| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Alee |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 3:49:57 PM
'FRANKENFOODS' SURVEY OF THE WEEK:
CBS NEWS & NEW YORK TIMES POLL CONSUMERS ABOUT GE FOODS
* 53%: Percentage of polled Americans who say they won't buy food that has ingredients from genetically engineered (GE) plants.
* 65%: Actual percentage of products on grocery store shelves that contain unlabeled GE ingredients (usually soy or corn derived).
* 90%: Portion of U.S. grown soybeans that are genetically engineered.
* 99%: Estimated likelihood that the U.S. sugar supply will start to be sourced from genetically engineered plants this year.
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12246.cfm
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
| 17 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - May 27 2008 : 2:58:14 PM
I am reading "The End of Food" and it is very scary - it pulls together recent trends in agribusiness, globalization of the food supply, Green Revolution, and government regulation (or lack thereof) as well as trends based on availability of oil.
Because there's no required labelling of GMO products, if you shop at the supermarket you don't know what you're getting. I'm not even sure you can trust all the "farmers" at farmer's markets, either, there is one Amish guy that I suspect goes to the produce terminal and buys fruit and veggies from California and brings to our local market (all his food comes in those cardboard crates...)
But if we don't use GMO products it seems that half the world will starve to death in 20 years!!! I haven't gotten to the final chapters of the book yet, it is VERY difficult to read, emotionally, for me.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| kissmekate |
Posted - May 25 2008 : 9:07:35 PM
I agree Jenn.
Someone brought up the tobacco industry in another thread.
I know during WWII they used to advertise smoking for your health.
Now we all know what a crock of bull that was.
It is like all of these food companies think we are all dumb!!!
My Mom works for a huge food corporation, and to be honest I rarely buy their products and told her this is why. She just smiled and nodded her head. I was very frustrated!!!
Ironically, she has rarely ever bought their products either. She likes to cook from scratch! LOL
Don't miss out on a blessing, just because it isn't packaged the way you expected. ~MaryJo Copeland |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - May 24 2008 : 10:06:42 PM
I have a hard time believing the packaged and processed stuff containing nothing I recognize as food is safe or healthy for us in the long run. |
| graciegreeneyes |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 5:49:38 PM
I think this is a scary issue. A recent issue of Newsweek had an article by a (I think) food scientist who was writing about how studies on food and such can be used/skewed to prove almost anything you want. It is just in the last what, 50 years or so, that our food has started containing so many unpronouncable ingredients. The food industry reassures us that everything is "safe", but who can really say what the long term effects are? |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 4:28:45 PM
Alee has an article posted farther down in KITCHEN with more accurate details than my previous post. Any way you slice it's not very appealing to me. |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 4:13:25 PM
Not to gross anyone out, but I heard a segment on NPR last week about a couple of firms that are perfecting a meat cloning process to replace commercial beef and chicken production.
I know many of our girls are vegan and I don't mean to be insensitive, but I rather have my steak from a steer than a petre dish. Made my stomach turn listening to them describe how they can clone a steak or chicken breast without cloning the whole animal. Star Trek kept flashing through my mind. |
| Alee |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 3:41:54 PM
Mary Ann- It's beet sugar. My home town is a beet sugar town and when I was last there they had a big newspaper article about how wonderful these new "Round-Up Ready" seeds were going to be. All the conventional beet growers will be using them this year as they can then go spray Round-Up over the fields to kill everything else.
As a kid I remember the sugar beet trucks rolling by. Some beets would drop off occasionally and we kids would wash them and eat them raw. We won't ever do that again, I think!
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
| NikkiSAllen |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 3:17:20 PM
Amy,
That's a great point about peanut allergies. My nephew has severe allergies to wheat, soy, peanut, barley, and milk. He's only three years old and has been rushed to the emergency room with a life threatening reaction twice. The last time, my sister-in-law and her husband thought they were going to lose him. I agree that there seem to be more cases of food allergies in his generation than in the earlier ones. I'm mad as a wet hen (to quote my grandmother!) at what the corporations have done to our food supply. Something has got to give on this!
I'll get off my soapbox now! But I agree with everyone that we have an obligation to make our voices heard on this subject!
Nikki
Farmgirl Sister #205 |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 3:11:02 PM
Oh, and Alee, I looked at the articles and couldn't find the reference to the sugar. Do you know if it's supposed to be beet sugar? Or cane sugar? |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - May 23 2008 : 3:08:19 PM
The part I object to is that final products are not labeled as having GMO ingredients. I don't like it when the producers deprive us of the ability to make an educated choice.
I got Animal, Vegetable, Miracle not too long ago. It's on my stack to read. I did read both of Michael Pollan's two most recent books. They were terrific.
Amy Grace, I understand your soapbox-ness! I don't know that there are more chemicals, but there are certainly a LOT more products on the market that are "value added;" or highly processed. When I was a kid there was one kind of Cheerios. Now look at the shelves and count them. |
| Aunt Em |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 10:04:17 PM
I think education is really the key. I know lots of people are feeling the need to make changes, but don't know where to start. I think we can do so much through our Farmgirl chapters, putting together resource packets on local sources of foods, and just getting the word out on the truth of all this, and HOW to make the changes.
Farmgirl Sister #138
http://www.LilBitCrunchy.blogspot.com |
| graciegreeneyes |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 8:10:16 PM
Amanda, I just reread Animal,Vegetable, Miracle, very inspiring!!
Alee I totally second what you said. Every dollar we spend is a vote for a way of life. Buy local, reusable, farmers markets etc etc.
I'm sort of extra suspicious of the govt and food and I don't think it is coincidence that as our food supply has grown to contain more chemicals and less food we are seeing a much higher incidence of food-related health problems. I don't remember one kid with a peanut allergy when I was growing up in the 70s, let alone a life-threatening one. Corporations have been allowed to mess with our food...we should be mad, or at least very concerned
sorry y'all, I get on my soapbox sometimes but I feel very passionately about this issue |
| DearMildred |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 7:53:04 PM
Rene is that the one with "Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition" on the cover?
I'm reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" at the moment, and my Women's Health magazine. At least I WOULD be reading them if I wasn't reading the computer screen so much!
~Amanda in OK~
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense. -Emerson |
| ruralfarmgirl |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 5:23:54 PM
And we wonder why more and more people are sick.. I have said it 100000 times.. it should be required reading "healing with whole foods" by Paul Pitchard.. I guess now we have to make sure the whole foods are "real foods" too.. UGH!
Rene~Prosser Farmgirl #185
" Plant goodness, harvest the fruit of loyalty, plow the new ground of knowledge. Hosea 10:12 |
| catscharm74 |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 4:31:31 PM
Getting people active is the problem. Convenience has made it near impossible to motivate people. I remember my mom was kinda crunchy granola before it was cool and people laughed at her. I love it and thank goodness I did learn something.
Heather
Yee-Haw, I am a cowgirl!!!
FARMGIRL #90 |
| Alee |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 4:08:50 PM
Heather-
We can grow our own foods, vote with our buying dollar, vote with our election, write campaign letters to our government telling them that we will _not_ stand for our food to be destroyed.
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
| catscharm74 |
Posted - May 22 2008 : 3:55:33 PM
What are we going to do other than grow our own or go without? I am making HUGE changes in our diets and hoping next year to get a house and plant a ton of stuff. It is scary.
Heather
Yee-Haw, I am a cowgirl!!!
FARMGIRL #90 |
