There's WHAT In That?

      I once heard a child say that food comes from the grocery store, but she didn’t know how it got to the shelf.  Ignorance is sometimes bliss, especially when it comes to what we’re putting in our bodies. 

      It seems everywhere I turn, someone is talking about GMOs.  This morning I glanced through my Facebook feed to see that a “new” herbicide-resistant corn and “new” herbicide-resistant soybean are just about ready to be unleashed on the Mid-Atlantic market, which the local farming journal was reporting with vigor.  While just the other week, my sister-in-law had a school project on them.  She had to record everything she ate in a week’s time and see how many foods had GMOs in.  (Hint: Everything had GMOs in.)  Then after studying whether or not they are harmful or beneficial, she had to make up her mind on whether she was for or against labeling GMOs on food packaging.  During all this I got a text message from her and begun to think of our own household: We garden, freeze fresh produce, can for the winter, make our own bread products and baked goods; we can’t eat that many GMOs.  Right?  

A nearby cornfield – 2014

      Ugh.  My digestive tract is strongly protesting my ignorance right now.  Everything we thought we were doing right could be wrong? 

      You see, we don’t plant GMO fruits and vegetables in the garden.  There are no GMO soy beans or field corn in our diet intentionally.  We try to eat as healthy as possible, but also cost effectively so we don’t shop organic (and even if we did we wouldn’t be 100% safe from GMOs and their effects).  So where’s the problem? 

      Think about your diet for a minute.  Do you raise chickens?  Are they eating commercial feed potentially laden with GMOs or free-ranging?  Do you can your own fresh fruits and vegetables using sugar and pectin (two high GMO-probable products)?  Perhaps you prefer to hunt during the season for fresh game, but what if the deer you kill during hunting season has been snacking on fields planted with GMO field corn and soy beans? 

Gobbler walking through corn stubble – 2014

      You see the problem?  It’s a sickening thought that we don’t know exactly what we are putting into our bodies anymore, and with many arguments on both sides of the fence of the “harmful” or “beneficial” aspects of GMOs, it’s not an easy decision to make on whether or not to cut them entirely from one’s diet. 

      This year we are going to try to cut even more GMOs from our diet because we, personally, do not see the need for them to be in there.  GMOs in the grand scheme of human history are still rather young and no one truly knows what side effects, if any, will be caused by them.  Will we cut all the GMOs from our diet in one year’s time?  Probably not, but each step we take in what we feel is the right direction is one step closer towards a healthier us. 

Image from Healthy-Holistic-Living.com

      Should you cut GMOs from your diet?  That’s a decision that you need to make on your own, so today, I’d like to challenge you to get informed about your food.  Look in your cupboards, refrigerator and freezer.  Read labels in the grocery store aisles before products go into your cart.  Find out what GMOs really are from trusted and reliable sources and how they could affect you.  Plant seeds and harvest from your garden, or even a pot on a sunny windowsill.  Learn what’s in your food and where it comes from, and teach the next generation that food doesn’t come from the grocery store shelf.