We can demand labeling of our food so that we can choose if we want GMO's

We have watched the oil spilling, no gushing is more accurate from the exploded deepwater drilling rig. We cannot see what is spewing from Fukushima, but we know that it is dangerous and potentially deadly. We see these events in the news yet there is something else potentially equally dangerous, and maybe even worse, and that is genetically modified organisms in the seed that is used to grow our food.

You can watch a very short video about it called CAP THE GENE SPILL from NO GMO on Vimeo.

And you can learn more about why this is so dangerous here in this short piece, What’s the Problem with Monsanto. Slowly but surely over the last twenty five years or so GMO’s have silently made their way into our food supply in the US. Many countries around the globe ban these genetically modified seeds and/or have laws that demand proper food labeling so that consumers can chose if they want to eat these scientifically unproved changes to our food.

This link will take you to a very informative talk on GMO’s that was organized and moderated by Deepak Chopra-it provides a wonderful discussion of the reasons that we need to retreat from this form of agriculture, and at the very least have the right to chose……..

Learn more and join the growing numbers that are saying NO to GMO’s.

We can demand labeling of our food so that we can choose if we want GMO's

If you are wondering what all of the fuss is about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) in our food then this video will tell you much of what you need to know to learn about what they are and how dangerous they are.

You can learn more at the Center for Food Safety web site and also there are a number of stories here at SmartLifeways if you search GMO.

Be one of the Millions Against Monsanto

I am in the process of organizing a last minute rally in Santa Fe, NM to participate in the Millions Against Monsanto -Rally for Our Right To Know. This is an event to bring attention to the widespread use (and rapidly growing) of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) in our food supply.

These are the “Rally Demands:

1. We have the right to know and want genetically modified foods labeled.

2. We want factory farmed animal and genetically modified animal products labeled.

3. We want independent, transparent, long-term studies done on the safety of GMOs for animals/plants/humans.

4. We want the organic industry protected from cross-contamination and law suits to organic farmers.

The FDA currently considers GM foods “substantially equivalent” or GRAS (generally recognized as safe) and therefore doesn’t require labeling. There is a growing body of evidence that show health and environmental concerns, Corporate control of world food and seed supplies, monopolization through patents and government lobbying interest over human interest and safety. Monsanto is the leader in GM patents.”

So what’s wrong with Monsanto, and the other companies selling GMO seed including Syngenta and Dow?

Here are my top issues and I don’t bring in scientific research which does not show that GMO’s are safe. I am not happy with the “generally recognized as safe” attitude of the FDA-most of the submitted studies have come from the companies producing GMO seeds, and how many times have we heard this at first only to learn that our health has been compromised…how about cigarettes?

-GMO seed is often created to withstand larger doses of the herbicide RoundUp (also manufactured by Monsanto), it kills all other plant life as well as insects and poisons birds, and then more contaminated runoff poisons our waterways and ground water, not to mention the workers who grow our food. Many believe the over use of such chemicals will have dire consequences such as infertile soil, non productive crops and less nutritious crops. The use of this chemical also is producing super weeds that are becoming resistant to the herbicide. Another type of genetic modification creates plants that actually produce a pesticide.

-These GMO ingredients are in so many products, and in effect much of this does not need to be in our food, think corn sweeteners. Farmland could be better used and without pesticides and herbicides.

-Farmers cannot use the seed that is left at the end of the season (as has always been the practice) and must buy new seed each year from Monsanto. This puts farmers at the mercy of the company should prices rise on either the seed or the chemicals needed to grow the seeds. This also has created a dangerous dependency on one or a very few companies that control the vast majority of the seeds that grow the food that feeds much of this county and in fact most of the world’s food supply….Scary isn’t it?

-Monsanto has taken an aggressive stand and has been suing farmers who have had their fields “infected” with Monsanto seed. Most farmers cannot afford the costly legal battles and settle with the corporate giant, others fight on for years against the billion dollar company. Hundreds of farmers have been sued by Monsanto.

-Most animals raised in America are eating feed containing genetically engineered ingredients…and no one knows what this can mean for humans and the animals.

-In the European Union genetically modified ingredients must be shown on food packaging. Genetically engineered crops are banned in much of Europe and the use of these seeds has reduced exports. In addition a recent British study states that GE crops have cost American taxpayers $12 billion in farm subsidies in the past three years.

-Monsanto is the creator of Agent Orange (remember they said that was safe too), PCB’s  and their bi-product dioxin. Do you want them controlling the world’s food supply?

90% of Canola, Soy, Corn, Cotton are genetically modified.

If it doesn’t say organic it probably has GMO ingredients.

Don’t you have the right to know?

Join in the rally to demand accurate food labeling. You will find tools here to assist you in taking action letting our government and markets know that this matters to you.

For more information on this important subject check out these web sites and search “Monsanto” on SmartLifeways.

Organic Consumers Association

Center For Food Safety

Cornucopia Institute

Is this really organic milk? Synthetic additives have no place in organics.

For many who have recently transitioned to eating organic food (and even for many who have been eating organic for years), it can seem like an easy change…just buy products that are labeled “Organic”. Sad to say but today not all organics are really what many of us, myself included, would consider organic in the true sense of the word.

Most of these “quasi-organic” products come from companies that once may have been organic in theory and in fact but are now owned by major industrial food suppliers like Dean Foods, M&M Mars, and General Mills-not quite the quant little farm you imagined from the label. If you want to see how knowledgable you are about the food that you are buying here is an earlier post with a test, brought to us from Planet Green, of who owns what brands…you may be surprised who actually owns some of the most popular organic brands.

One area where there is much controversy surrounding organics is milk, and this heated up in January when GMO-alfalfa was approved by Tom Vilsack, the head of the Department of Agriculture. The potential for cross-contamination of organically grown alfalfa is greatly increased since this was passed and the consequences could be huge for organically fed cows.

Beyond the GMO controversy, which is something more citizens need to become aware of (did you know that GMO crops use more pesticides because they have been genetically altered to withstand more spraying while the surrounding weeds and insects are killed) there is also the issue of what is truly organic. This article from Tom Philpott at Grist about Horizon brand milk, owned by Dean Foods and the largest selling brand of organic milk in the US, and their use of synthetic DHA in what is labeled organic is right to the point about the differences in organics.

Synthetic additives have no business in anything labeled organic and in fact the USDA “recently acknowledged that it was “incorrect” to allow synthetic DHA in organic products in the first place”. But such products still carry the USDA organic label.  When cows graze on grass they naturally have healthier fats including the Omega-3′s that Dean is adding in synthetic form. So much of today’s food is just messing with what nature has provided for centuries and instead uses chemical additives that are being shown to be harmful to humans and animals as well (over 70% of all antibiotics in the US are used on farm animals, and that means you are getting the antibiotics when you eat those animals). It’s time to get back to food as nature makes it not mega food corporations, that don’t really care about your health just your shopping dollars.

Our food supply is something that is necessary for our survival and in fact beyond mere survival, for us to flourish as human beings and not be hampered by recurring and chronic illness. What many in the food industry have done is replace good, healthy, natural food with more and more synthetic compounds that our bodies are not meant to ingest. It is no coincidence that since the widespread introduction in our food supply of industrially grown, pesticide sprayed and synthetically created compounds health problems have sky rocketed in the US, not to mention health care costs.

Many have thought that anything labeled organic would protect them, however with the USDA’s labeling and bowing down to corporate interests not all organics are really organic anymore. Here is another post that can help in making more informed decisions when you shop, and more on Dean Foods, they also own Silk soy milk.

So while switching to organic can be a tremendous benefit to your health we all could  be a little bit more attentive when we shop rather than just picking up anything labeled organic. Unfortunately government standardization of organics diluted rather than strengthened what organic really means.

Eating well is up to each of us. photo by Karin Lau from Fotolia

I doubt that there are many of us who do not recognize the increasing influence of big business that has been creeping into the political process over the last decades. The most recent election was a free for all when it came to campaign contributions, and for many of these contributions we the public are unable to even know who they came from. I don’t know about you, but to me something seems very wrong with this development in what is supposed to be a democracy. We the people. are supposed to be where the power comes from, not corporations who have plenty of cash to fund candidates.

I often write about the power that we do have, and that is when it comes to how we spend our money…where we shop and what we buy is a powerful force and one being recognized by the large companies trying to get our shopping dollars. Recently Starbucks has been opening new shops and not even calling them Starbucks to appear to be “local” coffeehouses, not corporate ones.

Shopping local is one way that we can support our local economies, farmers and artisans, and  maintain diversity in our food choices and maybe more importantly really know what is in our food and other products that we use regularly.

Did you know that personal care and cosmetic companies do not have to tell us all of the ingredients that are inside the products that we use? They say they will be disclosing trade secrets. When you read “fragrance” on a label it is often synthetic chemical compounds (you can read more about this at The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics) that may be dangerous to our health. I think that we have a right to know. These secrets should not be allowed but since they are we can buy products that do tell us what we are putting in and on our bodies, and we can chose what we buy with more knowledge. You can learn more about what may be in the products that you use regularly by watching Annie Leonard’s The Story of Cosmetics.

We also can buy our food from local growers and ask them directly what they use as pesticides and if they use GMO seed. Most small farmers would never use GE (genetically engineered) seed since it is expensive, is designed to withstand more pesticides and farmers cannot use the seed that the plants produce at the end of the season. No one benefits except the big companies like Monsanto that produce this seed.

When we buy non-organic products we may be eating genetically modified ingredients and we have no way to know because the corporations that create genetically engineered seed have lobbied to not have to disclose this. Now we only know if the product says Non-GMO on the packaging. That seems strange to me…the companies using GMO’s don’t have to put it on their labels so now the ones that don’t use it are putting it on the label.

The Organic Consumers Association-OCA-has a new campaign called Breaking the Chains. ”The campaign is focusing consumers’ attention on how each purchasing decision can lead to a safer, greener, and more equitable society. Millions of green minded consumers around the world have broken the chains of corporate control in their own lives, by supporting organic, Fair Made, and locally produced products and businesses.”

Read their Declaration of Interdependence and join the campaign to break free from corporate control of what we eat and use daily. Their web site explains why it is important to break these chains and how organic and shopping local benefits so many more than supporting big-box buying. This is where we consumers have so much power and it is up to us to use it.

So while the political process may seem to be driven less and less by we the people we can show the big corporations that we do have a voice and we will use it. In the end business is in business to make profits and we can show what kind of business we will be supporting from here on out. It is our choice, our dollars and our future…let’s make more conscious choices in all of these areas.

What is really in your corn?

Just saw this wonderful five minute video of what is wrong, and also what is right about our food system at Civil eats (a great web site).

What makes it even more extraordinary is that it is given by an eleven year old at a TEDx event.

This is all so obvious that a child can recognize why we need to make a change in our agricultural systems and food culture in general… if we can call if a “culture”.  The good news is it really is this simple to change it. It is up to us to demand the kind of food that nourishes us rather than make us sick, and recreate a system that is not dependent on fossil fuels and pollutes the earth and local communities.

Just stop buying food that is genetically engineered and that will make a huge difference. Tell your grocer that you want to know what you are putting in your body.

What is really in your food? We have a right to know if it's GMO. photo by moxduul from fotolia

Here are 12 facts about food that you may or may not want to know, but you really should be aware of. This comes from The Ecologist magazine that is published in the UK and the information was taken from a book called The Little Book of Shocking Food Facts by Craig Holden Feinberg and Dale Petersen.

I knew that artificial sweeteners were bad for us but did not realize that aspartame once ingested converts to formaldehyde, a toxic and carcinogenic substance that then accumulates in the liver, kidneys and brain.

Globally there are 3 million cases of acute pesticide poisoning each year resulting in 220,000 deaths. So the next time that you have a conversation about organic vs. commercially grown food, or are trying to decide if organics are worth the cost, keep this in mind. These chemicals do more than just kill weeds and insects, they are making us sick, destroying our topsoil and creating polluted runoff water that in turn is creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, and other waterways.

The news is not all bad. In 2006 purchases for FairTrade certified products increased 42% from 2005. This benefited over 7 million people in developing countries…our dollars do make a difference for positive or negative change.

These are just three of the “facts” from the magazine and the book. If you would like to learn more you can order a copy of the book from your local Independent bookstore at the link below. And keep in mind, if the statistics quoted are regarding the UK you can bet it is worse in the US.

Eating well can be part of college cafeteria food. photo by Karin Lau from Fotolia

I just came across this great blog that was started by a student at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and now has been taken over by another student, to encourage bringing sustainably raised food to colleges across the country. Many schools are working on this drastic change to what usually had been found on campus, and the blog was a desire to share information on how this was being accomplished.

Food service budgets at Colleges and Universities are substantial and changing the buying habits brings better food to the students, business to local growers and others who are growing sustainably, and ultimately helps to shift away from an industrial agricultural model that uses pesticide & herbicides, GMO seed and is causing so much destruction in so many ways.

There also is a guide on how to go organic on campus. You will find lots of great information, and inspiration, that is relevant to all of us. It could also be a great source of information for any institution that is making the transition to better quality food.

The most recent post is about the best documentaries on eating green. Take a peek, the list is a good one. It includes some films that have been mentioned here before, but there were a few on the list that were new titles to me.

Many of us either know someone in college, or maybe are in college, let’s see what we can do to help in this food revolution. It will create a healthier future for those in school, help support sustainable and local farmers, help the environment and maybe most important create future generations that will demand clean, green, sustainably raised food-and business will respond to demand.

Real food or manufactured food. It's up to us to say no to GMO

Going GMO free….

After reading about the possible health effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn April Dávila did some research and then decided to go “Monsanto-free” for a month. You can read her story at Yes magazine (a great magazine if you don’t know about it).

What she discovered was that this was not such an easy undertaking. I’ve written a number of times about Monsanto and how prevalent they are in the food supply, and now we learn not just the commercial food chain.

Even eating strictly organic may not avoid Monsanto’s reach. Monsanto owns the majority of seed lines and this includes organic seeds…shocking I know. So trying to go Monsanto-free posed a challenge since Monsanto’s organic seed could be the source of prepared organic food, or even fresh organic produce. There are still a few brands of organic food that remain independently owned and they seriously scrutinize their supply chain. Here is an amazing chart from the Cornucopia Institute that shows who really owns many of the most common organic prepared food products.

Did you know that Muir Glen and Cascadian Farms are owned by General Mills?

Or that White Wave and Silk soy products are owned by Dean foods?

Check out this chart it is pretty scary that the majority of organic food products are actually owned by commercial food mega-corporations.

In a recent story along these lines Seeds of Change, a very cool company that produces organic seed had its New Mexico offices and farm closed and the staff that was asked to stay, and chose to stay, are moving to the California headquarters of their parent company…Mars Candy! What will now happen to Seeds of Change seed line remains to be seen, but their farm here in Northern New Mexico is definitely being shut down.

We are exceedingly vulnerable when so many organic product companies have been acquired by mainstream corporations where the bottom line is what motivates, not a desire to really go organic and create all the benefits that can go along with that-cleaning up the environment, the water, providing good, safe jobs and creating community.

Eating commercial meat can also lead back to Monsanto. According to this article sixty percent of genetically modified corn goes to feed cattle. Monsanto patented and produced recombinant growth hormone (rBGH), which is used to increase dairy production, but there had been such a public backlash against it Monsanto had tried to sell this division in 2008 and they finally found a buyer …Elanco, a division Eli Lilly. Yup the pharmaceutical company now sells the growth hormone and you had better watch your ice cream, if it isn’t organic it may still have rBGH in it. Click here to join the rBGH boycott.

Take a peek at this good read that includes four basic guidelines for avoiding Monsanto products and that means avoiding genetically modified organisms. We don’t have to be a part of this human experiment…say No to GMO

Here is a great article fresh from the Huffington Post by John Robbins on rBGH in ice cream and more about Monsanto. It is a bit shocking when you get to the part about the man who worked for Monsanto, and then he worked for the FDA and just happened to approve rBGH for cows, and then he went back to Monsanto. And did I mention he is now back at the FDA…something’s fishy here.

This is something that we all need to pay attention to, and stop….The FDA is considering approving GE (genetically engineered) salmon for human consumption. I don’t know about you, but I like my salmon to be 100% salmon, with no genes from other species….

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on August 25, 2010, that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption. The GE Atlantic salmon being considered was developed by AquaBounty Technologies, and genetically engineered to produce growth hormones year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows at twice the normal rate. This could allow factory fish farms to crowd the salmon into pens and still get high production rates.”

Have your voice count to stop this before it is too late to save salmon, the real ones. Click here to have your voice heard that you are opposed to this-if you are.

There are a lot of reasons why we need to stop this…

These genetically engineered fish could escape the “farms” and mate with the real salmon and this could lead to their extinction. Imagine if this happens there could come a time when “real” salmon no longer exist…just genetically modified ones.

Fish raised in farms are very susceptible to disease and are fed antibiotics regularly (one important reason why it is best to only eat wild fish). It is believed that GE salmon may even be more susceptible to disease so they would be fed even more antibiotics to keep them “healthy”.

This transgenic fish will grow twice as fast thanks to excessively working hormones, but what will this mean for those who eat them? Will their hormones also start working overtime? We are seeing that products with chemicals that interfere with our hormone system can be really damaging, offsetting our bodies delicate balance. We are not meant to be exposed to so many chemicals in our lifetime.

Many scientists and doctors believe that endocrine disruptors could be the cause of neuro-developmental problems such as reduced IQ, ADHD and autism. Or maybe the excessive hormone production in these laboratory created salmon will have an effect like Xenoestrogens. These man made compounds have estrogenic effects but are chemically different from naturally occurring estrogen. Their human impact is still inder study but many believe that they are leading to reduced sperm counts, breast cancer cell growth and in fish, altered sex ratios, male fish just don’t develop or they become female. It is time for the public to say no to being part of an experiment.

Beyond the possibility that our hormones could go awry many doctors and scientists are speaking out about the danger in general that we face from eating genetically modified food, yet it is on our shelves and does not even have to be labeled.

We can stop buying genetically modified food and send letters or call companies advising them that we have stopped using their products for this reason. Walmart even stopped carrying milk that was from cows injected with rBGH. If enough people do this the companies will change–they just want to sell products and if we support non-GMO, organically grown food more and more will be available. It is up to us.

I think that it is time for us to stop manipulating nature and stop being a part of this. This step to approving GE salmon is a huge one and the ramifications are great and frightening. Let’s not let this genie out of the bottle, when we do not really know what could happen–too much is at stake.

Check this out and sign the petition if you agree. “The hearing for approving the salmon is scheduled for Sunday, September 19, and no public comment period has been established for the approval of genetically engineered fish outside of this meeting, so this may be our only chance to oppose this dangerous approval!”

You can also call the FDA, your representatives, hey call your President and let him know that you are quite satisfied with salmon as nature makes it and you don’t want the FDA to approve GE salmon…ever!