Organic Foods

Who is controlling the the labeling of organic...FDA...right there is are problem.  There is something like three or four levels of  items being labeled as "organic".  I don't think this is being managed very in-depth right now.  The key is so what it was raised organic if the produce shipper and handlers (also store employee's) don't handle things right we lose some of the benefits.

I guess we will have to do the best we can....hopefully we are getting the benefits. I'm more afraid of genetically altered foods.

Flalady

Isn't Europe where the Mad Cow problems first came to light?

I have to say I'm pretty fond of pasteurization from a food safety perspective. I don't know if I've ever had raw milk cheeses. I'm pretty stringent about eating only organic dairy, but even that, I want pasteurized.

I just read the US allows raw milk cheese production, but there is a lengthened aging requirement because of the lack of pasteurization.

If one peruses the Ask-an-Expert area of this site, Diana Dyer is the one who strongly advocates organic dairy. I find her rationale sound.

I envy you being able to grow your own.

I'm in a townhouse development next to a state park. Between ravaging deer, and neighbors dogs pissing on everything, there is no chance of growing anything edible. I'd have to put up a high fence, and I hate that boxed-in look.

That makes me want to go spray paint a gravel pattern on their paved walkways.

And I think I believe the story. One of my cats absolutely refuses to sit on my lap if my pants have any sort of pattern. Plaid, Dr. Seuss, you name it, he won't get up. The rest of the time, he's like a lap goiter.

That's a great list Deanna, I've been recommending that one for a number of months now.

EWG says if you avoid the dirty dozen (the 12 highest pesticide load) or only buy them organic, you can avoid about 90% of your exposure to pesticides.

I think they have updated the list. Bananas used to be ok non-organic. 

Research corn and potatoes that can not be exported do to the fact they have been genetically altered.  These are just of the few items of produced banned outside of the US.

Flalady

The European community has taken a very cautious approach toward genetically engineered foods. The motivations are largely cultural. Europeâs situation is much different than that of any other region in the world, and their policies reflect these differences.

Regulations are being imposed on a variety of levels of government. Most notably, the European Parliament, individual European nations, and individual stores themselves have all imposed restrictions on genetically altered foods.

According to the European Parliament records from 02/14/97, manufacturers must label all food that might have genetically manufactured ingredients. This includes food with genetically manufactured organisms, food with an intentionally modified molecular structure, and food that has been isolated for microorganisms, fungi, and algae. (8) Furthermore, the genetically altered food must not mislead the consumer, present any danger to the consumer, or differ from the food that it is intended to replace so that the altered food is a nutritional disadvantage to the consumer. Next, manufacturers must apply for permission to market their product in a particular country in the European Union for the first time. (8) A thorough investigation regarding the possible effects must be performed to ensure safety. Also, any genetically altered food must be labeled with its composition, nutritional value and effects, and the intended use of the food. (8) Finally, a country in the European Union can suspend the sale of a particular type of food immediately if new evidence surfaces that the previously approved food is, in fact, unsafe.

Some individual countries are also implementing their own standards to ensure the public safety. Leading the way in this area are France and Germany. Germany passed the Act Regulating Genetic Engineering in 1993. It put into place 16 groups that investigate the safety of all the genetically altered food that is sold in Germany. In September 1998, France decided not to authorize Novartis Seeds to market three strains of genetically altered maize in France. Last July, France imposed a two-year moratorium on approvals of all rapeseed varieties amid concerns that the genetic modifications could be transmitted to other crops. The Belgian firm Plant Genetic Systems developed two of the varieties. (5) At the same time, though, France approved the sale of two other maize varieties developed jointly by Monsanto (USA) and AgrEvo (Germany). (5)

Finally, some stores are cracking down on the sale of genetically engineered foods. Franceâs Auchan and Carrefour have both outlawed genetic engineering in their own brands of food. (4) The British store J. Sainsbury Pic eliminated genetic engineering from its foods one year ago. In Carrefour, 1,783 products have been taken off the shelves. Another 286 had alternate ingredients substituted for the possible genetically modified organisms. (4)

There are several cultural motivations to strictly regulate genetically modified foods in Europe. First, Europe is the most densely populated continent in the world. They have high levels of small farmers. This is unlike other areas including the United States, Canada, and Asia, where the land can support large areas of farmland. In order to maintain agriculture in Europe, many European countries subsidize their farmers. (1) Furthermore, European people tend to value their culture immensely. Accordingly, they resent foreign influence on their culture. Many Europeans tend to associate genetic engineering with American-style agriculture. (1) French farmers have accentuated the hostile feelings by referring to American beef fed with genetically engineered hormones as "le mal bouffe." (2) In the United Kingdom, British newspapers have dubbed genetically engineered products as "Frankenstein foods." (7) The British author Brewster Keen is marketing a book entitled "Farmageddon" that links bioengineered seeds with mechanized agriculture. (1) Furthermore, recent scares like mad cow disease have greatly affected public perception of genetic engineering as well. (5) Therefore, Europeans hesitate to embrace genetically modified foods.

There are a few scientific motivations for the legislation as well. In a recent study, scientists concluded that BT corn, a genetically altered variety, releases an insecticide into soil. While the effects of the release are not yet known, studies like this are contributing to the push for legislative control. (12) Mostly, though, the lack of scientific information regarding the effects of genetically modified food is what helps to motivate the cautious policy. Many of the effects of genetic modifications are not currently known. People easily associate genetic tampering with some sort of alien organisms. While this might seem ludicrous, the fear of the unknown, especially crossing species barriers, can cause great wariness among people. Insecticides, on the other hand, do not change the plant itself and can be tested for possible harmful effects. It is difficult to decide whether or not genetically engineered organisms are safe. Scientific studies regarding insecticides are much more numerous. Therefore, many European countries hesitate to confirm genetic engineering too hastily. Accordingly, if the world finally embraces genetically engineered food, most European countries will be among the last to submit to more lax regulations

Back a couple of months, a couple of you asked how you could determine whether or not your food contained genetically modified organisms. It took a while, but I found a bit of information that might help you better understand this bomb-filled arena, or just add to your confusion.

Here's one point that's indisputable. It is difficult for consumers to know whether the food they're buying was genetically modified, especially in this country. Most of the industrialized countries demand that GMO products be labeled as such. But not the U.S.

The Pew Research Foundation reported that more than 90 percent of American shoppers want food labeled as to its contents, including GMO. Unless I missed it, there was nothing in the farm bill that finally passed last week that will give us a clue to the presence of GM ingredients.

Monsanto, which has a chokehold on the world's use of genetically modified seeds, is now using its extensive network of lawyers and lobbyists to pressure state agriculture agencies not to allow milk producers to label dairy products as not coming from cows fed with GM food or bovine growth hormone.

To learn more about Monsanto, check out this link to Don Barlett and Jim Steele's very well done and balanced investigative report in this month's Vanity Fair.

As with almost everything controversial, all the opinions on GMO have to be weighed by considering the source of the information. The Institute for Responsible Technology makes no pretense about its concern over the danger of using genetically modified substances in our food.

The institute, founded in 2003 by Jeffery Smith, the author of "Seeds of Deception," says many consumers in the U.S. mistakenly believe that the FDA approves GM foods through rigorous, in-depth, long-term studies. In reality, the agency has absolutely no safety testing requirements.

Smith says it's easy to understand the FDA's industry-friendly policy on regulation of GMOs when you see the revolving door between agency regulators and the companies they regulate.

The FDA has claimed it was not aware of any information showing that GM crops were different "in any meaningful or uniform way" from non-GMO crops and therefore didn't require testing. But Smith says that 44,000 internal FDA documents made public by a lawsuit show that this was not true.

But getting back to the original question of how to identify GMO-tainted food, the institute has released a four-page guide on what to watch out for, including a lengthy list of food items containing GM ingredients.

The guide and other GMO information can be found at the institute's Web site at this link.

Now I am a little worried about planting my garden.  How do I tell if the seeds are "genetically engineered?" 

We grow all of our own vegetables, but I have never paid attention to genetic engineering of the seeds.  I also can and freeze everything I can.  This was the first year I intended to save the seeds from my garden to start next year's garden.

Is there any government agency out there that we can trust?  I am so tired of this.  I am tired of slogging through the mud to make sure that the food I eat is safe...  What's next???

Seed savers exchanges (there are quite a few of them) are organized by organic gardeners who want to preserve heirloom seeds. You can buy,sell and trade seeds through them. They are usually committed to untreated and unaltered varieties of fruits and veggies.

FlaLady, thanks again for all your great research.