GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS

Today (thankfully) Federal Legislation Introduced a Bill To Require The Labeling Of Genetically Engineered (GE) Foods. Currently genetically engineered food requires no labeling. Curious don't you think, that producers of GE foods do not label their products as such. Why? Because many of us wouldn't buy them.

Check the Center for Food Safety's web site http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/ for more information. Click on the Take Action tab to see how you can get involved, including letting your Senator and Congressman know your thoughts. With the site's links, I sent emails to my Senator and Congressman to let them know I want them to pass the legislation noted above.

GE food is silently invading our kitchens. The FDA must approve GE foods before they can be sold, but makes no requirements that these foods be labeled. Are they safe? No one really knows the long term effect on our bodies or on our environment. Safe for us? The FDA says so (hmmm). Safe for our environment? Probably not. You see GE crops can cross pollinate - to weeds and other food crops, thus altering their DNA as well. Then, what effect will this have on the birds and insects that eat them? No one knows the long term effects on wildlife or how to control these super weeds once they take hold. 

The Center for Food Safety also has an initiative to stop GE Salmon. As they escape captivity (which the industry says will never happen despite the fact that fish farm escapees already exist) and invade our oceans and streams, it is anticipated that they could wipe out the existing wild salmon population in less than 40 fish generations.

"Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that a release of just sixty GE fish into a wild population of 60,000 would lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 fish generations."

"FDA says escape is unlikely and that the fish pose “no impact” to the environment. But each year millions of farmed salmon escape, outcompeting wild populations for resources and straining ecosystems. Any approval of GE salmon would represent a serious threat to the survival of native salmon populations, many of which have already suffered severe declines related to salmon farms and other man-made impacts." 

"Additionally, the human health impacts of eating GE fish, 

which would be the first-ever GE food animal, are entirely unknown."

Genetically Engineered foods is an industry that has grown steadily... and quietly. As consumers we need to stay aware and intervene where we can - like supporting the Center for Food Safety. Again I quote John Muir: 

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, 

he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” 

Why do we think we know better than Nature!