GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This relatively new science allows DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a laboratory, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. Virtually all commercial GMOs are bred to withstand direct application of herbicide and /or to produce an insecticide. None of the GMO traits currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition or any other consumer benefit. Studies, meanwhile, increasingly show a correlation between consumption of GMO’s and an array of health risks.

Read more here: http://www.nongmoproject.org/consumers/

Why didn’t we all know about GMO’s?

Because, it seems, Monsanto did not want us to.  Putting Genetically Modified Organisms in our food was never presented to the American people, it was done behind our backs. The FDA (run by former employees of Monsanto) allowed them to be marketed, based on Monsanto’s assurance that the products are safe.  There was never any safety testing done by our government and tests done elsewhere in the world have proved them to be unsafe and potentially dangerous.  Our government, both the Democrats and the Republicans have handed our food supply over to a private multi-national corporation. This is the corporation who gave us DDT and Agent Orange. They now own almost all our commercial seed.

They are not doing this to ‘save the world’, they are doing this to control our food supply. If they had good intentions they would not be suing our farmers or putting our seed cleaners out of business. Farmers have traditionally saved their seed to replant for the next year and they’ve done this for thousands of years.  Monsanto is known to sue any farmer who saves their seed, even unintentionally.  They have also put most, if not all, of the seed cleaners that our farmers use out of business as well.  Watch The Future of Food for more information. You can watch the movie here, for free: http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

This is the history of GMO’s in our food supply, dates and basic info from: http://deliciouslivingmag.com/greenliving/dl_article_1558/ comments added by Mom.

1986   First field tests of genetically engineered plants (tobacco) are conducted.

1987   Advanced Genetic Sciences’ Frostban, a genetically altered bacterium that inhibits frost formation is field-tested on strawberry and potato plants in California—the first authorized outdoor tests of an engineered bacterium. Again this was done without public knowledge or approval.

1993   The FDA declares GMO foods are “not inherently dangerous” and do not require special regulation. And the FDA, the same people who are now being put in charge of our farms, allowed them to with no questions asked. In 1994, Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto said, “If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” (source, Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994).  Here’s what another Monsanto employee had to say,

The debate on genetically modified (GM) brinjal variety continues to generate heat. Former managing director of Monsanto India, Tiruvadi Jagadisan, is the latest to join the critics of Bt brinjal, perhaps the first industry insider to do so.

Jagadisan, who worked with Monsanto for nearly two decades, including eight years as the managing director of India operations, spoke against the new variety during the public consultation held in Bangalore on Saturday.

On Monday, he elaborated by saying the company “used to fake scientific data” submitted to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approvals for its products in India.

The former Monsanto boss said government regulatory agencies with which the company used to deal with in the 1980s simply depended on data supplied by the company while giving approvals to herbicides.

Read more here:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/StoryPrint?sId=83093&secid=4&page=0

Here’s some more history of GMO’s in the US.

1995   GMO soy and corn planted in the United States.

1996   GMO foods first hit supermarket shelves. WE are not told!

1996   Seven percent of soy and 1.5 percent of corn crops grown in the United States are genetically modified.

1999   The rising tide of public opinion in Europe brings biotech food into the spotlight.  Europe has stopped accepting some of our food as it’s GMO and they do have labeling.  Ireland is a GMO free country!

2000   GMO corn StarLink, approved solely for animal feed, ends up in corn products for human consumption.

2002   ProdiGene violates the U.S. Plant Protection Act by allowing experimental biopharmaceutical corn to mix with a commercial soy crop.

2004   GMO wheat developer Monsanto decides against selling GMO wheat because of negative public perception.

2004   Eighty-five percent of soy and 45 percent of corn crops grown in the United States are genetically modified.

Anything you eat with soy, corn, canola like high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, etc, is most likely genetically modified.

We can get GMO’s out of our food supply but we need to speak up. Let’s make 2011 the year that the USA goes GMO free!

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here:  http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-december-3rd/

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/12/real-food-wednesday-12110.html

Sprouted Flour Banana Bread & an update on S510

Sprouted Banana Bread

This is very nice and easy banana bread recipe. It was delicious, the kids loved it and it stayed fresh and moist until we finished it a few days later.  Happy Thanksgiving, hope everyone has a very happy and healthy holiday.

Ingredients

* 3 or 4 ripe organic bananas, smashed

* 1/3 cup melted organic pastured butter

* 3/4 cup sucanat, rapidura or organic sugar

* 1 pastured egg, beaten

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 1 tsp. baking soda

* Pinch of Celtic or sea salt

* 1 cup sprouted whole-wheat flour

* 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F Read the rest of this entry »

Would you choose genetically modified food if given a choice? Some animals won’t.

Here’s another great article from Jeffrey Smith’s GMO Speaker training. Did you know many animals will choose GMO free if given the choice?

Would you choose genetically modified food if given a choice? Some animals won’t.  By Jeffrey Smith

There’s a bowl of corn chips in front of you made from natural corn. Next to it are genetically modified (GM) corn chips. Which do you choose?

If you were a pig or cow, we know the answer—the natural corn. Farmers repeatedly let pigs or cows into pens with troughs of GM corn and non-GM corn. The animals would head straight to the closer trough, filled with the genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They’d sniff, maybe take a nibble, then go over to the trough with the natural corn. After finishing off the last kernel, they’d stop by the GM corn one more time just to check it out, but quickly walk away.

An Iowa farmer who read about the finicky livestock decided to see if squirrels had similar dispositions. He nailed an ear of GM corn and non-GM corn onto trees by his house. Sure enough, the squirrels ate only the natural stuff, over and over again. When the farmer stopped replacing the natural corn, the squirrels still refused to touch the GMO. After 10 cold winter days, they got up the courage to nibble a few kernels, but that was all they could handle.

Another curious farmer wanted to repeat this with the squirrels in his area. He bought a bag full of GM corn ears, and another of non-GM, and left it in his garage to wait for winter. He waited too long. Mice did the experiment for him. They broke into the natural corn bag and finished it. The GM cobs were untouched. Read the rest of this entry »

Monsanto’s Going Down!

Today we have a guest post from Dr. Ishii-Eiteman from the Pesticide Action Network. Go visit their site – link below.

By Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, reprinted with permission.

Monsanto’s humiliations are all over the news these days. Last week we heard that Monsanto is actually paying farmers to spray their fields with competitors’ weedkillers. Monsanto’s latest press release announces it is offering RoundupReady cotton farmers up to $20/acre to pour on extra herbicides. In fact, The Organic Center reports that this bizarre practice—a reversal of Monsanto’s traditional exhortations to rely on its own chemical Roundup—has actually been going on for over a year now, a response to the Monsanto-induced epidemic of superweeds now ravaging the country. As Tom Philpott explains, it’s a desperate last-hour attempt by the giant seed and pesticide company to slow the wildfire spread of noxious weeds resistant to Roundup, an epidemic which essentially spells the demise of Monsanto’s entire RoundupReady “system of weed management.” Other last-ditch efforts by Monsanto to keep revenue coming in include genetically engineering its Roundup Ready seeds for “enhanced resistance,” that is the ability to withstand—at least temporarily—even heavier dousings of Roundup. Talk about trying to smother a fire with gasoline.
Read the rest of this entry »

Is your Vitamin C on GMO’s

Photo: ZUMA Press

GMO’s in the news

I haven’t had a news update lately, there’s a lot to share!

Did you know that your Vitamin C is  most likely made from GMO  corn?

For more than a year now, supplements manufacturers have watched quietly as

an angry chorus has risen up against genetically modified organisms. So far,

though, GMO questions have stayed planted in the produce and grocery

sections of natural products stores.

But now one small but vocal retailer concerned about GMOs in the environment

has started asking his supplements suppliers if there are GMOs in the

vitamin C he sells. The answers he says he’s gotten have ranged from “we

don’t think so but we don’t know for sure” to “probably.” That’s not good

enough for Joe Lemieux, owner of the 2,500-square-foot Go To Health store in

Brooksville, Fla.

“People think that health food stores are a kind of haven from things like

GMOs,” Lemieux said. “That’s why this issue is so explosive, because I can’t

tell them that the vitamin C is made without GMOs.” He’s not saying the

products are unsafe, but he says that genetically modified crops are bad for

the environment, and the agriculture business needs to get that message from

consumers and retailers, which is why he’s taking a stand in his store.

Lemieux still stocks vitamin C but is telling his own customers not to buy

the products, and he’s letting others in the industry know about his

boycott–through word-of-mouth and a Web site that deals with organic

issues–until someone can make a non-GMO vitamin C.

You can read the rest, here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/vitccontro.cfm

And there are a few brands of Non-GMO vitamin C

Source Naturals is making one:

http://www.sourcenaturals.com/products/GP1475/

As is Cardiovascular Research. We’ve been using this one:

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp;jsessionid=RNFEKMT4BSUM4CQUC4YFAGIKCQL00UNE?id=CV-1041

China rejects U.S. corn cargo, citing GMOs

China has rejected a cargo of U.S. corn after finding it contained an unsanctioned genetically modified strain, two sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.

“China only allows 11 varieties of GM corn to be imported to the country, and the cargo was found with GM material outside the 11 varieties,” said one source, who declined to be identified.

“The animal and plant quarantine department has barred it from entering China,” the source said. He said it was supplied by a Japanese trading house.

The cargo of 50,000-60,000 tonnes was shipped to a port in the China’s southern province of Guangdong in September. The problem was detected only in October, the same source said.

China’s first ever rejection of a U.S. corn cargo, if confirmed, risks deepening a trade spat with the United States and a bigger diplomatic row with Japan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69S23U20101029

Top 10 ways to avoid GMOs

Maria Rodale explains how to stay away from genetically modified organisms.

This month, October, is Non-GMO Month. I find most people are really confused about what a GMO is and where GMOs are found. Some people tend to think that GMO seeds are similar to the type of hybridization that has been going on amongst gardeners for centuries. Not true! The type of genetic modification that happens to create GMO seeds involves the forceful insertion of things like E.coli genes or genes that produce glyphosphate (an herbicide) or cause Roundup resistance (allowing farmers to dump more Roundup onto the plants) into corn and soybeans and cotton.

GMOs exist for one reason only: for the chemical companies who make them to enable themselves to sell more chemicals to farmers. Do not, I repeat, do not fall for any marketing sales efforts that claim GMOs will help feed the world and save farmers from drought. It’s a lie!!!!

And remember, as I write in “Organic Manifesto,” the only safety testing on humans or animals for GMOs is happening right now, on you, on your kids, and on farm animals around the world. Early results are showing everything from digestive failure to kidney and liver failure and accelerated aging. Terrible stuff.

Here are 10 ways to avoid GMOs:

1. Buy USDA-certified organic food. It is currently the only official way you can avoid GMOs, since GMOs are not allowed to be used according to USDA organic regulations. THANK YOU, GOVERNMENT! (For once!)

2. Avoid all nonorganic soy products like the plague. That means things like nonorganic veggie burgers, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and miso products.

3. Don’t buy anything that claims to be “non-dairy” that isn’t organic. Soy is used to create everything from Cool Whip to Coffee-Mate…in addition to the obvious non-dairy soy treats in your health-food store freezer. Yup, they are filled with GMOs, too.

4. Don’t buy or eat anything with corn in it that isn’t organic. That means corn chips, cereals with corn (or soy, for that matter), or even corn bread!

5. At all costs, eliminate high-fructose corn syrup (a.k.a. “corn sugar”) from your diet. It is just an excuse for chemical companies to convince farmers they can keep growing GMO corn and poisoning you and your family.

6. Avoid biofuels and ethanol; they’re a toxic GMO festival. No one seems to care if corn is poisoned if it’s just going to drive our cars. Problem is, we are all being poisoned by it.

Read the rest here:

http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating-recipes/stories/top-10-ways-to-avoid-gmos

We just finished the first ever Non-GMO month in October. Let’s make it a Non-GMO year!

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-november-5th/

Read more, great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/11/pennywise-platter-thursday-114.html

Read more, great Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/11/real-food-wednesday-11310-2.html

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