The group "Millions Against Monsanto" is involved in organizing events on World Food Day, to try to bring about awareness about GMO's and specifically to try to force labeling of foods that contain genetically modified organisms, so that consumers can choose to eat GMO's or avoid them.

Anyone interested can visit their website and learn more.

http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm

There's a group in Norman trying to get something together for the 16th. Anyone in the Norman area might want to check into it, but folks from all over are encouraged to get involved in their areas.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Celtic Warrior,

Thanks RB for giving my post a bump, allowing it to stay near the top!

I do believe folks have the RIGHT to know what is in their food, and they have the right to get involved in saying so.

Could i have double ham and extra cheese and a side dish of yellow peppers and olives with that sub.
And please put that on honey oat bread. Yes toasted please!

10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs

1. GMOs are unhealthy.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients. They cite animal studies showing organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility. Human studies show how genetically modified (GM) food can leave material behind inside us, possibly causing long-term problems. Genes inserted into GM soy, for example, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria living inside us, and that the toxic insecticide produced by GM corn was found in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses.

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/

quote:

Originally posted by Rupertsurvives:
Could i have double ham and extra cheese and a side dish of yellow peppers and olives with that sub.
And please put that on honey oat bread. Yes toasted please!

All those things mentioned come in two "flavors", Rupe. REAL and GMO/HFCS.

How basic is food to living organisms? You ARE what you eat is still true. If Gerber baby food contained small amounts of anthrax, would you not want to know it?

If you don't care, I won't try to sell you on it. My zeal for informing the public is waning. So many can tell me about 4g, android, the latest episode of ice road truckers, etc. but can't tell me what HFCS is or what it does.

BTW-This is the last year that we will be able to buy REAL corn on the cob in the mainstream grocery stores. The Monsanto corn on the cob that is coming out now has two pesticides built in and is also RoundUp ready. The pesticides have been found in placentas of newborn babies. Eat what you want!

The sad fact is, non-GMO foods will become endangered species, if they aren't already. With cross-pollination, and transference of the alien genes to other species, this is just the opening of pandora's box.

Of course, anyone who TRULY cared about the environment or health, would be concerned about these things.

--------------

10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs

2. GMOs contaminate―forever.

GMOs cross pollinate and their seeds can travel. It is impossible to fully clean up our contaminated gene pool. Self-propagating GMO pollution will outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste. The potential impact is huge, threatening the health of future generations. GMO contamination has also caused economic losses for organic and non-GMO farmers who often struggle to keep their crops pure.

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/1619

quote:

Originally posted by Celtic Warrior:
The sad fact is, non-GMO foods will become endangered species, if they aren't already. With cross-pollination, and transference of the alien genes to other species, this is just the opening of pandora's box.

Of course, anyone who TRULY cared about the environment or health, would be concerned about these things.

--------------

10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs

2. GMOs contaminate―forever.

GMOs cross pollinate and their seeds can travel. It is impossible to fully clean up our contaminated gene pool. Self-propagating GMO pollution will outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste. The potential impact is huge, threatening the health of future generations. GMO contamination has also caused economic losses for organic and non-GMO farmers who often struggle to keep their crops pure.

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/1619

I do recommend farmer's or local markets. Although some of the crops you mention will still infiltrate those outlets, the volume will be extremely low as varieties that are grown by small growers locally are not available in the genetically modified versions. The amount of money required to obtain marketing approval and patents is too high for small markets that make up the farmer's markets and local produce stands. There are some pesticides that are used that unless you grow your own, you will have trouble avoiding. I'd say #1 Grow your own, #2 farmer's markets or local produce outlets, and last the national chains that will not buy local even when it is available (no matter what they advertise, they buy the cheapest in large quantities). I have been a produce grower for local markets for 40 years and there were times during that time when locally owned chains would market local produce but no more. Homeland, walmart and others have wiped them off the map. With local markets lots of times you can even meet the grower or know them anyway.

PS I won't argue that there won't be some possibility of genetic contamination by cross pollination but most produce doesn't pick up those genes in the first generation. Other F1 hybrid seeds won't pick it up at all and remain true to variety so only open pollinated varieties that are cross pollinated for multiple generations will be sources for the escaped genetics. I don't have research at hand but it would be possible to develop a list of varieties that could not become genetically contaminated or altered. I know some people would prefer a pesticide free food source but the greatest threat from dangerous pesticides is from imported food where there are no regulations against many carcinogens and pesticides that have been outlawed in the US. Just a guess but Nationwide , imported produce from unregulated countries is probably 50% of the fresh food supply due to the demand for certain produce year 'round. Those foods are not tested except in very tiny groups and some of those pesticides have been outlawed in the US for decades.
There is a medical theory that only 1 exposure to certain types of carcinogens is all that is necessary to place you at risk at cancer caused by the chemicals. It is a theory because it would require many years of study to confirm but in industrial hygiene circles is a well known theory.
Add that to the hundreds of exposures you experience daily and if you live long enough your body will develop some type of cancer.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SOT,

I didn't have to go far to research the GMO's and Monsanto, just read the provided links. I had thought I was eating better these last few years for health reasons, but now it's more home work about what to eat.

SOT: I hope you are correct about cross-contamination not being as big a threat as some think it could be. I'm not so sure though.

So far, cross-pollination has been used by Monsanto in court against farmers where Monsanto's GMO seeds have spread to those farmers fields, even accidently or by "natural" means. Since the GMO's are patented (life forms should never have been allowed to be patented), they can claim ownership of any farmer's crops that becomes contaminated with GMO's. They just recently won another court case like that.

Farmers who used to reserve some of their harvest for the next year's planting, have been prevented from doing that, once some of Monsanto's GMOs were discovered in their crops. They've had to destroy all of their seed. In this way old strains of seed are being wiped out, by contamination and by legal means. Biodiversity is being destroyed.

Since Monsanto is joined at the hip with the Military Industrial Complex, it makes one wonder if all of this hasn't been in the planning for decades. Create the new "organisms", change the patent laws, and then commence taking over all the seed production here and worldwide. Eisenhower did specifically warn against "unrealistic plans for agriculture" in his farewell speach, where he warned about the Miltiary Industrial Complex. It's at 4:57 in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY

One of the most destructive GMO's is the insertion of a "terminator gene" in some of the seeds, so that they are unable to produce offspring. That definatly prevents anyone from "saving seed" from one year to the next, and makes every farmer totally dependant on the corporation to buy seed every year. If that gene gets out into the environment, it will self-destruct whatever it gets into.

Man has made some horrid hybrid mistakes in the past, unnatural combinations with bad results - pitbulls and Africanized 'killer' bees are two that come to mind, but now we may have many more on the horizon...

ironhead: The old saying goes "Knowledge is power"...there's so much information available to us at this time, folks need to be informed and know what's going on around them, and concerning them. Learn what we can, and then do what we can.

yes, ironhead, it's very difficult. tho i cook nearly ALL the food we eat at home, i am unable to afford organic food. :( i have, however, made MANY changes. more so after hubby's heart attack during Christmas 09.

Monsanto MUST be stopped. they are breeding super insects and super bacteria. they are poisoning our bodies. they are poisoning our entire food chain. they are poisoning our CHILDREN!!! laugh. laugh it up you non believers. yuck it up while your health is slowly ruined.

i cannot believe that in the USA, companies do NOT have to label the CRAP that's in our food. this is not right.

edit ~ uh, what's wrong with pitbulls?

They are selling some organic stuff in Wal Mart like Agave Nectar, a sugar natural replacement. It looks like dark honey and tastes good, but it is still high, compared to sugar products, also made in Mexico, so who knows about the ingrediants.
I have tried to build up my garden soil with composts, but even then, ie composted manure can have some of these products fed to cattle in them. The tree leaves I don't worry about. We bought our cantaloupes this year from a local source, raised on the N. Canadian. Glad we didn't get any at the grocery store.

sorry. i do my darndest to NOT shop wal*hell. talk about corporate greed, made in china and treating employees horribly!!

quote:

Originally posted by Celtic Warrior:
SOT: I hope you are correct about cross-contamination not being as big a threat as some think it could be. I'm not so sure though.

So far, cross-pollination has been used by Monsanto in court against farmers where Monsanto's GMO seeds have spread to those farmers fields, even accidently or by "natural" means. Since the GMO's are patented (life forms should never have been allowed to be patented), they can claim ownership of any farmer's crops that becomes contaminated with GMO's. They just recently won another court case like that.

Farmers who used to reserve some of their harvest for the next year's planting, have been prevented from doing that, once some of Monsanto's GMOs were discovered in their crops. They've had to destroy all of their seed. In this way old strains of seed are being wiped out, by contamination and by legal means. Biodiversity is being destroyed.

Since Monsanto is joined at the hip with the Military Industrial Complex, it makes one wonder if all of this hasn't been in the planning for decades. Create the new "organisms", change the patent laws, and then commence taking over all the seed production here and worldwide. Eisenhower did specifically warn against "unrealistic plans for agriculture" in his farewell speach, where he warned about the Miltiary Industrial Complex. It's at 4:57 in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY

One of the most destructive GMO's is the insertion of a "terminator gene" in some of the seeds, so that they are unable to produce offspring. That definatly prevents anyone from "saving seed" from one year to the next, and makes every farmer totally dependant on the corporation to buy seed every year. If that gene gets out into the environment, it will self-destruct whatever it gets into.

Man has made some horrid hybrid mistakes in the past, unnatural combinations with bad results - pitbulls and Africanized 'killer' bees are two that come to mind, but now we may have many more on the horizon...

ironhead: The old saying goes "Knowledge is power"...there's so much information available to us at this time, folks need to be informed and know what's going on around them, and concerning them. Learn what we can, and then do what we can.

I think you have gone to a lot of trouble to inform us of some very real concerns and I do not discredit them in the least except the things I am seeing seem to be the sort of thing that will produce immediate catastrophic social and political and economic disasters as part of a larger plan to centralize global power and I'm feeling the just having food will outdistance the food hazard/quality issue within the next 12 months. I agree that you are warning of some things that could go very wrong with time but I can't see that the time is there. The "occupy wall street" is a test and there will be others that follow as the fall and winter progress. The real move will come with the spring thaw and watch as the summer becomes a global and national destructive movement intended to instigate and mobilize a hundred million useful idiots in the usa alone. It has begun, it will get much worse and will fundamentally transform our country from a world power to a third world nation in a short time. Be concerned about food and water and be discreet. I have no doubt you are ready for whatever "end" awaits, but may as well prepare for the journey to the end which has begun. Even outside the scope of the "planned" events are hundreds of missiles missing from Libya that will surface by spring.

I understand that. We shop other stores, including one locally owned, not many of those around now. My point was, that even at Wal Mart, the organic stuff is high.