Ways to avoid biotech food

[nosmokes]

oiginal-chitrib

Originally posted: May 3, 2007
Ways to avoid biotech food
By Julie Deardorff

If you’re trying to avoid eating genetically engineered food, good luck. An estimated 75 percent of processed food on supermarket shelves contains at least one genetically engineered ingredient, but it’s not labeled.

The safety of genetically modified food has not been studied over the long term, which is why some consider it one of the largest uncontrolled experiments in modern history.

The good news, says Andrew Kimbrell, in "Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and The Secret Changes in Your Food" (Earth Aware, $24.95), is that it’s pretty easy to avoid biotech foods if you eat whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, rice wheat and other grains and beans.
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complete article here

[twenty4blackbirds]

1. ...missing the 'f'...

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2007/05/ways_to_avoid_b.html

Thanks for the pointer

[DemBones DemBones]

2. It's incredible that GMOs are in our foods and we were never

asked if we wanted them, or told they were being added. Europeans were onto this problem long before we were in that they raised hell about it. We're such a large and diverse society that we can't seem to get organized to fight the things we ought to fight. I wonder if the EU allows High Fructose Corn Syrup in virtually everything? That's another thing that was slipped into our food without our knowledge or consent.

I think it's what's called "learned helplessness." We have written letters, made phone calls, sent e-mails, marched, etc., and it has done no good so we feel helpless to effect change in the US.

Thanks for the article! Any tips about avoiding GMOs are always welcome.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Just a kick to observe that there are

quite a few people posting over there about the article, some claiming that Genetically Modified Organisms are nothing new, farmers have been crossbreeding forever. Guys, if you don't know the difference between cross breeding/ hybridization and genetic modification, please inform yourselves about that and the arguments against GMOs before you defend them.

Others are citing "studies" done by parties with financial interests in GM foods, which shouldn't be trusted one bit more than the "studies" showing "cigarette smoking is safe" conducted by scientists employed by the tobacco industry.

Another tactic is claiming that people don't understand that farmers are really good people and are not "hicks," although nobody had argued that farmers aren't good people or that they are "hicks." One pro-GMO poster claims to be a farmer herself but doesn't seem too knowledgeable about GM crops.

And then there's the ever-popular "They haven't been proven dangerous yet," with "yet" being the key word. An awful lot of scientific advances were thought to be perfectly safe until they were found to cause cancer or heart attacks, etc., effects that didn't show up for decades after they went on the market.

Paid operatives of Monsanto? Or just people who believe what Monsanto is selling?

One poster is refuting the pro-GM posts nicely, while another pointed out that if people want to eat GM foods, nobody's trying to stop them from doing so. The article is simply about how to avoid GM foods for those of us who wish to do so and are justifiably annoyed that our government does not require manufacturers to state on labels whether their product contains GMOs or not.

Most if not all manufacturers of foods aimed at the increasing market niche of vegetarians and vegans do in fact specify that GMOs are not used in their products. Of course if you're a skeptic about corporate claims, as I am, you wonder if it's true or just words they know we want to see on products we buy. We know that the word "Organic" is applied to foods that are not in fact grown without pesticides and using only natural fertilizers as well as to those which are grown by "organic" methods (which used to be simply called "farming.")

When are we going to get people in power with the cojones to stand up for the rights of citizens to have healthy food, not to mention clean air and water and safe medications, against the desires of corporations to make money with no concern for their company's impact on the health of their fellow human beings?

[nam78_two]

4. K&R.nt

[Cha]

5. I'm beginning to feel

fortunate that I've been in the natural health business for 30 years and been around organic farmers and their produce. It's been easy to fall into a healthy lifestyle.

Before, we were trying to avoid chemicals and bug poisons..now we are saying "NO" to "the largest uncontrolled experiments in modern history"!!

And they want to regulate our alternative medicine but they don't give a shite about fuckin'frankenfood.