Monday, July 14, 2014
ARTICLE: You Are What You Eat: What Exactly ARE You Eating Though? Part 2: Organic Vs. All Natural Vs. Monsanto GMO
Image Source~©MELANIE NEER~Home grown Tomatoes
ABSTRACT: With the vast variety of food choices we have, one needs to know the difference in what constitutes organically grown foods versus all natural and what GMOs mean
CONTENT:
This article is the second of a series of articles in which I explore as many aspects of the food industry as possible. If you wish to read Part 1 you may read it here.
Organically Grown And Raised Foods:
We all naturally want to eat as healthy as possible, however, with so many foods available to us and how they are grown and raised can get confusing, we therefore wonder, which is the safest, purest and least processed and manipulated? It's probably a no-brainer that organic and humanely raised foods are the way to go. But what does organic really mean? In a nutshell, it means that produce and crops are grown without any chemical pesticides, and that farm animals raised for human consumption are raised without injecting the farm animals any growth hormones and antibiotics; also, farm animals that are humanely raised are free ranging, meaning not cooped up in deplorable conditions as they are in farm factories and are fed diets more consistent and natural to them; i.e. cows are grass fed, as opposed to being fed Monsanto GMO corn.
One of the ironies is that what we call organically raised foods nowadays was how food used to be grown. I did a little research into all aspects of how food is grown and raised and was surprised to learn that the concept of commercial farming where chemical pesticides where used actually goes back hundreds of years, while the movement in growing and raising foods again organically only started in the 1920s. (1) With the continued rise in stronger and more toxic pesticides over the years, such as DDT (now banned in the USA), more and more people wanted a return to the organic means of raising foods. In 1990 our government officially passed the Organic Foods Production Act to give specific clarifications as to want constituted what was considered organic. (2) It wasn't until 2002 however, that the USDA designated a special label that has to appear on any and all foods termed organic. (3).
How does one tell if foods are truly "organic"? There are several ways. On any produce grown, whether commercially or organically raised one will be aware of those sticky labels often attached to fresh produce. The first number on those labels gives one a hint how the food was raised. In fact years ago I came across a rhyme one can easily remember.
3 or 4 is a bore (commercially raised)
8 you should hate (Monsanto GMO)
9 is fine (organic)
Bottom line, if one comes upon any grown produce with a sticky label with the first number being "9" it means it's organic. Meats from farm animals humanely raised and not via farm factories will also have a label. As far as processed foods, which can range from anything to soups, sauces, pastas, cereals and so forth, and have all of it's ingredients organically raised will have the USDA label on it. To give two great examples: the company Amy's Kitchen has a whole vast array of processed foods in which all the ingredients are all organic and non-GMO. Another company that has a whole line of foods that are organic is Muir Glen.
There is of course however one great major hiccup about organic foods: price. As much as we would all like to eat healthier and perhaps more organic, prices of organic foods may literally strangle the average person's food budget. To cite two examples, one can get a rather gigantic box of Cheerios cereal for about $4.99 in any of the stores near me, yet an all organic type of cereal and of a distinctly smaller size will be two or three times the the cost. Another example: one can get a can of condensed Campbell Chicken Soup for about $1.99, while Glen Muir's Lentil soup, of which I've had, and not condensed is $3.99. We can only hope that perhaps in the future, as more and more people demand organically raised foods, that prices will come down.
All Natural Foods:
When one goes food shopping, one will often notice that on the labels of many processed foods, it may say "all natural" ingredients. This however, a misnomer and can fool the person into thinking that they are perhaps getting organic ingredients. A big resounding no! As I've indicated, unless the ingredients are clearly labeled as organic, and has the USDA label to indicate so, it is by no means organic. The only reason a processed food may say "all natural" is due to the fact that it won't have any kind of chemical preservatives or additives such as MSG, food dyes, BHA or BHT. Otherwise the so-called natural ingredients are commercially grown foods, and consequently foods laden with pesticides and/or contain Monsanto GMOs. Foods may also be enhanced such as In the case of commercially grown tomatoes where most are not vine ripened but instead gassed with ethylene.
Monsanto GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms):
If ever there were food products one should avoid completely, it has to be Monsanto GMO raised foods, or as many have come to call "Frankenfoods". I shall in the future devote a whole article about GMOs, but if you don't know what GMO is, basically it's foods and animals that have had their DNA altered in a laboratory.
As a company Monsanto has been around since 1901 and has invented a myriad of highly toxic chemicals including Agent Orange, PCBs and Roundup, however it wasn't until the 1990s that GMO seeds were introduced and now is the leading producer of GMO seeds worldwide. The most commonly affected crops that are corn in which over 80% of all corn grown is GMO; over 90% of all soy is GMO, and also alfalfa, canola, cotton, papaya, sugar beets, just to name a few. What is so wrong with GMO seeds? They in themselves contain toxic pesticides, which when we consume the food in question we are exposing ourselves to the pesticides, and much worse than pesticides that are sprayed on crops. While inconclusive there have been a few studies involving rats fed GMO corn where the rats have grown cancerous tumors. (4)
The world however is starting to protest against Monsanto and GMO seeds, and in essence are refusing to grow any more such crops; Hungary went even a step further and even destroyed all GMO corn crops. Many European countries allow food products to at least label ingredients that are GMO, however, with a few exceptions and in very few states here in America, no such labeling exists. Why? I think you may guess: Monsanto has a virtual stranglehold on our foods, how they are grown, and how food products are labeled. If you're wondering why the FDA, which is supposed to be the watchdog over the safety of our foods hasn't stepped up is due to one reason: many former Monsanto employees work for the FDA.
So back to the basic premise. If one wants to eat as healthy as possible, organic is the way to go. Don't be fooled by foods that say all natural as they many contain commercially grown foods and GMO ingredients, and this would include any type of corn or soy product (corn oil, cornstarch, cornmeal, soybean oil, soy lecithin, etc.)
Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~~Home grown tomatoes I grew myself
Sources To Further Read:
Articles About Organic Farming:
Where Did Organic Farming Start? (1)
Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (2)
Food sticker labels
How To Read Food Sticker Labels
Amy's Kitchen Foods:
Muir Glen:
Muir Glen Website
Monsanto GMO:
Hungary Destroys GMO Corn Crops
Does GMO Corn Cause Tumors? (4)
Commercial Faming/Pesticides
Commercial Agriculture Facts and Figures
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