Health | October 03, 2011 | 17 comments

Death blow to GMOs? California ballot initiative calls for mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered foods

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/033763_GMOs_California_ballot_initiative.html

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17 comments // Death blow to GMOs? California ballot initiative calls for mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered foods

  • nardo1224
  • ecoalex
    • +1
      ecoalex  

    • People need to get informed on gm food.From the comments it is clear some information is needed.Gm foods have been shown to cause allergies,and worse,in independent lab trials.Monsanto submitted reports that said gm foods were not harmful,to believe them,is just not being informed.

      Many people live in cities,or do not have the ability to grow food.

      The people should have a choice whether they want to consume,have their bodies comprised without gm genes.

      Organic,sustainable agriculture has the same yields in many cases as the gm,or conventionally grown crops.

      Nutritionally organic,and eco grown crops are nutritionally superior as proven by lab analysis.There is a difference,it is documented.

      Conventionally grown produce,does not stay fresh as long, does not ship long distances as well as produce grown with minerals chiefly,or nitrogen from natural sources;whether from legume crops preceding the crop,or organic nitrogen such as compost,manure,blood meal,.or other natural,nitrogenous fertilizers which contain complexes,not just a gas,as is the case with synthetic nitrogen.

      The consumer must have a choice,as whether to know if your milk is from cows injected with gm hormone;rGBH,or not.

      80% of consumers do want to know if their foods are gm or not.

    • 8 months ago
  • AsiaSuperLoop
    • 0
      AsiaSuperLoop  

    • In order to segment products and markets, the market must think that a hierarchy of products exists, with some product occupying an aspirational place in their mind. Then to complete the circle these products enter the market, falling into the possession of those who aspire to own and consume them.

      Labeling creates both food products and food markets. Artisanal Organics occupy a higher aspirational rung. Modified foods will occupy a lower rung.

      But what happens when you cannot afford to buy the foods you aspire to eat? What if you wind up eating modified breads when you always saw yourself as a whole foods Organics type? Then you will either grow your own Organics or simply continue to sustain life on your unhappy diet of twinkles and happy meals. If you take option one and begin to share your food with friends and neighbors, you will soon run into conflict: your garden tomatoes were never verified and so could not be properly labeled.

      And do you see now that labeling can be the friend of modified foods. Many people will be driven out of the Organics segment and will find themselves shopping down the modified aisles exclusively. The regulatory structure then closes in on those who seek to go a third way by growing their own uncertified Organics. (Economically it is almost always necessary to grow a surplus that feeds more than just the "farmer".)

      What if food were viewed in more categorical and uncompromising terms? What if we were to simply ban GMO's? Why create two worlds at all, with the wall running down the middle, dividing the Verified from the mysteriously Modified?

      The differentiation of foods is an artifice. It is a marketing ploy.

    • 8 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +1
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image

    • Mankind has been altering animals and food grown since time immemorial. Native Americans thousands of years ago cross-bred maize until the similarities of the corn we eat today is the end result.

      Almost all known breeds of canine were brought about by experimenting the Germans did during the 1870s onward. The French poodle was a German "creation" and not the French.

      Perhaps the poodle reminded Germans of the vanity of the French that inspired them to call it a French poodle. The German word, or phrase, for poodle may explain it all.

      The English word "poodle" comes from the Low German pudel or puddeln, meaning to splash in the water.

      LOL

      }8^)

    • 8 months ago
  • AsiaSuperLoop
    • +1
      AsiaSuperLoop  
    • Buckeye_Bill:

      From the poodle to the labradoodle to the mutt roaming wild in the park, dogs are all one species. A German Shepard can be combined with a wolf. These variants within a species are like "cultivars". They are the product of sexual reproduction. Within a broad and forgiving boundary you could say that all cultivars are the result of combinations of love.

      Genetically engineered life is different. The species gap is often crossed such that the life that emerges could never have come about through sexual conjugation. Beyond species that we know about, it's possible also to write entirely new code that relates to no currently living thing at all. Crosses between the artificial and the "natural" are possible. Of course, even artificial life is possible now, with the organism's genome marked with the signature of its maker: the J Craig Venter Institute.

      Of course the genome is just the beginning. The expression of life is now understood to be largely epigenetic, with experience and thought activating or canceling the expression of genetic sequences. At the current level of technology, genetic engineering ignores the epigenetic. Modifications then can be said to be both uneducated and almost child like, and like any child the modification will tend to be the victim and cause of unexpected accidents.

      The genome and epigenome of the poodle have been around for many millions of years. And this is true of the blue apple as well, because it is the product of traditional cultivation. The same cannot however be said for GMO corn that has been modified to resist pesticides and herbicides like monsanto's Roundup. These engineered forms of life are novel. They are the creatures of a New World, as alien to us as ours must be to them.

    • 8 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • 0
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • AsiaSuperLoop:

      Genetics is the name of the game when you cross-breed animals. You cannot say it isn't. And indigenous peoples have been experimenting with cross-pollination of various plants for for dietary use for thousands of years. And you cannot not say that is NOT playing with genetics, either. Genes are in control of everything...from eye color to shape and size of the "recipient". If you disagree with my statement of fact, there's nothing more left to be said between the two of us, as you will not persaude me to believe otherwise.

      Some trials, both by Man and Nature do end in some weird ways. Like the mule, liger, grolar bear, etc., etc.

      Having grown up surrounded with corn and soybeans that are both GMO and of the slow way of doing it by means of the what natives did in the past, my biggest fear is we are putting all our eggs in one basket that could backfire on us by Mother Nature dong HER thing by killing off GMO produce by way of a disease that could wipe out an entire crop of foodstuff we human depend on to survive. Think Irish potato famine.

      After all, if genetics hadn't happened naturally, you and I would be having this converstion while hanging from a tree branch by our tails right now.

      MAYBE.

      You never know about that naturally occurring genetic "factory"...always on the job...always wanting to be dynamic rather than static.

      Progressively....AND regressively, too!

      All by itself..with NO help from Man at all!

      P.S. Mother Nature always leaves an "out", even for us humans. During the black plague, there were certain geneitcally predisposed individual families that had a genetic immunity to the disease carried and passed on by fleas. While entire towns and villages were wiped out. I do have faith in Mother Nature righting the wrongs...balancing the scales...one way or anther.
      http://bloggertropolis.blogspot.com/2011/03/survival-of-fittest.html

    • 8 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • 0
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image
    • AsiaSuperLoop:

      THE point I was attempting to make is...you can't exclude natural occurances to take over the GMOs by the next phase of natural selection. the "good" parts will remain and the "bad" parts will be left in the dust of historical significance.

      All Man does is modify what already exists in the world.

      NIHIL NOVI SUB SOLE!

      If there be nothing new, but that which is
      Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
      Which labouring for invention bear amiss
      The second burthen of a former child.
      Oh that record could with a backward look,
      Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
      Show me your image in some antique book,
      Since mind at first in character was done,
      That I might see what the old world could say
      To this composed wonder of your frame;
      Whether we are mended, or where better they,
      Or whether revolution be the same.
      Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
      To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
      - Bard of Avon

    • 8 months ago
  • Lisayou
  • PIANORAMA
  • trut
    • +2
      trut  

    • Thank heavens!! Now we all should get to know what and where our food comes from. I think everyone will follow california right?

    • 8 months ago
  • PIANORAMA
  • Leen61
  • PIANORAMA
  • Leen61
  • Itsbatman_Durr
  • Progresshiv
  • PIANORAMA
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