GMOs and Processed Foods

According to the USDA, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are present in more than 80% of packaged products in the average U.S. or Canadian grocery store. In 2007, 91% of soy, 87% of cotton, and 73% of corn grown in the U.S. were GMO. It is estimated that over 75% of Canola grown is GMO, and there are also commercially produced GM varieties of sugar beets, squash and Hawaiian Papaya.

What's most concerning about this is that the population sector that purchases a better part of their groceries in packaged products are the least educated about GMOs. And further still, consider the "food deserts" where all that is accessible is packaged, processed foods in boxes.

Theoretically, a person living in a food desert could be consuming a diet of nearly 100% genetically modified food. Food deserts are usually constructed of poor neighborhoods, where access to large grocery stores is sparse if not completely non-existent. (Tell me, have you ever seen a Whole Foods in a poor neighborhood? Of course not!) These neighborhoods, without surprise, also compose the bulk of industrial-food related health problems such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

There are many factors to health problems in food deserts, but adding to the experimental quality of GMOs doesn't help the mix. The truth is that nobody really knows what GMOs do in the body, as they are cross-species, not cross-crop organisms. What bothers me is that the poor neighborhoods, already suffering from a lack of information and quality, are in essence the test subjects for GMOs in the body. It smells faintly of Tuskugee...

What we can do about it:

1. Buy as much of your food from local, responsible, accountable sources as possible.


2. Get involved: Volunteer at elementary schools or your church to create a community garden using organic practices.


3. Go outside of your neighborhood and see what help can be offered in neighborhoods that truly need the help.


4. Learn how to save and store heirloom seed.


5. Learn how to identify plants.


6. Find neighbors with fruit trees. Help them harvest and prune. Bring excess bounties to food shelters.


7. Reconnect the children to the source of their health: the land. Once they start to understand, they will also teach their friends, some of which will definitely spill over into food deserts if you don't live in one yourself.