The lack of labels bothers me as well. The standards for “organic” and “natural” are being lowered daily, it seems. The push to remove information like “rBst free” from the labels bothers me even more…the little information we do get is being fought by Monsanto and others because they don’t want us (consumers) to know which products are chemical- or hormone-free because we will choose the hormone-free, chemical-free, product over theirs.

(Did you know that animals provided with GM foods often refused to eat them if there was a non-GM alternative available? Animals aren’t so dumb, eh?!)

I don’t trust the studies “proving” the safety of the products because they are often paid for by the manufacturer, not an unbiased party.

If these things were so safe, why would they be against labeling them? They should want the labels so that people could buy the great, GM products…..right?

The new one that gets me is the Senomyx additive that changes how your taste buds taste food. For example, their “artifical flavoring” makes the taste buds send the message to your brain that says “this is sweet (or salty)” when there is actually very little sweetener or salt in the product. Because it’s a “flavoring,” Senomyx was able to completely bypass the FDA testing and approval process, and even now this stuff is in the food supply. I’ve linked to my article about it….(did I mention this one before…I forget)…..click my name to read it.

(I sent an email request to them just before posting the article asking to see the safety studies on their product. I haven’t received any info from them, but they did Google me, looking to see who I was! The interesting thing about that was that the IP was Senomyx.gov which sure looks a little (or a lot!) fishy to me…..a dot-gov on a flavoring company???? Gives me the creeps wondering what they’re really cooking up and why and for whom.)

However, more and more, these additives are getting approval without proper testing because the amounts used are so small “they can’t possibly cause any harm,” and when they do prove to be harmful, does the FDA take them off the shelf? Nope, they say “don’t eat as much and you should be fine”…..however, if the products aren’t labeled, we don’t know how much we are getting! What a vicious circle, eh?

I believe you are right….I think Everything should be labeled with specific information on all ingredients no matter how minute the amount is. It’s the only fair, and safe thing to do.

It is this lack of labeling that really bothers me. It does not matter if it is GM food, irradiated meat, hormone treated beef, or anything else. I believe we have the right to know what is in our food, bath and beauty products, etc. There is a real push now to “show” things are safe with studies like you mention. Then because they are shown to be “safe” by those studies, the argument is made that labeling is not required.

I think maybe I am misunderstanding. One of the reasons for GM crops is so the crop can be exposed to much higher levels of pesticides and herbicides, and yet not be damaged….i.e. Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” crops. The seeds have been genetically modified with a bacteria that is resistant to Roundup herbicide. This means you can spray the you-know-what out of them using Roundup but without harming the plant.

However, do you really want to eat a plant that has bacteria DNA in it? What does it do to People? How safe is it? Who paid for the safety trials?

(On a tangent, a lot of people got upset when they learned the tobacco companies paid for a study of tobacco, but do you realize how many drug companies pay for the clinical trials of drugs? Most of the trials are funded by the drug companies, and often the unsuccssful studies are not published, thereby making it look as if the drug is more effective than it really is.)

I believe a similar thing is happening with GM crops….they are being hailed as a wonderful thing, but most are not performing as promised, and are actually messing up the wildlife and environment.

Several years ago, a team at Cornell University in NY came to the conclusion that a crop of GM corn was responsible for the demise of hundreds of thousands of Monarch Butterflys. That may not seem like a big deal, but anything that harms the ecosystem will, ultimately, harm people.

I have just set up a little greenhouse and will be growing my own organic veggies this summer. This is the first year I’ve done this, but I hope it works. I don’t want to purchase any more food than I must. I don’t trust what’s in it, and I don’t trust the producers to tell the truth about what’s in it.

What a sad state of affairs……

(For more info, read the book _Seeds of Deception_. If only half the info in the book is real, it’s enough to stop the production of GM products until many, many more studies are done.)

Michelles last blog post..Eight Pieces Brocade positions hint list

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By the way that blue water in the photo in your latest post is an amazing color!

If the U.S. policy makers had addressed this issue years ago when they should have, instead of now when they are being forced to, we would not be in this mess. But that is spilled milk, much like the Iraq war. The question now is how best to proceed to minimize the hardship you refer to in your comment.