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

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

There has been much written about the frightening aspects of fast food meat, from how the animals are raised to massive amount of antibiotics and hormones these animals are given, not too mention the massive amounts of polluting waste coming from these large factory farms, also known as CAFO’s (concentrated animal feeding operations). Did you know that 80% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to livestock? And these are used for “prevention” leading to antibiotic resistant organisms not only in livestock but humans as well.

But now there is even bad news about the soda being served. Treehugger ran this story on fecal bacteria and E.Coli that was found in soda being served at fast food establishments (I can’t even call them restaurants). So if you are still drinking sodas this may be a good reason to at least not buy them from any fast food stop…besides dangerous amounts of sugar or sugar substitutes (even more dangerous to your health) you may be getting  more than you expect in your soda.

Treehugger also reported today that a recent study indicates that diet drinks may be contributing to a 61% higher risk for strokes as well. Just a little more incentive to stop drinking this stuff. Not to mention all of the water used to produce soft drinks and the huge amount of plastic bottles and aluminum cans that wind up in landfills and the ocean.

Maybe if more of us were drinking water we would be demanding cleaner water from our faucets. And just as a reminder bottled water is less regulated and tested than what you get from the tap. For more on bottled water you can check out this post about the film Tapped and World Water Day. By the way some of the most popular brands of bottled water like Aquafina and Dasani come from municipal water supplies, another reason to demand clean water from our cities and to stop buying bottled water. Annie Leonard also has a great video called The Story of Water if you want to learn more.

The bottom line is we need to see how far away our food has gone from really feeding us, and how damaging to our bodies, the environment and animals it has become. Shopping local and buying organic, or growing your own food are great steps to take to reverse these dangerous trends. What we eat and drink really matters.

Do you know what your strawberries are sprayed with? If we don't take action they will be sprayed with a know carcinogen and neurotoxin called methyl iodide.

You can let California’s Governor-Elect Jerry Brown know that you don’t want your strawberries sprayed with a known carcinogen and neurotoxin. There was public and scientific opposition to approving methyl iodide but lobbying and corporate interests won out over the health of strawberry consumers across the country (90% of all strawberries consumed in the U.S. come from California), farmworkers and residents near fields where strawberries are grown.

So much for Terminator-Governator Schwarzenegger going “Green“.

This decision can be reversed-Please read the petition to ask California’s new Governor to issue a moratorium on methyl iodide. Scientific and public opinion must start taking priority over corporate profits in all areas and this is one place to start. It is up to us to let our elected officials know that we are paying attention and will hold them accountable if they continue disregarding our health and welfare…we vote for them and put them in office.

Buy local when you can and ask your farmers what pesticides they use.

We should not have to eat strawberries that have been sprayed with pesticides that are carcinogenic and neurotoxins.

A real pizza made from fresh ingredients and not loaded with fat. At Delfina-San Francisco

Over the weekend the New York Times ran a story on how the government is helping to increase cheese sales by promoting a new line of Domino’s pizza with 40 percent more cheese, since more cheese on products has been shown to boost sales.

You might be asking why is the government promoting Dominos’s pizza (and using $12 million to actually pay for marketing their campaign) while at the same time supposedly trying to reverse the growing problem of obesity in America. This is like offering chocolate cake to a friend who is on a diet. Talk about mixed messages.

How is the government involved in this? A marketing creation of the USDA, Dairy Management works to promote greater consumption of dairy products, and cheese is an easy way to accomplish this and use the full fat milk that people are drinking less of. According to the Times article, “Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry, [which you can bet is passed along to consumers in dairy prices]. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.” So make no mistake the USDA is supporting Dairy Management in many ways.

Maybe if we stopped the use of hormones and brought milk production back to healthy levels for the cows we would not have an industry producing more than there is a market for. Why is it the government is so involved in supporting industries (like Big-Ag and the dairy industry) that are contributing to many problems such as obesity that leads to health issues, and then rising health-care costs, or polluting ground water and rivers from the use of hormones, antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides, that we all then have to pay for?

These are important questions to start asking especially as funding disappears for important programs (how about education, reasonable health care or feeding and sheltering our fellow citizens many of whom have hit hard times from the loss of savings and retirement funds as the banks collapsed and we bailed them out, but not the everyday people effected?) that could create a better future for all of us, not just a small segment of society. How about using USDA funding to promote organics and hormone/antibiotic free products that do not cause health problems and excessive production of food where demand must then be manufactured through more marketing. We are also paying to subsidize the massive production of corn not for eating but for creating sweeteners that further contribute to obesity-you can read more about this here.

Cheese consumption in the US has almost tripled since the 1970’s according the NY Times article. It is no coincidence that mozzarella accounts for nearly a third of US cheese consumption since it is the most commonly used cheese on pizza.  I lived in Europe for many years where they eat a lot of cheese, more than here in the US, but somehow it is not such a problem. My guess is that in general Europeans are enjoying a better quality of cheese, usually without hormones and antibiotics, and they do not consume as much “fast food” that is often loaded with cheese. Unfortunately this is changing too as obesity rates start to rise in Europe as well; I am sure it is no coincidence that this has paralleled the rise in fast-food outlets.

We can see how it is the system itself that is creating many of the problems that we are facing today. Massive, large scale agriculture and raising animals in factory-like settings just doesn’t work (except perhaps for stockholders) and we need to change this system.

How can we do this?

We can write or call our representatives letting them know that we want more funding for health-promoting programs, not ones that encourage eating food that is clearly unhealthy and not meant for regular, habitual consumption…If you eat pizza, and I do, make it a healthy one and really enjoy it. It is up to us to make our government responsible to us the voters, not lobbyists with deep pockets who represent a small segment of society.

We also have an opportunity every time we shop and eat to show what we want on our plates and in our bodies. If enough of us stop buying this sort of food (and other products that are harmful) business will respond-after all they are in business to make money so they will give us what we want, if we let them know.

Remember that you vote with your fork three times a day so make your vote count for something positive.

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.

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.

Eating eggs shouldn't be like playing Russian Roulette

The egg recall of a half billion eggs (that is a lot of eggs to collect) that is just winding down will hopefully be a wake-up call to the realities of industrialized, factory produced food and the dangers of large, concentrated food producers who supply the entire country…not to mention companies that have repeatedly violated food safety standards yet are still in business.

Over the last year there have been so many food scares involving food recalls it is becoming common place. Does this remind you of some science fiction movie? It does me.

The good news is that over the weekend sales of eggs at farmers markets were a farmers dream come true. This MSNBC article talks about farmers markets from coast to coast that had record days with their eggs. Many egg sellers sold out before noon and had new customers, as well as many buying more than just one dozen.

This NY Times article from yesterday points out how this salmonella outbreak brings to light the flaws in our commercial, industrialized food system and the governments food safety system. We can see how the system broke down and much of that was due to lax regulations and a strange division of responsibilities between the Dept. of Agriculture and the FDA. It is a system that has not been modified to protect the public given today’s industrialized food model.

Hopefully many will realize that even with better regulation, which surely is needed, the system as it functions just doesn’t make sense. Industrialized factory food creates more pollution than smaller scale production of chickens, cows and even produce. When animals are allowed to exist as they do in nature with room to roam, cow or chicken, what creates a toxic pond at a factory farm can now fertilize the land and improve it. With smaller production more jobs are created and more humane ones. The film and book Fast Food Nation is a journey into the world of industrial farms and our food system.

Smaller but more numerous farms and ranches also means shorter drives to market. Just two factories distributed all of these tainted eggs from coast to coast. Imagine how much fuel it takes to transport a half billion eggs. When you buy local you are helping to conserve oil and reduce the pollution from all of those “food miles”.

Another problem with this system is that so much of our crops need to go to feeding livestock. Over 75% of all corn grown in America is used to feed livestock not people. On the open range cows graze, and supplementing their diet with hay is much better for the land and especially for the animals. Cows were not even meant to eat corn, it actually makes them sick, so then they need to be given antibiotics…it goes on and on and a cycle is created from this crazy food system that takes a bad situation, so many animals crammed into awful conditions and makes it worse.

And imagine the life that chickens have living in confined cages where they cannot even sit compared to animals that are outside and leading relatively normal lives. The question of even eating meat is one that many people grapple with, but whether you chose a vegetarian lifestyle or not the bottom line is our system of factory farms is really awful for everyone involved, except the top management and stockholders of these companies. So if you do eat meat support local, sustainable, humane producers-they are out there and they need our support to survive.

The current laws and regulations have been created amidst an environment of lobbyists who have had the government’s ear, and politician’s pockets, more than we the people, but this scare could be an important part of changing this. We need to speak out louder and let our elected officials know that we demand something different. It is important to show that we mean this by shopping at farmers markets, local coops, buying pesticide and antibiotic free, non-GMO food and humanely raised, grazing animals. Here is a link to Local Harvest, an organization that lists farmers markets across the country in case you don’t know where one is nearby.

It is up to us to act. So let this most recent salmonella outbreak be the straw that breaks the camels back and start shopping local if you don’t already. Not only will you protect yourself and your loved ones from future outbreaks, you will make a big step in protecting the environment and your health and you will be eating much better quality food.