Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How to beet GMOs

"Seven years ago, beet breeders were on the verge of introducing Roundup-resistant seeds. But they had to pull back after sugar-using food companies like Hershey and Mars, fearing consumer resistance, balked at the idea of biotech beets. Now, though, sensing that those concerns have subsided, many processors have cleared their growers to plant the Roundup-resistant beets next spring.

A Kellogg spokeswoman, Kris Charles, said her company “would not have any issues” buying such sugar for products sold in the United States, where she said “most consumers are not concerned about biotech.”

When genetically engineered versions of soybeans and corn — as well as cotton and canola — were introduced in the mid-1990s, farmers quickly adopted them. But opposition to genetically engineered crops then took hold, particularly in Europe. Food companies, fearing protests or loss of customers, pressured farmers not to grow the crops." (Thanks D.)

Let me list them for you to make things easier: Genetically modified crops on the global commodities market include today:

Corn, soybean, sugar beet, canola (rape seed), wheat, cotton. Most of the feed animals eat to make meat and dairy, the flour we bake, the oil we cook with, the clothes we wear. And the pop corn at the movies.

I dont eat pop corn, I use olive oil whenever I can, and sunflower oil when I can't. I've still got to replace sugar with grape molasses or honey, and wear Syria cotton (Syria is one of the world's largest cotton producer) and then I can avoid GMOs. Alternatively, buy everything marked organic, but that is becoming corporatized too. Que faire?

2 comments:

PS said...

I use cold pressed grapeseed oil for virtually all my cooking. In the cupboard now are Galil from Italy and La Tourangelle from Chile. Sometimes will add a knob of butter to the pan for the flavor, or olive oil (off the heat!), but grapeseed oil heats hot but not smoky and cooks evenly. I don't recall seeing it at all in LB but surely that's not for want of raw materials. Any idea?

On another note ('que faire?'), there's not a lot to celebrate in the history of the pursuit of purity.

bech said...

Probably become very ascetic?