Sunday, October 16, 2011

Do You Eat Foods Containing GMOs?

It’s Blog Action Day and the topic for 2011 is FOOD. Above, visitors arriving at Oysterfest yesterday morning. How appropriate for this post to have, as a backdrop, Wellfleet Marketplace where Wellfleetians buy food. At Oysterfest, we celebrate the oyster, a food consumed by Native Americans, then Cape Cod settlers, who threw the shells out their windows. Winslow’s Tavern gives a good description of why Wellfleet oysters are the best on Winslow’s Blog. Food is important. It nourishes us. Or, should. Many of us start the day with a bowl of cereal. (Check which brands provide true nourishment here.) Did you know that 80% of the food sold at stores, therefore technically at Wellfleet Marketplace, half of the food, available in the USA today, now contains GMOs?

Most Americans, when polled, say they do not want to consume GMOs. Do you?

GMO means genetically-modified organism. Anything not organically grown or certified non-GMO that has any corn, soy, canola oil or cottonseed oil, or products made from them, such as lecithin, and high fructose corn syrup, are very likely to be GMO.

I believe sufficient testing has not been done on GMOs and that they are not “good” for us to eat. “Good” is a euphemism, according to this short video:

DOUBLE DIPPING DANGER from NO GMO on Vimeo.

I do not want to serve GMOs at my bed & breakfast, so I have been writing manufacturers of certain products to inquire. For instance …

“I plan to blog about GMOs on Blog Action Day, when the subject will be food, Oct. 16. I would like to know whether Nonni’s biscotti contain GMOs. I no longer plan to serve products with GMO ingredients at my B&B. I looked on your site and could not find this information. Since your biscotti are a personal favorite of mine, I hope you will respond that they are all natural, no GMOs. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.”

And,

“Please stop using GMOs in your muffins. I love them. I just checked to see if you use GMOs and, with regret, have decided to stop buying. GMOs are not safe for health, no matter what the FDA claims. These ingredients should be avoided. I plan to mention Thomas English Muffins in the list of foods served at my B&B for Blog Action Day, but add that I am no longer buying until all ingredients containing GMOs are removed.”

I also wrote to my favorite pasta manufacturer. A Ronzoni rep actually wrote back:

“Dear Alexandra:

Thank you for your kind comments. They are greatly appreciated.

We are proud of our commitment to excellence in manufacturing quality products. We are always pleased to hear from consumers who appreciate our efforts. Our company has built its reputation on this tradition, and we will continue to manufacture the superior quality products you enjoy.

GMOs are not currently available in Durum Wheat, our major raw material. Nevertheless, we will continue to monitor developments in this area to ensure that the quality and safety of our products remains above reproach.

If we may be of further service to you, call us toll-free at 1-800-730-5957, weekdays 9-5 Eastern Standard Time …”

Note, the rep avoids saying whether Ronzoni will use GMOs in the future.

Anyone who cares about nutrition should be writing letters like these. The Internet makes it easy. Manufacturers do pay attention to public opinion. If they receive enough letters against GMOs, they will make an effort to buy non-GMO ingredients.

As of today, it is still hard to tell what is GMO and what is not. That is because BigAg has succeeded in lobbying against labels. This decision, at least, can still be reversed. Sign the petitions to demand the labeling of GMOs here and here and here.

Read a summary of the situation in yesterday's Daily Beast.

Do you worry about food containing GMOs or do you not care?

Comments (14)

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Thanks for the education on GMOs. I admire your persistence in approaching food companies that use them. I stay away from GMOs when I can, but that's not always possible.
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Sandy, thank you for this post. I think the film is one of the more eloquent, science-based short films that attribute GMO's to the dangerous rise of allergies, cancers, and other neurotoxic-based diseases all over the world. I think it is good to let corporations know we will not eat their GMO ingredients. However, as it stands, I personally don't bother with any product that specifically does not have a certified NON-GMO label on it, if the contents are based on corn, soy, cottonseed and/or canola oil, beet sugar and anything that feeds on alfalfa (which renders organic milk and cheese obsolete) . I have told this to Whole Foods, (GMO is contained in their 365 Breakfast cereals). An employee at WFoods once told me that WFoods 'does not have GMO' foods! I challenged her and she replied, saying, 'well they told us to say this'. Food is our medicine, but this insight has been buried and marginalized to the few who pay attention. Nutrient rich undamaged edibles are increasingly threatened in today's world.
Bev, you took the words right out of my mouth! Knowing which food ingredients are derived from GMO helps us to automatically know to avoid them. There is a GMO Shopping Guide available online from Jeffrey Smith (Seeds of Deception) and/or www.mercola.com via Jeffrey Smith. It can't get any easier than carrying that guide with you when you shop. The work is done for you.
Facebooked by Betty Solbjor: "I used to love Kashi cereals -- but am no longer buying them, sadly. I am really frightened that GMOs are tainting so much of our food supply now."
I think it is insane NOT to label GMOS. I'm glad to live in New Zealand where we do not grow GMOs. Any consumer should be able to see at a glance whether a food contains GMOs and vote with their shopping dollars.
My recent post How My Kindle Helps Me Live with Migraines and Save Money
I care! I care A LOT. I try as best I can to avoid ALL GMO food, and to avoid any food that has been treated with pesticides. We all need to care about this. Thank you for helping to wake people up!
I also care and I'm so saddened by the developments in the U.S. where we not only grow them, we are giving companies (Um, Monsanto) practically free reign to do whatever they please by not making labeling mandatory.
My recent post The Space we Want and the Space we Need.
Thanks for sharing your efforts in this area. It is something I would like to learn more about.
sarah henry's avatar

sarah henry · 693 weeks ago

Thanks for your continued campaigning against GMOs and the companies who use them. I always look for "No GMO" labels on supermarket shelves.
My recent post Toast: A Slice of Nigel Slater’s Life Comes to the Screen
judy stock's avatar

judy stock · 693 weeks ago

Went to my cupboard and tossed out all the cereal. Only eating Nature's Path brand. Signed all the petitions against GMOs and posted on my FB page. Thanks for this information. Its certainly valuable.
Hot news: Environmental Working Group to Rate the Safety of 10,000 Foods – TIME Healthland http://t.co/6LF411p5
I worry about this a LOT. I do my best to avoid GMOs; when I buy the rare packaged snack, I generally buy organic to avoid them. One brand that I've had contact with is Bob's Red Mill. They make grains/flours and promise that they do not use any GMO foods, organic or no.
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I think its awesome that you are going this route. I started baking my own bread and pastries because I know whats in them and its much cheaper than organic. Biscotti is pretty easy to make too.
My wife and I bought some Thomas's English muffins. When we learned that Thomas's are made with GMO ingredients we decided to return them. What a great idea! If we all returned the poisonous food we buy, it would be a big part of the turning tide.

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