Moms For Safe Food-- A Guest Blog
Did you know?
Millions of acres of genetically engineered (GE) crops have been planted in the United States.Nearly two-thirds of the products on our supermarket shelves contain genetically engineered ingredients.Consumer polls show that 80-95% of Americans want GE foods to be labeled - mainly so that we can avoid buying them!The British Medical Association has called for a global moratorium and/or ban on GE foods and the New England Journal of Medicine warned that, the allergenic potential of GE’s is uncertain, unpredictable and untestable.
Millions of acres of genetically engineered (GE) crops have been planted in the United States.Nearly two-thirds of the products on our supermarket shelves contain genetically engineered ingredients.Consumer polls show that 80-95% of Americans want GE foods to be labeled - mainly so that we can avoid buying them!The British Medical Association has called for a global moratorium and/or ban on GE foods and the New England Journal of Medicine warned that, the allergenic potential of GE’s is uncertain, unpredictable and untestable.
Why we try to eat mostly organic foods
We had a very dear friend visiting over the Christmas holiday and she was surprised at the number of organic food items we have around here. “Organic Coffee!” she said, surprised.It got me thinking about why we eat organic foods. I’ve been eating natural and healthy food since college. I was ill in my freshman year and the school doctor suggested I eat a bit more carefully. I guess coffee and cigarettes wasn’t the best diet for an 18 year old. LOLSo, I started researching diet, food, and various methods of alternative healing. I was a vegetarian for a number of years but that ended the minute I got pregnant with my first child. I needed protein and from later research I did, not everyone does well on a vegetarian diet.When my kids were little the news started discussing pesticides being sprayed on apples and how it was potentially unsafe for kids. Then I heard the same about grapes and raisins. I started looking for organic foods. At that time (late 1980s) it wasn’t always easy or affordable! Organic farming was still relatively new and you could only get organic produce and products at the local health food store, but I got what I could and found that even if the produce sometimes looked a little funny (organic used to be less perfect most of the time) it tasted great.As the kids got older there were more important reasons to look for organic alternatives.We’ve been having a quiet takeover going on in our food industry. Monsanto and some of the other food giants have been replacing all of our commercial crops with genetically engineered food crops. Corn and soy have been the most prevalent and there are a lot of health concerns. What’s really ‘food for thought’ is that corn and soy are in most commercially processed foods. High Fructose corn syrup is in everything from frozen foods to soda.
What we can do
Call or send a letter to your senators and representatives for your district and tell them to support bills HR 4814, HR 4813 and similar bill calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing of GE foods. Because they have not been tested, all GE food should be taken off the market until proven safe.Encourage your local school board to serve school lunches which use organic ingredients and to boycott any food that contains GE ingredients.Call or Fax the ‘Frankenfood Fifteen.’ Tell them to remove GE ingredients, including rBGH, from their brand products or you won’t buy them anymore. You can find their names and numbers on our site, MomsforSafeFood.org
Love,
Mom :-)
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