Where Does That Food Come From?

Thought at all about that food you are eating lately? Chances are, it is from a plant that has been genetically modified(GM) by one of the large food companies that are now engineering over 80 percent of our crop foods. The scary thing is that a lot of people are unaware of this fact.

But this is changing.

Monsanto is one of the largest producers of grains in the world, creating improved strains of everything from corn to cotton. They add a gene (Bt) to most of their plants that makes them toxic to destructive insects, and they create plants that give higher yields. Sounds great for farmers, right? Less work in the fields, less spraying, and less waste equals a greater cash crop to sell at the end of the growing season. There is much to be proud of in those facts.

The problem lies not with the good that this can do for humanity, but with the other issues it creates for farmers. Many of these crops are also given what is called a terminator gene meaning that they can't reproduce from seed, so the seeds have to be purchased every year. There are also rules about how far non-genetically modified crops can be grown from the GM plants. Corn is a wind pollinator, so anyone with a non-modified corn farm near a GM corn farm needs to pay attention to prevailing winds or risk a lawsuit for patent infringement.

There is still a lot of information that we do not know about the impact long term of GM foods on the biosphere and ourselves. What is known is that nature will adapt. Some insects are already beginning to develop a resistance to the pesticide/bacterium gene inserted into the modified foods.(see below) What are the long term issues that will inevitably occur? It gives one pause for thought.

Do a little reasearch on that food you are eating, and then think about buying local this coming summer from the farm stands around Salem or the Farmer's Market at Lake Street Gardens. Don't be afraid to ask the growers where the seeds came from. Many use heirloom seeds that are not modified and are from old strains of plants that are harvested every year. This means that it is not just organic, but that it is self-sustaining too.

Check out http://rareseeds.com//non-hybrid/ for more information.

See also: Prakash, C.S. "Insect Adaptation to Bt Cotton" 1 Jul 1997. http://plant-tc.cfans.umn.edu/listserv/1997/log9707/msg00002.html