Photo: Great grandparents at their farm in Blandinsville, IL, with five of their six children .. my grandpa was yet a twinkle in grandma's eye. Stable boy and governess also pictured. Hodges farm, circa 1903-4

Thursday, February 10, 2011

How To Avoid GMO's

I've done a lot of reading about GMOs .. but am no expert.  Here is an incomplete list of ways to possibly avoid them.  Please leave a comment with ways you avoid the 'buggers' ;)

  1. Buy certified USDA organic products (I have much mistrust of the USDA ...)
  2. Stay away from ALL processed foods (salad dressings, mayo, crackers, hot dogs .. unless they are certified organic .. and then be skeptical .. it's not that hard to make your own dressings, mayo .. etc.)
  3. Buy produce from local farms where you can talk to the farmer about their farming practices.
  4. Avoid EVERYTHING with soy products .. again .. unless they are certified organic .. and soy sauce says naturally fermented.  Still ..use soy sauce sparingly.  Soy is hidden in so many things that say 'natural flavorings' .. it's a catch all phrase that the government allows .. I'm allergic to 'natural flavorings'.
  5. We now will have a problem with buying organic meat with the government's recent allowance to plant genetically modified alfalfa.  When the animals eat this stuff .. it passes on to us when we, in turn, eat them.
  6. Buy only single item foods.  Whole grains, beans, rice .. and be sure it's organic.  
This is just the tip of the ice berg about avoiding GMO foods and makes it nearly impossible to ever eat at a restaurant because most use processed foods to prepare their meals..  Take the time to get educated about this world wide threat.  The more the general public is informed .. and if enough people 'vote' with their food dollars to buy unadulterated whole foods, then the big FRANKENFOOD manufacturers will shrivel up and go away, clean up their act, .. or morph into some other evil entity!   Please leave a comment about how you avoid GMOs.

Thanks.

The Unhealthy Truth (about how our food is making us sick)
Warning to British Government about US practices of GM foods
Seeds Of Deception
Allergykids.com
GMO news at Natural News.com
Organic Consumers Organization

4 comments:

Lynda said...

The reality is: It's almost impossible to avoid GMO's. I raise my own fruits and veggies and I don't plant GMO seeds (to my knowledge)...but I don't know where my bees are gathering pollen...so, unless I have DNA studies done on my seeds/produce I have no idea. I have my meat raised locally, where I THINK I can control the feed...again unless I have DNA testing done there is no way to guarantee something is GMO free. If you look closely at some of the bigger Non-GMO seed catalogs you will notice even tho they say they are GMO free there will be a disclaimer that states: *We do everything in our power to insure our seeds are non-gmo...or we strive to insure our seeds are non-gmo* ...in leagaleez: we don't want these to be gmo, we try really hard to make sure they aren't gmo, but there is no way to guarantee these seeds have not been gmo contaminated.

AND FYI: just because something is labeled Certified Organic doesn't mean it is.

I know I sound defeatist...but I'm always surprised that most people don't understand how BIG this really is. I am not in a position to prove GMO's are a bad thing...but as it stands now I see no value in GMO's other than to eliminate competion in the seed business and line the pockets of some pretty powerful industrial/chemical companies.

meemsnyc said...

Sigh, I use soy sauce a lot! I'm Chinese! I have never seen an organic soy sauce. Will have to look for one.

The Professor's Wife said...

Thank you for this good information! I first heard about GMO's watching "Food Inc" over a year ago. Just because the problem is overwhelming doesn't mean we should do nothing about it - the more people buy non-GMO products and boycott GMO products, the more food producers will get the idea.

ElderberryWine4u said...

Check out the Institute for Responsible Technology web site and under the Resource tab download the non-GMO shopping guide. http://www.responsibletechnology.org/resources/download-brochures
I bought and read Jeff Smith's book Genetic Roulette. I am now a hard core "locally grown" and "know your farmer" advocate. You can't pay me to knowingly eat soy.