In between editing my novel and reading my latest issue of Poets and Writers and exploring online literary magazines and soaking up content (this week's favorites are Scarab , the world's only mobile literary magazine created just for the iPhone and iPod touch, Pure Francis, a little gem out of Chicago, and Bloody Bridge Review, a shameless plug, I know,) I've been paying frequent visits to my greenhouse to check on my fledgling attempts at growing spinach and arugula in February. Oh...but now it's March and the sun is higher and the snow is melting and we have to open the doors when the sun is shining because it otherwise gets too hot. And while writing is my first love, everybody needs to eat (even writers) and people deserve access to safe food free of GMO contamination.
I attended the Michigan Organic Conference at MSU this past weekend which elevated my blood pressure along with my resolve to do more to spread information on the rampant contamination of our food systems. Genetically modified organisms (God Move Over, some call it) have been brought to us by Monsanto, the same company who brought us DDT and Agent Orange and then lied about their safety. Those involved in seed production say Monsanto is buying up seed companies with the intent of owning all of them. If you control seed, you control food, and if you control food you control people.
High fructose corn syrup, which is in everything from cereal to ketchup, is 100% derived from genetically modified corn. GMO foods have been proven by scientific study to accelerate aging, affect fertility, cause immune system problems and allergies, and a 50% increase in breast cancer. Oh, and if that weren't enough? They can turn our intestinal tracks into little pesticide factories, yet these studies have been swept under the carpet by the strong arm of Monsanto political influence. They have a lot of money and they don't care about your intestines.
Now you might not want to think about such things because your head is full of your WIP. You’re more absorbed in keeping a handle on your wayward protagonist than what you’re about to put in your mouth but I know I want to live long enough to add more accomplishments to my literary arsenal (it took me six years to write one novel!). I don’t need any of the aforementioned health problems to add to the other obstacles we writers experience.
So what's this all about? Can we get GMO foods out of our grocery stores the way the Europeans and the Japanease did? I believe we can through activism. We can’t wait for our govt. to act, because they won't. But all we need is 5% of the population to denounce GMO to make it financially burdensome for the likes of Kraft, Nestle, Kellogg, etc. to continue to use it in their products. If you can't buy organic try to at least avoid GMO foods, processed foods and fast food. Make your voice heard. Ask questions. Be diligent. That 5% is you.
So here's to good eating and writing well.
11 comments:
Right on. There has been enough of a backlash against high fructose corn syrup that now some products loudly proclaim "No High Fructose Corn Syrup." We need the same drive against Frankenfoods.
Travener,
Yes, there has been some push back against HFCS, and I hope it becomes an avalanche of citizen protest.
Thanks!
"because your head is full of your WIP" hahahahahahaha! You are funny and rapier-sharp in this post. Since my protagonist is wrestling with pollution fallout you're speaking right at me!
Tricia,
Why, thank you very much!
Yeah,your water girl?? Good for you. We writers have to keep pounding away. Or tapping, or scribbling . . .
Ugh,I hate what is done to our food!
great post--organic and local is the way to go!!
Amy,
Yes, it gives me a headache. But all is not lost as long as they don't try to take our seed away from us!
C.M.
Thank you. I think more and more people are feeling that way. There is so much distrust these days, and rightfully so.
Monsanto is not gonna like this post...
G.,
You know . . . you're right. My brother claims he's ready for the day the black SUVs pull into the driveway to take away his organic seed. My father used to write for a small farm paper and after an article ripping Monsanto appeared he got a phone call the next morning demanding retraction and apology. Of course he gave neither. But one wonders why advertising suddenly dropped and the paper has since closed.
Yes, the GMO situation is maddening and insidious. Certain counties in California have banned the growing of GMOs; however, it's primarily a symbolic ban considering the counties affected probably grow more pot than they do food. Such a ban would be a real David and Goliath-type struggle in the corn and soy states.
Hi Alisa,
You're right. It would be easy for Calif to do that as they aren't a corn/soybean growing region and don't have to deal with the muscle of Cargill, Monsanto and the rest of the agribusiness despots. At least pot has been around since the beginning of recorded history and we know what it does and one can choose to partake or not. Damn if there wasn't corn syrup in a jar of peanuts we had in the cupboard...yuck!
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