What We're Eating

After my August posting on GMO corn and the need to buy organic, a friend sent me a list, many pages long, of grocery items (including brand-names) that are contaminated with genetically engineered ingredients.  I found the scope to be quite startling including infant formula, granola bars, chocolate syrup, mayonnaise, salsa, cake mixes, frozen dinners, cereals, soups, soy products, boxes of rice, potato chips, soda and juice drinks, you name it.  Here is the link to that Comprehensive List.

It seems that some twenty years ago, the FDA decided that genetically engineered products did not need testing ... or labeling.  Fortunately, the Europeans have not been so corporate-friendly and have come up with their own tests that make it plain that GMO products are a definite health risk.  France is trying to ban GMOs from all EU countries.  Russian scientists condemn GMOs as well.  Here is a short (15-minute) film about the unparalleled threats ("nothing like them has ever existed") of GMO ingredients.  Film link

But there is some good news.  There is now a Non-GMO Project that puts its logo on GMO-free items.  If you go to their site here, you can do a search for specific items.

This is what the Non-GMO Project logo looks like, found here on a package of Lundberg™ Brown Rice Organic Rice Cakes

I feel fortunate to live in a town where we have an aware, au courant food co-op with a wide choice for those seeking organic, gluten-free, vegan, bulk, and (just getting started) non-GMO items.  Any bulk item labeled "organic" is GMO-free.  But even in our spiffy co-op, though meats now specify if they are hormone or antibiotic free, they make no claim to be GMO-free (though we do have a section for grass-fed beef).  So the animals could have been fed GMO grain and we wouldn't know it.  The same problem is surely true for those juicy rotisseried chickens in the deli.  They are labeled "natural" but that doesn't answer the question.  And then what about eggs and dairy products?  And cake mixes with powdered milk or cookies that contain eggs or soups with cream?  My understanding is that unless the item is specifically marked "organic" or "non-GMO," the chances are good that it has genetically engineered ingredients or the animals from which they came were fed GMO grain.

Here, at the top, is another GMO-free notice.

Obviously, the closer we can buy to the food source, the better since we can then query the grower directly.  Did you feed your chickens GMO corn?  Did you plant non-GMO seeds?  And the more we pester store managers with questions (and objections), the more awareness we will raise.

I've waited to post this until after the election to see if California's Proposition 37 passed--the Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food Initiative--or if the corporations won again.  They did; it failed.  (Monsanto, largest developer of genetically engineered crops, spent some $46 million to block it.)  New state initiatives, however, are planned for Oregon and Washington.  And there's apparently a citizens' petition before the FDA.

Though our food co-op's prices can be higher than those found in regular supermarkets, I'm still going to shop there.  (Smaller helpings are always an option.)  Since I prefer to stick around as long as possible, then, yes, I'll buy organic and non-GMO and, yes, I'll pay more at the check-out.  But I figure I'll lessen the doctor bills later.