GMO Bits & Pieces

GMO Bits & Pieces

• The most common genetically modified crops in the U.S. are (in order): canola, soy, cotton, corn, papaya, radicchio, tomato, sugar beet, flax, potato, yellow crookneck squash, and some hybrid zucchini… Mmmm… how's your appetite now?

• Australia has done more recently than hosting the summer Olympics. The Food Standards Council has approved strict mandatory label requirements for GMO foods which will take effect in about a year from now. The Aussies get a gold medal for
that one!

• The FBI -- in a move probably designed to bring stiffer penalties or move the offense into the felony class -- has classified anyone who seeks to destroy GMO crop fields as "special interest terrorists." Funny -- I would have classified GMO producers
as such…

• In 1999, 39.9 million hectares (one hectare equals almost 2.5 acres) worldwide were planted with GMO crops, up 20 times since 1996. Soybeans accounted for 54% of the total acreage. So let me get this straight -- if I eat tofu and soy products as an alternative to meat, I'm ingesting GMO products. If I go for the meat, the animals are ingesting (as feed) GMO products which may still make it to my gut anyway… Let's hear it for choice in the good ol' USA!

Zucchinis or Van Gogh?

It seems that the only way to really get away from all this GMO stuff is, as usual, grow your own, Now, while I think it would be groovy an' all if everyone raised their own eats, let's be real: it ain't gonna happen. And I'm not sure I really want it to be that way.

I avoid western medicine at all costs but if by chance I break my neck or something, I sure don't want the doctor worrying about those zucchinis out in the field that need to be picked today or they'll turn into zeppelins.

I'm kidding, of course (when am I not?) but there's lots of things I'd rather other folk specialize in so I don't have to -- like auto mechanics (or blacksmith/farrier), running the @#!&&^% computer systems I'm writing this epic on, or making clothes (I have no interest in raising cotton or weaving my own wool or tanning hides; in fact, I care about clothes/fashion so little that it would be OK by me if someone dressed me in the morning…). How could great paintings, novels, rock n' roll (yeah!) be produced by someone who's happy and content in the garden, listening to birds and feeling the wind on their faces? Really, everyone knows that tortured unhappy people make the best art…

What I'm getting at here (albeit in my usual convoluted way) is that not everyone should have to produce for all of their own needs. As difficult as it is to imagine, there are people out there who are happier rolling around in auto grease under cars than hoeing the carrots.

New Distros

We do need some kind of food distro system, more locally based and not on the massive scale we have now. And that's where we run into problems -- how to keep it small, effective, healthy, sustainable and at the same time, provide for all of our true needs. (I may really want that organic, honey-frosted sugar-bombs breakfast cereal, but need?)

A local system of growers and distros like co-ops, growers markets etc is certainly possible. And the limitations inherent in such small closed systems might just preclude the perceived "need" for uncontrollable monsters like corporate chain groceries ("natural" or otherwise) or GMOS. Of course it's easy to talk such dreams up but to make them happen? Start off by supporting local farms (organic, natural, certified or not -- who cares -- as long as they're local. Personally, I'd rather support a local conventional farmer than an organic one out-of-state), but (here's the real clincher) supporting them means paying a fair price for fresh food.

A Pound of Fresh

Most other countries (Europeans in particular) know the value of real food, In the U.S., our grocery bills cost less, compared to overall expenses, because we're spoiled with government subsidies and cheap "food" made possible by intensive fossil-fuel farming. Think the price you're paying for organic food is unfair? Sorry, farmers of any size make
a pretty miserable hourly wage compared to you because it's a true full-time job (only parenting is harder work). Like they say, vote with your fork -- put your money where your mouth is.