Remember the saying “you are what you eat”. Do you ever think about the foods you eat? Where did it come from? Is it fresh? Is it full of pesticides? Is it genetically modified? These are questions that I’ve been pondering lately because I realize that what I’m feeding my family is very different compared to what I ate while growing up.
I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a small town with my Grandparents living less than 50 steps away from my house. My Grandparents grew and raised the majority of the foods we ate. They had two large vegetable gardens and I remember helping to dig up potatoes and picking green beans. I spent many afternoons sitting in front of the air conditioner watching a game show with my Grandparents “shelling” beans. When I wanted fresh fruit, I just walked out the back door to pick an apple or fig from a tree or grapes from the vine. I remember the chickens roosting behind the barn and Grandma gathering the eggs. And I remember “Petunia” the pig who I thought was the coolest pet until I realized she wasn’t a pet at all.
Now that I have a family of my own, I’ve been more concerned with the foods at my table. We’ve all heard of antibiotics given to livestock to prevent illness from the genetically modified corn they are given to eat and to make them fatter thereby giving a bigger profit to the seller—genetically modified corn now with its own pesticide built in. We are eating not a nutrient dense product but a chemically altered one.
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And when you buy organic have you ever thought about the truth in that? If the FDA allows us to eat genetically modified corn with a built in pesticide then what do they allow to be labeled organic?
So what can we do?
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The most important thing that you can do is educate yourself on the foods you eat. Buy local and organic when possible. Organic is more expensive but I assure you that cancer has a bigger cost.
I now receive newsletters from The Cornucopia Institute (a non-profit group working on issues related to organic foods) and according to an article on the site, “Opponents of Monsanto’s new genetically modified sweet corn are petitioning national food retailers and processors to ban the biotech corn, which is not labeled as being genetically altered from conventional corn.” Also quoted in the article Charles Margulis of the Center for Environmental Health said: “This whole, unprocessed corn has been spliced with genes that produce a risky, untested insecticide. Parents should be informed when food on supermarket shelves has been genetically altered.”
That peaked my interest because the name Monsanto rung a bell in my head. Just last week I had a conversation with my brother about this company and how big a part it wants to play in the world’s food supply. And then I remembered that they were also mentioned in the documentary “Food Inc.” which I highly recommend everyone watch.
So, I searched Monsanto’s website to see what they had to say about their GM products. I could hardly believe what I was reading. This comes directly from their website: “The “what’s new” in these crops comes down to new DNA, which in turn produces a new protein (and new RNA encoding that protein). There is no need to test the safety of DNA introduced into GM crops. When a new protein (not normally found in that plant or in other commonly consumed foods) is introduced into a plant, the safety of that protein does need to be addressed. It is standard practice to use animals to test any introduced proteins. Animal testing requires very high doses of the test substance be given. These levels are, by design, many times higher than those which people would actually consume. In GM crops and foods derived from them, introduced proteins are usually present only in minute amounts. Because the levels of protein are so low, it is impossible to test high doses by feeding crops directly to animals. Instead, a purified version of the introduced protein is used in animal studies. “
I don’t know about you, but that does not put me at ease.
And food for thought—how many more food allergies,diabetes, heart disease and cancer cases are there now compared to twenty years ago before these big changes came about in agriculture in our country?