Future of our Food

This is one scary little video when you think about it. It's only 10 minutes long. Give it a look see.



This website discusses the entire film. It may be purchased or rented.

The Future of Food


Seriously, give the 10 minute version a look see.

The shopper's GMO guide

The shopper's GMO guide

"Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food" (Earth Aware Editions, $24.95)

For conscious eaters, the heart of the book is a 14-page guide to your local supermarket. It tells you which foods are the most likely to contain GE ingredients (chips, snacks and baby formula), which aren't (fruits, vegetables, wheat), and how to read labels for "hidden ingredients" derived from corn, soy or canola (hint: look for high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin and canola oil).

(snip)

Before you shop:

Here are a few of the tips on shopping to avoid genetically engineered food, if that's your choice, culled from Andrew Kimbrell's "Your Right to Know." If you have any doubts, Kimbrell says, ask the grocer about suppliers. Look for labels that say 100 percent organic or GE-free or GMO-free.

Fruits and vegetables.
Almost all are not GE. The exceptions are a few papayas from Hawaii and a tiny amount of fresh corn, zucchini and yellow squash.

Meat and fish.
No GE meat or fish are approved for human consumption. But most GE corn and soy is fed to meat animals and farmed fish. So look for wild fish, grass-fed beef and organic meats.

Dairy.
Dairy cows aren't genetically engineered but can eat GE grains unless they're organic. A genetically engineered hormone called rbGH or rbST is used in some dairy cows; look for labels that say no hormones were used.

Baby foods.
Most formula contains GE ingredients, either soy or milk from cows injected with GE hormones. Some also contain corn syrup. Cereals can contain ingredients like GE soy lecithin.

Canned and frozen foods.
Vegetables and fruits packed or frozen without flavorings, additives or corn, soy or canola oil are GE free. Sauces and entrees with lots of ingredients often contain vegetable oil, soy and cornstarch.

Grains and beans.
Corn is the only GE grain on the market. Soybeans are the only GE dried beans. So wheat, rice, oats, quinoa and foods made from them, like pasta, are OK. Check ingredient labels for additives like soy lecithin, which can be GE.

Snacks.
Most are processed foods that contain ingredients made from corn, canola, soy or cotton. Nuts, seeds and dried fruits are good options. Popcorn is not genetically engineered. Conventional chocolate bars often contain soy lecithin, corn syrup or other like GE ingredients. Organic snacks are GE free, but "natural" ones aren't necessarily.

Beverages.
Look for drinks that are 100 percent juice, or sweetened with sugar or honey instead of corn syrup. Beer currently contains no GE ingredients.

Baked goods.
Non-organic breads, baked goods and even chocolate chips often contain high fructose corn syrup, soy, or corn, canola or cottonseed oil, all of which can be GE. Look for products made from wheat, oats and rice, with sugar or maple syrup as sweeteners.

It's a Franken Food kinda day

Genetically Engineered Foods May Cause Rising Food Allergies - Part 1

and

Genetically Engineered Foods May Cause Rising Food Allergies - Part 2

The huge jump in childhood food allergies in the US is in the news often [1] , but most reports fail to consider a link to a recent radical change in America’s diet. Beginning in 1996, bacteria, virus and other genes have been artificially inserted to the DNA of soy, corn, cottonseed and canola plants. These unlabeled genetically modified (GM) foods carry a risk of triggering life-threatening allergic reactions, and evidence collected over the past decade now suggests that they are contributing to higher allergy rates. Food safety tests are inadequate to protect public health. Scientists have long known that GM crops might cause allergies. But there are no tests to prove in advance that a GM crop is safe. [2] That’s because people aren’t usually allergic to a food until they have eaten it several times. “The only definitive test for allergies,” according to former FDA microbiologist Louis Pribyl, “is human consumption by affected peoples, which can have ethical considerations.” [3] And it is the ethical considerations of feeding unlabeled, high-risk GM crops to unknowing consumers that has many people up in arms.

This bears further watching

Cow Produces Low-Fat Milk

Scientists in New Zealand say they've discovered a cow that produces her own low-fat milk -- and found a way to replicate the mutation. There could be herds of low-fat cows in the future.

Perhaps it's only of interest to me, but ...

How did ethics become a staple of contemporary food writing?

Thanks to his perch as The New York Times Magazine’s resident food sage, Pollan is a well-known champion of the ethical superiority of small, local organic farms, and of the superior taste of their products. Whole Foods, of course, is a bringer of organic food to grateful yuppies across the country. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan describes Whole Foods as the embodiment of “Industrial Organic.” The company’s appetite for product has driven some organic farmers to scale up and become very much like the farms they were supposed to replace: organic dairies now house thousands of cows who have never munched on a patch of grass, while Brobdignagian vegetable farms ship their produce across the country, undercutting small, local farmers. Whole Foods even sells “organic” TV dinners (Pollan says one he tried “looked and tasted very much like airline food”) and, during the North American winter, has asparagus shipped north from Argentina. This would be environmentally dubious on its face, Pollan suggests, given the fuel required to ship the vegetable. In any case, it “tasted like damp cardboard.”

Yay Germany, now if only the US would follow suit

If only my government cared about its people and our food supply.

Germany Tightens Restrictions on Genetically Modified Corn

Genetically modified (GM) crops have long been controversial in Germany, where organic agriculture is booming. Now the cultivation of GM corn has been effectively banned by the government, according to media reports.

And now this

Tainted poultry has entered food supply

Millions of chickens ate feed containing melamine, government officials say.

The Food and Drug Adminstration said Tuesday that as many as 3 million chickens that may have been given contaminated feed containing melamine have already been eaten by consumers, according to NBC News.

So, are ya worried yet? It's not enough that our beloved pets have died from this. Did your Fluffy or Fido die? Is your child next? Are you pregnant? Ate any chicken lately? Had enough?

Melamine from contaminated pet food enters human food chain

Melamine from contaminated pet food enters human food chain

This is absolutely ridiculous. We have the FDA, CFSAN, USDA, FSIS, HHS, and who knows what other governmental agencies are tasked with protecting the US food supply, whether grown overseas or in the US.

The past 12 months have seen recalls of Peanut Butter, spinach, green onions, pet food, olives, milk, hamburger patties, prepackaged salads, prepackaged sandwiches, prepared potato salad, bread, fruit trays, melons, and I'm sure much more that I'm not seeing in the 5 minute search on Google I just performed.

The government is paying OUR farmers not to produce food then importing from other countries and because of a lack of manpower they only inspect less than 1% of the imported products.

If you don't have enough people to inspect the products you have been tasked to inspect and protect, then halt all the damned imports of food and at least inspect what is already within our borders.

These governmental inspection agencies are screwing around with our health and welfare. The vast majority of our citizens however don't seem to give a damn, so the government continues doing nothing or little to nothing.

What the hell is wrong with people that they do not give a damn about what they are eating, what they are feeding their children. Wake the phuk up people. Hold your government accountable, you know, the people that promise to protect the citizenry and instead do nothing but line their own pockets.