Don't Presume to Tell Me...

Who decides what you put in your mouth?

I like to think that I am in control on such decisions.

Chocolate for breakfast? My choice.

Dried fruit in the lentil stew? Again, 'tis I deciding.

Milk and cereal? With bananas? Well, sure -- that's my choice, right?

Food that is 'better living -- or not' through chemistry and biomanipulation of the genome of the plants that produce foods, well, if I don't want it, I can avoid it, right?

Right?

Wrong.

Writing in his blog, Stephen Lendman stated words that brought a chill to my heart and a cramp to my tummy.

Genetically engineered foods saturate our diet today. In the US alone, over 80% of all processed foods contain them. Others include grains like rice, corn and wheat; legumes like soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, soft drinks; salad dressings; vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products; and even infant formula plus a vast array of hidden additives and ingredients in processed foods (like in tomato sauce, ice cream, margarine and peanut butter). Consumers don't know what they're eating because labeling is prohibited, yet the danger is clear. Independently conducted studies show the more of these foods we eat, the greater the potential harm to our health.

SteveLendmanBlog

Now, you may think that the FDA or the Department of Agriculture has some say in what I put in my mouth. And they do. They are supposed to certify that what I eat is safe, wholesome and what it appears to be. Food. Nutritious, like fresh fruit and veg, or pure milk, or non-toxic cheeses or meat that doesn't come from an abattoir specializing in 'downer cattle'. That is their job.

They are also to certify that the bad effects of non-nutritious foods are limited to empty calories and 'it'll get you eventually if you keep eating chocolate for breakfast'. That also is their job.

But, the FDA and the Department of Agriculture are NOT, in my humble opinion, to tell me that the foods that I eat are 'wholesome', if they contain Genetically Modified stuff in them. We've not done the testing on those for sufficient periods of time to figure out if they are, in fact, healthful for the generational haul, or 25 years, whichever comes last.

And they haven't. Tested long term that is. Nor have they tested these foods on so many fronts.

Are GM crops bad for bees?

We don't know.

Do GM foods alter the genome of the consuming animal? After all, no matter what that farmer/plant biologist may try to tell you, generations, even thousands of years of plant breeding has never gotten a rice plant to voluntarily cross its genetic material with a crocus or a cauliflower mosaic virus, so as to produce a rice that is a rich yellow color.

Never been done, except in a lab.

And I'm with Gregor Mendel on this one. Like mate with like. Broccoli with broccoli, potato with potato, lentil with lentil, beans with beans. You can get varieties by crossing various lines in these species, but you cannot cross, using Mendelian genetic manipulation, differing species.

You can even blend two fruit trees together to get a cross between pears and apples. But never, ever, never, can you get an apple tree to mate with a crocus to give you a yellow fruit. That is, never, unless you're a giant AgriBusiness corporation with a bio-weapons level lab and an eye to control the genome of all of Farmer Brown's seeds from here to eternity. And back.

But, all of that is of no matter whatsoever.

I don't think anyone, anywhere, at any time, should foist genetically modified foods on me, and make me eat them, unless I do so knowingly. Voluntarily. With informed consent, which Giant Agribusinesses should know from the tenor of this blog, they do not have.

Do not sneak in GM stuff into my food.

And, hands off the chocolate, lentils and rice, dried fruits and everything else I eat. I want no GM stuff in my food.

Probably a good thing I don't like SnackeeCrisps. They're probably loaded with unknown quantities of genetically altered 'stuff', on top of whatever remains from the deepfrying of empty calories coated with salt, anyway.

For goodness sake though, don't alter the chocolate. Breakfast without it, sometimes, would be just too boring to endure.