Last night we watched a documentary called "GMO OMG" - or I should say I was cooking and listening while Trey was watching. The director, Jeremy Seifert, and his children do a rather entertaining job of exposing the harmful effects of GMOs and the industry's efforts to covery it all up. GMO is a term that only begun to receive notable attention in the past decade, and I know that I didn't bother to learn more about it at first. This documentary was filmed in 2012, and all of the people Jeremy interviewed had either never heard of GMOs, had heard of them but didn't know what they were, or knew what they were and didn't realize they were eating them. It's actually a little scary to think about how the food industry has altered the basic building blocks of our food without outwardly letting us know.
But apparently not everyone agrees. Both Colorado and California rejected the labeling of GMO foods consecutively in 2012 and 2013, followed by Oregon's rejection this past November (NPR). Thankfully Vermont has signed the first GMO labeling requirement to take effect in 2016, with continued campaigns to prevent the instatement. Many soy products, refined sugars, and corn syrup are derived from genetically engineered ingredients. Are we really still not convinced that it's better for our bodies to avoid corn syrup and refined sugars? I honestly find the GMO dilemma funny from a consumer perspective. When you ingest these ingredients, you're hurting yourself. Why are we fighting so hard to continue? The FDA doesn't have any safety regulations or scanning processes for GM food, and there is alarming evidence of pre-cancerous cell growth from these types of products (Natural Revolution). It's a risky and unnecessary game.
Sure, I understand much of the fight comes from the companies surviving because of GMO use. They require much less crop maintenance and increase crop production tenfold, and that means revenue. But those crops will provide a yield once and once only, whereas unaltered seeds may produce for consecutive growing seasons. In developing countries, this reproduction is key to survival. If the food industry continues on to expand GM production, a lot of populations will be left struggling. Not to mention they're destroying the microorganisms in the soil necessary for reuse of the land. This practice expands, our land dies.
Food for thought (ha!) on this glorious Thursday in January. I'll share with you some actual food next!
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