There was a great interview on NHPR this morning of Gary Hirshberg, who is stepping down today as CEO of Stonyfield Farm. Hirshberg is going to focus more on his campaign to convince the government to require food producers to identify genetically engineered ingredients in food. The interview is definitely worth a listen. But if you don’t have time for that, his most convincing argument is about how GE crops are used in conjunction with huge amounts of chemical herbicides (for surpressing weeds). I was shocked to learn that Dow Chemical has even applied for permission to sell a new GE corn to be planted in conjunction with 2,4-D, a major component of Agent Orange. You can find more information (including a petition to the FDA) at http://justlabelit.org/.
Just Label It
January 21, 2012 by Omar Khudari
Steve and Omar,
I’m ambivalent about the full implications of labeling GMO products. While I understand and applaud the reasons for avoiding GMOs in the food supply, I can see just two possible outcomes of a mandatory labeling program.
In the first scenario, the distinction that would be drawn would be between those that knowingly use GMOs and those that don’t. I think this is what most people believe they want. However, the fact that a farmer or food manufacturer doesn’t _knowingly_ use GMOs doesn’t mean that the product is free of them.
In fact, the only way to be sure that a supply of grain is free of GMOs is to test ever kernel, since wind can carry corn pollen a long ways and each corn kernel is pollinated by a different grain of pollen. If there’s GMO corn within a mile or two of the non-GMO corn field. Alfalfa is worse.
Basically, you’re asking farmers to prove a negative in order _not_ to be labeled.
Terrifying. We try not eat GM foods. The only way to do that is to only eat what we grow. (And no we do not eat processed foods) My husband is a physicist and calls GM the biggest un monitored experiment on the human race ever. and as your commenter above has shown how on earth do we avoid being contaminated ourselves.. c
Just recently read the book “Seeds of Deception.” Very scary. Had no idea really the extent of GMO’s and the lack of monitoring done on them. Then we found out that our youngest child suffers from a soy allergy (which is in everything) and it makes her very sick. Can’t help but think that it has something to do with the GE soy & corn that we’ve been eating for decades. Needless to say we are all going organic but it’s not happening fast enough. (and not even sure we can erraditcate it completely.) We always grow our own stuff but truly you have no idea just how saturated the other stuff you buy at the store is with GM material. I know that mandatory labeling may not be a “cure all” but I for one would rather do something than nothing at all.