Engineering Food
June 20, 2008
I was taking a minute this morning to read yet another article from my months old Green Issue of Vanity Fair. As I was reading a particular article about a giant chemical corporation engineering seeds and creating growth hormones, I couldn’t help but feel sick. There’s just something creepy about messing with life and nature. Why alter nature when it is already so perfect? Why fill your stomach with engineered food instead of the kind that has been here all along? We’ve all had those grainy tomatoes - yes they’re big, round and red, but they just taste horrible. A tomato left untainted, however, is small, may have scarring on the skin or a slight hole where a caterpillar also tried to enjoy the juicy, sweet insides - but it is absolutely wonderful.
Immediately, I knew that I wanted no part of chemically engineered food. But how could I control our exposure to those types of food? My mind raced to times when my children may have eaten food from these genetically engineered seeds or animals injected with growth hormones to increase milk or meat production. How would I even have known? Thinking back, I see labels on the milk saying something about rBST. But corn and soybeans aren’t labeled - how 
do I know if we’re purchasing engineered food - either raw or in the processed form (like cornflakes cereal or microwave popcorn)? How do I know if my favorite restaurants are using engineered food?
Seeds for soy, corn, canola, cotton are being engineered to resist pesticides - meaning that farmers can plant these new seeds, grow the plants and blanket spray fields with confidence that the crop will not die, but the weeds will. So not only are we eating food from a genetically engineered seed, we are also eating food coated with pesticides known to kill anything it touches. And I don’t even know which corn at which grocery store is genetically engineered or not.
Cows (is there a milk shortage in our country??) are being injected with various chemicals to increase milk production. I
know I’ve seen labels on milk in the last several years stating “this milk from cows not treated with rBST”, but I didn’t think to research what that engineered hormone was or it’s affect on cows or humans. According to the article, this hormone can cause lameness, liver problems, uterine problems, increased heartrate, and mastitis in cows. Any mom who’s breastfed a baby knows what mastitis is. It is an infection of the breast (or in a cow, the udder) in which bacteria and pus can come out with the milk. Feeling that cereal and milk in my stomach starting to churn, I swallowed back a gag, and the frantic in me got up, to check the label on the milk carton in the fridge…phew, we’re ok. We didn’t have sides of artificial hormones or pus this morning with our cereal. The market I shop at Ralphs (Kroger), doesn’t purchase their milk from dairies that use rBST.
It seems like more work, but I will be making the effort to purchase organic food. I already do as much as I can here at home: growing vegetables in the garden (this summer - herbs, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, watermelon and pumpkins), baking bread, trying to eat less processed food and more “whole” food. I make deals with friends or neighbors that have fruit trees, some of their fruit for some of our vegetables. I haven’t gone to our local farmer’s market for a few years. The market is during my children’s afternoon naptimes - and a busy mommy knows that she needs naptime to regroup and steady herself for the hectic dinner rush.
We are lucky though, we have a farmer’s market (find one in your town), we also have a Whole Foods market. For the sake of our health, I am going to make more of an effort to shop organically. Yes, it can be more expensive and more of a hassle, but it just feels right. Doing my research for this article was interesting, on both topics (Roundup Ready seeds & rBST), I found no government information that either was unsafe for public consumption. In fact, I found the opposite, statements that there is no difference between organic food and that conventionally grown, or that milk or meat from cows treated by growth hormones is no different than milk from untreated animals. These are relatively new technologies and I cringe when I think of possible future problems that come about when a product is rushed to market. I want to believe that my government is more concerned for the safety and health of it’s citizens, but I just can’t believe it to be true. Not when I read stories of tainted rivers, polluted groundwater, the horrible state of air quality, the rise of cancer and diabetes as well as endocrine diseases…and so much more that is currently affecting humans and our environment. Money speaks too loudly in our country. Let it speak loudly for you - refuse to purchase products that are from altered seeds or treated animals.
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I could not agree more. A few years ago I watch a documentary called The Future of Food. It completely changed the way I view the food I eat. I am lucky to have a few farmers stands in my area and we often buy produce from them. If I can’t get it there, I make sure to purchase fruits and vegetables found in the organic section of our local grocery store. Regarding milk, a local farmer has pledged to never use growth hormones on his cows. We only buy their dairy products. They don’t cost any more than the other dairy products but they are so much safer!!