Video about labeling GMOs

Watch this video about why genetically modified foods should be labeled.

We want GM food labeled!

The EWG is seeking signatures for their petition to the FDA, telling them we want genetically modified foods labeled.

This photo I saw on Facebook summarizes it perfectly!

Stopping GE foods at the source: manufacturers

This is my 400th post on this blog since I started it in August 2007!

My favorite grocery store, Vitamin Cottage (Natural Grocers) had this letter for shoppers today.  I thought it was good enough to share here:

So far this year, there has been a flood of approvals for genetically-engineered (GE) foods, beginning with GE alfalfa.  Soon after the USDA approved GE alfalfa, the agency defied a federal court order which had stopped the planting of GE sugar beets and approved a “partial deregulation” of Roundup Ready sugar beets to be planted in the spring.  Sugar beets are used for sugar production and to make ethanol fuel.  Following on the heels of the partial deregulation of sugar beets, the USDA approved a GE industrial corn to use for ethanol production, which farmers and industry experts fear will pollute our edible corn supply, and a drought-resistant corn which the agency admits performs no better than conventional corn.  Genetically-modified salmon and a GE plum, the “HoneySweet,” are next on the list to be approved.  According to the USDA’s own website, “HoneySweet will cross with other domestic plum trees” and there is a fear that GE salmon will irreversibly affect the wild salmon population.

How to avoid GMOs

I recently got a handy guide from my CSA farm called the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, created by the Center for Food Safety.  I thought I’d share some of the information in it, and you can visit NONgmoShoppingGuide.com for more.

What are GMOs?

Genetically Modified Organisms are foods that have had genes artificially inserted into their DNA, possibly using genes from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals, or even humans.  Most Americans say they wouldn’t eat GMOs if they were labeled, but unlike most other industrialized countries, the U.S. does not label GMOs.

How can you avoid GMOs?

1. Buy organic – Certified organic products cannot contain any GMOs.  Even products only labeled “made with organic ingredients” (which means 70% of the ingredients must be organic) have to contain 100% non-GMO foods.
2. Buy foods labeled non-GMO.
3. Avoid at risk ingredients – Foods likely to be genetically modified include corn (flour, meal, starch, gluten, and syrup), sweeteners such as fructose, dextrose, and glucose, modified food starch, soy, soy lecithin, vegetable oil (which is usually soy), canola oil, cottonseed oil, and sugar (only 100% cane sugar is GMO free.  Otherwise, it could be GM beet sugar).

GM corn may cause liver and kidney damage

Monsanto, the creator of genetically modified corn seed, released raw data recently after a legal challenge from Greenpeace, the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and French anti-GM campaigners.  Scientists examining the raw data found that rats which ate the GM corn had “statistically significant signs of liver and kidney damage.”  Each of the three strains tested were linked to unusual concentrations of hormones in the rats fed the GM corn for only 3 months, compared to controls.  Females rats also had higher blood sugar levels and triglycerides.  This leads me to two questions…

Feeding Baby Green

I have recommended the book Raising Baby Green on this blog, and now the author, pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene, has recently released another similar book called Feeding Baby Green.  Even if you’re not pregnant or don’t have babies, this is a fascinating book on food and feeding children.  Dr. Greene theorizes that the reason so many children today love bland, processed food is that they’ve been raised on bland, flavorless baby food.  For thousands of years, babies have eaten what mom and dad eat, just mashed up and in smaller amounts.  But for the past 50 years in the U.S., our babies eat jars of perfectly pureed baby food with unnecessary additives (fillers, salt, and sugar).  No wonder our children don’t want to eat much more than mac and cheese, pizza, or fries.

Dr. Greene also talks about some new interesting research that suggests that a baby in utero can taste the foods its mother is eating through the amniotic fluid.  I have heard that baby can taste flavors in mother’s breast milk depending on what she ate.  But I didn’t know that baby actually drank amniotic fluid for nutrition (it contains protein!) and that the amniotic fluid can be flavored by what mom recently ate.  A study gave mothers carrot juice for 4 weeks during the pregnancy (total of 3.5 liters of carrot juice), while a control group drank water, and found that the baby’s whose mother had drank carrot juice much preferred carrots at 6 months of age to the control group.  Amazing!  That certainly suggests that mom can have a powerful influence over baby’s food preferences by what she eats when she’s pregnant.

A few other great pieces of information from the book:

• A 2008 analysis has shown that by choosing organic produce across the board, you can slash pesticide exposure from food by 97%.  You can also greatly reduce pesticide exposure by choosing domestic produce in season.

The Food Revolution

I read this book months ago and have been meaning to write a review of it on this blog since then.  It is so chock-full of information that I want to share, that I found it hard to figure out where to begin.

The book is written by John Robbins, the son of the founder of Baskin Robbins ice cream.  While he grew up eating ice cream daily, he now believes that better health can be achieved by avoiding animal products.  The Food Revolution (2001) is his updated argument for a vegan diet, following his popular book A Diet for a New America (1987).

The book is broken down into four parts:

1. Food and Healing – the role of animal products in human health.
2. Our Food, Our Fellow Creatures – an examination of the treatment of the animals we eat.
3. Our Food, Our World – how our diet affects the planet.
4. Genetic Engineering – an alarming account of genetic engineering, written before it became as pervasive as it is now.

Here are some interesting facts and excerpts from the Food and Healing section:

• Average cholesterol in the U.S.:  210.  Average cholesterol of U.S. vegetarians: 161.  Average cholesterol of U.S. vegans:  133.
• Incidence of high blood pressure in meat eaters compared to vegetarians:  nearly triple.
• Patients with high blood pressure who are able to completely discontinue use of medications after adopting a low-sodium, low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet:  58%.

The Future of Food

I just saw the 2004 documentary The Future of Food, all about biotechnology and genetic engineering of crops.  It was really wonderful, with a moving final scene showing how we can avoid the direction we’re headed in.  Here are some startling facts from the film:

• 97% of the vegetables grown at the beginning of the 20th century are now extinct.  Very few varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown today.
• Companies don’t want genetically modified (GM) foods labeled because they don’t want consumers to know about it, but also perhaps more importantly, because we can’t trace the health effects of GM foods if they’re not labeled.
• 75% of Europeans don’t want GM foods in their stores.
• More than 80% of Americans polled want GM foods labeled in the U.S.

Food, Inc.

I just saw an early showing of the movie Food, Inc. last night and it was amazing.  The movie features various segments discussing the industrialization of our food.  It features significant interviews from the author of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma/In Defense of Food.  It shows clips inside chicken houses, meat packing plants, and farms.  Here are some startling facts from the film:

• Our food supply has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.
• In 1996, 2% of soybeans grown in the U.S. were genetically modified.  In 2008, 90% were.

The Unhealthy Truth

It’s not very often that I read a book that I think everyone needs to read.  In fact, since I started this blog almost two years ago, it’s only happened once with In Defense of Food.  However, I just finished reading The Unhealthy Truth, which came out last month, and I think that every parent should read it.

The Unhealthy Truth is written by a mother of four.  Her youngest child had a severe allergic reaction to eggs and it started her on a search for answers that she documents in her book–why are so many children developing allergies these days, what has happened to our food supply in the last few decades, and why is American food not as safe as that found in other countries like Japan, Australia, and those in Europe?  At first, I was hesitant to read a book written by “just a mom.”  What were her qualifications?  I’d much rather read a book by a scientist, doctor, or some other highly educated, qualified person.  But I have to say that the author’s role as a mother made her book very accessible and easy to read.  It was also great to relate to her as a parent.  And in the end, I think more people will enjoy a book like this than books written by Ph.D.s and MDs, as I, a recovering scientist, do.  After all, this book is about as close to a page-turner as you can get while still delivering as much information as it does.  I honestly read the first half of it in about 24 hours.