FDA Wont Allow Food to Be Labeled Free of Genetic Modification:

[vfem]

I swear, there's another idiot born every minute to grow up and seek a government job! %$!?$* (we need a swearing smilie )

Fools! Although I must say they've practically given us our farmers market and pastured meat business. DH & I bought our farm in April 2007. We started doing markets on a small scale in 2008 - then got ramped up in 2009.

We were impressed with our business growth in 2009, and this year has been GREAT. We added a CSA and got so many sign-ups, we finally had to start a waiting list for 2011. People are knocking our door down to get safe food.

No wonder! Thanks, FDA Idiots!

Hooray Kim!!!

I think this is also why my jam business and cookies have picked up. We raise our own produce or buy locally from people who are like minded in their practices. We also raise our own chickens and ducks and use those eggs in baking. People are finally having this moment when they eat my food where they can relax because they know there are none of the pesticides , or hormones they keep reading about.

We are only as free to be as healthy as our government allows us... no wonder we're a nation of fat unhealthy people! Most people don't know what they are even eating. So the FDA covers it up further... legally! When people flip out one day the agency won't be able to recover. Someday we'll have a whole new agency in its place (and this will most likely start all over again).

 

[lesa]

Congrats, Kim! I keep telling DH that this is the moment that the small farmers have been waiting for. I predict an increase in the family farm. Maybe you won't get rich doing it- but customers are going to want to buy what you are doing! It is high time American's learn about where their food is coming from...

 

[Kim_NC]

Thanks for the well wishes, Everyone.

This society could use another Michael Pollan movie....along the same lines as Food Inc but about GMOs this time. I find it sad that the majority of the population hasn't got a clue what's really going on wth the food supply.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

This morning I was doing a bit of research on the GMO situation in the UK when I came across this article. I thought you might be interested in it.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMCropsFacingMeltdown.php

Hattie

 

[seedcorn]

Interesting that the article states that if they quit using GMO cotton, they couldn't grow cotton in USA.........a lot of countries would love that.

It also states that organic is "booming" but yet in midwest, we can't sell our organic corn, soybeans, milk as there is NO market unless you want to sell at producers prices which organic can't compete with.

We've always had resistant weeds even when hand pulling as some learn to grow along ground and start again from just a small piece of root. If you have weeds, you have no crop.

Using modern techniques we've got 160 bu/acre averages with $5/bushel corn. If we went back to open pollinated, no commercial fertilizer (1930 techniques when they averaged less than 50 bu/acre) what would the prices be......no one could afford meat except the elite.

I do agree that the majority have no clue concerning their food supply.

 

[hoodat]

That's what happens when you destroy the balance by using wide spectrum insecticides over large areas. The first thing to go are the predators that help keep the harmful insects under control. You then require ever increasing insecticide applications to do the job till you find yourself running hard just to stay in the same place. It will take years of organic farming to restore the balance.
The increased profits that were promised farmers only lasted a few years. It's now aparent that not only is the food less healthy grown as they are now doing but it has reached the point where GM crops are MORE expensive to grow. It seems insane to spend more money to grow inferior crops.

 

[seedcorn]

That's what happens when you destroy the balance by using wide spectrum insecticides over large areas. The first thing to go are the predators that help keep the harmful insects under control. You then require ever increasing insecticide applications to do the job till you find yourself running hard just to stay in the same place. It will take years of organic farming to restore the balance.
The increased profits that were promised farmers only lasted a few years. It's now aparent that not only is the food less healthy grown as they are now doing but it has reached the point where GM crops are MORE expensive to grow. It seems insane to spend more money to grow inferior crops.

GMO are infintelty cheaper to grow. For those that understand circle of life, the predators don't increase until the first insects have done their damage. Then when the insects are thinned down (mainly due to decreased food supply), the predators die off. The predators are never in large enough numbers to do any good unless they are artificially increased.

 

[hoodat]

Then why is it that I have just had a very abundant Summer in my garden and have not had to spray even once? The damage the pests did never outran the thinning of them by predators. I give most of the credit to the fact that I maintain a sanctuary area within the veggie garden with plants attractive to both pests and predators that is never disturbed but allowed to run wild. I have no doubt that if I sprayed that area just once the pests would eat me out of house and home in no time. I'm not about to make that experiment.

 

[Warthog]

Before I left the UK I was a member of the Soil Association, in one of their magazines, it stated: (nothing to do with GMO) just regular crops

From planting to harvest lettuce take 13 weeks.

During that time they are sprayed 11 times with various chemicals.

What !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also started buying as much organic produce as possible, all our meat, fruit and veg. Yes it is far more expensive.

But in UK we now eat far more meat than we ever did in years past, meat was an important part of the diet, but stretched out with potatoes and vegetables.

Now it would seem that we eat lots of meat, and little fruit and vegetables. Presumably because meat is so cheap, but at what cost to our health and the welfare of the animals.

I also believe that there was an article in the British Press recently saying that milk from 'cloned cows' is now in the human food chain.

Glad I am not in the UK anymore.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

We also started buying as much organic produce as possible, all our meat, fruit and veg. Yes it is far more expensive.

But in UK we now eat far more meat than we ever did in years past, meat was an important part of the diet, but stretched out with potatoes and vegetables.

Now it would seem that we eat lots of meat, and little fruit and vegetables. Presumably because meat is so cheap, but at what cost to our health and the welfare of the animals.

I also believe that there was an article in the British Press recently saying that milk from 'cloned cows' is now in the human food chain.

Glad I am not in the UK anymore.

Hi Warthog,
Living as I do in the UK I see the yearly evidence of the deterioration in a lot of peoples' diet. People are definitely getting fatter, especially children.
It is very scary to view shoppers' trolleys at the checkout.......mostly stacked with brightly coloured packets of cheap ready to eat meals & virtually no fresh vegetables or fruit.
Of course there are a minority who still cook & they often grow their own vegetables etc.

There is also a huge push on at the moment (by the the big Ag. companies, no doubt ) to get the law changed to allow GM foods to be grown here & in the rest of Europe. Last time this happened there was a great surge of opinion against it but sadly I think there may not not be this time round, as there seems to be a lot of apathy amongst the general public who only care that food is cheap & readily available to eat with the minimum preparation. There is a lot of scare-mongering going on about how we are not going to have enough food here in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/06/gm-crops-biotech-lobbyists-fsa



Here, by the way, is an article about the cloned cow's milk.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/11/meat-cow-cloned-uk-food-chain



Hattie