Tuesday, March 8, 2011

enjoying yogurt, until the meltdown

Eating yogurt

I've been putting away massive quantities of yogurt these past few weeks - ever since my friend turned me on to Pavel's Russian Yogurt. If  you are wondering, this friend is in fact Russian. Apparently I was in the dark on the Russian expertise in yogurt. I've been adding some sliced kiwi, plump perfectly ripe strawberries, and fresh mouth-watering blueberries - about those berries.

Lately I've been pulling my hair out over the organic/non-organic dilemma. Does it really matter? I started to consciously eat only organic a couple weeks ago after Jeffery Smith - the leading voice in GMO - said that organic also meant no Genetic Modification. But does it...does it reeeallly? Who knows.

For a while, I was assuming that because the FDA is so corrupt, organic labels probably mean as much the "all natural" labels, which mean about as much as a label that says, "contains loads of ingredients and fanciful names."

The popular ice cream in Cambodia, haah!

  
I've been reading an important book called Seeds of Deception about the genetic modification/engineering industry. Honestly, everyone...everyone...everyone should read this or a book about this or at least watch a documentary on this topic.

GMO is the scariest thing in the world to me simply because once we allow it into our environment, we cannot take it back. It will screw up the natural checks and balances of our ecosystem  forever. I know that sounds dramatic, but call it like it is. Scientists are playing God, when they have no idea what kind of effects consuming altered genes will have. They don't know, mainly because they haven't taken the time to find out. The handfull of tests that have been done on animals have raised nothing but red flags. One test was done on humans, and even this didn't  look at the effects on the body; it studied removed human intestines - still the results showed that GMO was not safe.

One experiement on humans and somehow GMO foods made it into grocery stores. Smith says, "only one test, besides the global test that we are all a part of right now."

Big agriculture companies have prevented grassroots efforts to label the modified foods. People can't even make up their own minds.

Now it's hard to find a crop that doesn't use GMO seeds.The farmers who want to grow organic food have been contaminated with neighboring GMO seeds.

Monsanto patented terminator seeds, which die after one season. I can only speak for myself, but first, I dont want to eat a mutated plant that comes from a dead mutated seed. Second, I don't want to be dependent on a big company for my food (too late, right?). In this scenero, we all are dependent, even the farmers who were carrying the torch for the rest of us. Once a crop is harvested for the season, farmers have to buy a new shipment of seeds from Monsanto because their seeds have been genetically altered to die. Of course there are all kinds of problems we are introducing.

That's no big deal, really, because we can fix them all. Modify nature here. A little adjustment there. And here. And there. Wait, who died and said we were in charge? Was it Nietzsche? He did said God was dead? Haha, so I guess that puts us in charge. It goes back into the Transhumanism Movement that I am always hearing about -  this common strain of thinking that dismisses nature and seems to have everlasting confidence in the exploits of man. Come on though, Mr. H+. Do you really think that you can do this better than nature? Better than God? Here we go again. God is supposed to be dead, but you are here. Isn't that proof?

Until the meltdown:  Non GMO Shopping Guide 

2 comments:

Eva @ Four Leaf Clover said...

It's great to see someone writing about this. Have you watched 'The World According to Monsanto"? I'm so happy to be living in Europe where I know that 99% of the food isN'T contaminated, but I know Monsanto is trying to get their products and chemicals in here, too, and it's... well, it's awful and scary. People need to wake up and take a stand.

kimbirdy said...

oh man, it's so hard to know what is really in the food you buy. there's an awesome co-op in san francisco {rainbow grocery} that sends people to the farms where they get their produce and dairy products to make sure everything they sell is legit. they also post charts that tell exactly what happens to the animals at each farm so you can make a really informed decision. i don't know of any other place that does that though. and i think it's really easy for us to be healthier and safer living in california than people in the rest of the country. i'm glad there are people talking about this though and i love that shopping guide.

fun fact: i have a good friend named pavel and my husband's name is dannon. we have a picture with the two of them holding their respective yogurts. funny thing is, i don't like either of those yogurt brands... they make better people than food i guess. :)