Hello out there! Thanks for stopping by to read this blog! So for those who don’t already know me, I’m Megan. I am a wife, a mother, an artist. Growing up I was always a bit of a hippie kid, now I’m just a hippie adult. I love to create and be inspired, in many different mediums.
One of the mediums I love to use every day is food. I love to cook! I love REAL food. Some may even call me a foodie. Over the last year and half or so, our family has made a huge food transformation. I started to hear more about things called GMOs (genetically modified organisms). For those of you who don’t know what they are, they are organisms (plants/animals/insects/bacteria/viruses) that have had their DNA altered by scientists inserting new genes into them (i.e. corn with virus or bacteria DNA; goats with spider DNA; tomatoes with fish DNA). After doing some digging and researching what they were and why they are potentially dangerous, we decided to cut them out of our diets completely.
One of the mediums I love to use every day is food. I love to cook! I love REAL food. Some may even call me a foodie. Over the last year and half or so, our family has made a huge food transformation. I started to hear more about things called GMOs (genetically modified organisms). For those of you who don’t know what they are, they are organisms (plants/animals/insects/bacteria/viruses) that have had their DNA altered by scientists inserting new genes into them (i.e. corn with virus or bacteria DNA; goats with spider DNA; tomatoes with fish DNA). After doing some digging and researching what they were and why they are potentially dangerous, we decided to cut them out of our diets completely.
So what is the big deal with GMOs? They’ve been creeping into our food since the mid 90’s without any word that they were there. The FDA approved them without any independent testing done for safety and here they are today. Based on patent laws, companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and Sygenta (among others) can conduct their own studies while not allowing any independent research of their products. Some of the biggest crops on the market today are Round-up Ready corn, soy, sugar beets, and cotton. These GMO seeds mean that farmers can dump massive amounts of Round-up (yes, that toxic weed killer with all the warning messages on the bottle that tell you not to consume it or breath it) on them and it is supposed to kill everything around it except the Round-up ready crop. Most of these crops end up getting fed to livestock (including cattle, pigs, chickens, and even farm-raised fish, to help fatten them up). The other portion that does not get used for livestock feed, ends up in your food. Mostly in the pre-packaged and highly processed foods and usually in ingredients that you would never suspect. Ingredients like vitamin E, maltodextrin, citric acid, and some more recognizable like cornstarch, soy lecithin, cottonseed oil, or sugar (most processed food ingredients that are labeled as “sugar” come from GMO sugar beets). All of these foods have traces of Glyphosate (the main ingredient in Round-up) in them. Even the meat that you are eating, the dairy products, and the eggs that you consume have glyphosate in them. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. And I for one, don’t want to be eating food that has been grown in (or fed) a toxic chemical that clearly states on a bottle that I should not be consuming.
Other effects from the use of GMOs are the contamination of our groundwater (Where do you think all the Round-Up and other chemicals are going to once you douse a field with them?). It has also led to the rise of super weeds (plants/weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate and other chemicals) and even super bugs (Bugs that are resistant to the chemicals and plants that were designed to kill them, such as Bt corn which is a GMO corn that when eaten by insects, makes their stomachs explode – tasty, huh?). These mono crops have also led to the demise of biodiversity. Biodiversity among plants is so important to our future. Cross-pollination is a huge issue, especially among corn crops. Corn varieties that are a huge part of many cultures are being contaminated with the GMO strains and if it continues, entire crops will be completely eliminated. The decline of honey-bees has also been a huge concern over the last decade or so. Without bees, we don’t have most of our food crops. While the collapse of so many bee colonies has been under debate, you can bet that GMOs and pesticides will be just a few of the reasons why. (As a side note, did you know that Monsanto purchased the leading bee research firm after being implicated in colony collapse? Sounds a little fishy to me.)
There are also the unknown health effects from consuming GMOs. The studies that were conducted by these companies were 90 day trials on rats. That’s it, 90 days. There have been no long-term studies done on any of these GMOs. And because of patent laws, independent researchers are not allowed to conduct any studies without fear of being sued. So in effect, we the consumers have become the lab rats in these long-term studies, all without our consent or our knowledge. Did you know that there are 64 other countries around the world that have banned GMOs? They don’t want to be eating them, so why should we? I know I don’t. And I don’t want my family eating them either. Some of the few studies that have been conducted have also shown a huge rise in diseases like auto-immune disorders, cancers, irritable bowels, infertility, allergies just to name a few. It makes you wonder why we’ve seen such an increase in severe childhood allergies, gluten intolerances, infertility, cancers, and ADHD over the last couple of decades.
Other effects from the use of GMOs are the contamination of our groundwater (Where do you think all the Round-Up and other chemicals are going to once you douse a field with them?). It has also led to the rise of super weeds (plants/weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate and other chemicals) and even super bugs (Bugs that are resistant to the chemicals and plants that were designed to kill them, such as Bt corn which is a GMO corn that when eaten by insects, makes their stomachs explode – tasty, huh?). These mono crops have also led to the demise of biodiversity. Biodiversity among plants is so important to our future. Cross-pollination is a huge issue, especially among corn crops. Corn varieties that are a huge part of many cultures are being contaminated with the GMO strains and if it continues, entire crops will be completely eliminated. The decline of honey-bees has also been a huge concern over the last decade or so. Without bees, we don’t have most of our food crops. While the collapse of so many bee colonies has been under debate, you can bet that GMOs and pesticides will be just a few of the reasons why. (As a side note, did you know that Monsanto purchased the leading bee research firm after being implicated in colony collapse? Sounds a little fishy to me.)
There are also the unknown health effects from consuming GMOs. The studies that were conducted by these companies were 90 day trials on rats. That’s it, 90 days. There have been no long-term studies done on any of these GMOs. And because of patent laws, independent researchers are not allowed to conduct any studies without fear of being sued. So in effect, we the consumers have become the lab rats in these long-term studies, all without our consent or our knowledge. Did you know that there are 64 other countries around the world that have banned GMOs? They don’t want to be eating them, so why should we? I know I don’t. And I don’t want my family eating them either. Some of the few studies that have been conducted have also shown a huge rise in diseases like auto-immune disorders, cancers, irritable bowels, infertility, allergies just to name a few. It makes you wonder why we’ve seen such an increase in severe childhood allergies, gluten intolerances, infertility, cancers, and ADHD over the last couple of decades.
So upon finding all of this information out, we started our food transformation. I started to buy only organic and Non-GMO verified food. We cleaned out our cupboards and replaced our staples with the organic ones. I found a local company that delivers a basket of organic fruit and veggies to our door once a week (their pricing is comparable, if not cheaper than going to my local grocery store to buy). We got together with family and friends and purchased a grass-fed cow to be humanely killed and butchered and our freezer is now stocked. I found a few local farmers who have free-range hens who are fed organic food and they deliver (or I can pick up) farm fresh eggs. I started growing my own food from heirloom seeds in our gardens in the summer. I’ve learned to freeze food using a food saver and learned to can using a water bath canner and a pressure canner to preserve all the food that we grow. This past summer we also spent 1-3 days a week down at our local farmers markets, supporting our local organic farmers. I also started cooking things from scratch using all our real food ingredients. I became a label reader. Not only did I want to avoid GMOs, but preservatives, and artificial colors and flavors as well. And so I cook from scratch. It can be time consuming, especially when you are first learning, and it is totally worth it. That’s where the food preserving and meal planning can definitely come in handy for time saving. And my crockpot has become one of my best friends in the kitchen, especially when I know I have a busy day ahead of me and can’t spend all day in the kitchen. But that’s another subject for another blog.
If you stop and think about how radically our food system has changed over the last 100 years or so, it can blow your mind. Most people these days (especially young people) don’t know how to cook for themselves or even where their food comes from. Our grandparents and great-grandparents grew their own food or bought from their local farmers. I’ve heard of people these days who think that broccoli is made in a factory, not grown from the earth. I think that’s a little sad that we’ve let our society and culture go so far that people have no clue where our food comes from. I hope that’s a trend we can change. My hope is that more people will learn to grow their own food and to be more self-sufficient. I hope that my children will learn about these things and more.
If you are interested in finding out more about GMOs there are some great resources out there. There are some great documentaries that are worth watching including Genetic Roulette and Seeds of Deception. Below is a list of links if you’d like to read more. I am certainly no expert, just a mom trying to find what's best for my family.
Thanks for taking the time to read my first blog. I hope that you found it interesting and maybe even a little informative.
Links for more information:
If you stop and think about how radically our food system has changed over the last 100 years or so, it can blow your mind. Most people these days (especially young people) don’t know how to cook for themselves or even where their food comes from. Our grandparents and great-grandparents grew their own food or bought from their local farmers. I’ve heard of people these days who think that broccoli is made in a factory, not grown from the earth. I think that’s a little sad that we’ve let our society and culture go so far that people have no clue where our food comes from. I hope that’s a trend we can change. My hope is that more people will learn to grow their own food and to be more self-sufficient. I hope that my children will learn about these things and more.
If you are interested in finding out more about GMOs there are some great resources out there. There are some great documentaries that are worth watching including Genetic Roulette and Seeds of Deception. Below is a list of links if you’d like to read more. I am certainly no expert, just a mom trying to find what's best for my family.
Thanks for taking the time to read my first blog. I hope that you found it interesting and maybe even a little informative.
Links for more information:
- The Non-GMO Project - http://www.nongmoproject.org/
- Non-GMO Shopping Guide - http://nongmoshoppingguide.com/
- Dr. Mercola - http://gmo.mercola.com/
- Moms Across America - http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/
- Institute for Responsible Technology - http://www.responsibletechnology.org/
- Genetic Roulette Documentary - http://geneticroulettemovie.com/
- Seeds of Deception - http://seedsofdeception.com/