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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn - Labeling (Marty Kraft)

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  • From: "Wyatt Jones" <wyatt_jones AT netzero.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn - Labeling (Marty Kraft)
  • Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:19:48 -0400

>"if it is so good why don't you label it ???"

 

>Maybe we need reverse labeling.  Start a movement!  If everyone labels their
>corn that is non GMO, what is left?  It is then easy for the consumer to
>choose.  Who wouldn't want to label their corn "NON GMO" if itisn't?  That
>maybe the only way around a bad situation.  The USDA sure doesn't care.

 

>Maury Sheets

>Woodland Produce

>South jersey


They tried this with milk and Monsanto got the labeling pretty much neutered.  Now if milk is labeled as non BHT it has to have a label saying that being non BHT isn't any healthier than milk with BHT, which has been disproven in European studies under the supervision of a University of Illinois professor of environmental medicine.  I guess its at least labeled but it only helps the consumer if they are well informed about the situation.  I imagine the same or worse will happen with GMO soon.  The USDA and the FDA are more interested in manipulating information for profit than honestly informing the public IMHO.  By and large it seems to me that, in this so called information age, you can't take anything as fact because most of it seems to be misinformation to promote some special interest's agenda with just enough truth in there to convince the uninformed if its validity.   Until some great harm comes to pass that causes a public outcry, sometimes not even then, nothing is ever done and its full steam ahead with the greed and damn the consequences.  Its always been that way I guess but things move a lot faster and on a bigger scale now which makes the consequences also a lot bigger and faster.
 
Even if the product is conscientiously labeled Non-GMO there is no guarantee that it won't be unless every lot is tested for GMO and its doubtful it will be.  A lot of seed that is supposed to be no-GMO is often contaminated by adjacent GMO crops and the more common they become the more likely that almost all seed, whether intentionally or not, will be GMO resulting in pretty much all food crops also being GMO.  Fedco rejects lots of seed all the time for this reason as they supposedly test every lot.  By saying supposedly I'm not saying they don't, just qualifying my statement as I don't have any direct knowledge that they really do other than I believe what they say but at the same time I never believe anything beyond of a shadow of a doubt concerning such things, I don't think you honestly can given the ways things are.  Still Fedco is the only company I know of that actually claims they do this.  On top of that companies like Monsanto sue farmers for "stealing" their genetics when their GMO genes contaminate other farmers crops.  Its pretty absurd for them to be able to sue somebody else because their product polluted other people's property but they have the Government behind them. 
 
Some GMO crops have caused health problems and have been publicized as doing so.  Remember Star corn, a variety supposedly only to be used for animal feed, getting into human products and causing severe allergic reactions?  That wasn't from genetic cross contamination but the same thing can happen with genetic contamination and will.
 
In the end I don't think there is much we can do about all this, its going forward whether we like it or not because people with money power and the ability to manipulate public opinion, and we are going to have to deal with whatever happens, I just hope we can recover from any problems they cause. 
 
Wyatt
 
Jamestown, Ohio
 
 

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  • Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn - Labeling (Marty Kraft), Wyatt Jones, 09/20/2011

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