Author Archive

Posted on June 29, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Growing Food and Farmers for the Future

Photos c/o Jessica Weiss

Jessica Weiss isn’t one to sit around and wait until circumstances fall into place. She is a woman that goes out and happens to things. “Patience has never been my strong point,” Jessica laughs, and dives into the story of how a 2009 screening of FRESH inspired her to create an organization that has since prevented thousands of tons of food from being dumped into landfills, taught hundreds of people how to grow, preserve, and compost their own food, and helped feed a community in which 25% of residents are at risk for hunger.

Jessica grew up in Pasadena, California, and went to the same high school that Julia Child had attended. She opened a restaurant across the street from Chez Panisse during college, and learned from Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard about growing produce and connecting with the people who produce our food.

Like many of us, she was inspired by books like Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to commit to eating locally and sustainably raised food. Now living in Maryland just beyond the DC border, she joined the buying club for Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farms (featured in FRESH and The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and later offered her home as a pickup location for the club.

So when FRESH premiered in DC in May of 2009, Jessica was in the audience. Will Allen, the former ABA basketball star-turned-urban gardener featured in the film, had come to speak on the panel that accompanied the screening. “He was talking about his mission to dismantle racism through creating equal access to food for everyone, and how in order to grow food, we need to grow farmers,” recalls Jessica. “And suddenly it hit me: What if we created a regional outreach training center to grow food and farmers here along the Underground Railroad, in Will’s old stomping grounds?” (He grew up in Rockville, Maryland.) Emboldened by encouragement from Ana Joanes (the film’s director), she approached him after the screening to float the idea. “I’m 5’1’’. Will is a giant. My entire hand fit in the palm of his,” she recalls.

From that handshake sprung growingSOUL (Sustainable Opportunities for Universal Learning), a nonprofit organization, farm, and community learning center that Weiss directs.  She and her staff (many of whom are volunteers) grow food on their small patch of land using compost they make from food scraps they collect from local restaurants, senior centers, and other establishments. They also teach classes in practical skills like building hoop houses and aquaponics growing systems, composting with worms, and cooking and preserving garden-fresh produce. Much of their compost is donated back to local farmers who use it to grow food for a nearby food bank.

“I’m all about closing the loop,” says Jessica. The “zero-waste food system” she promotes and demonstrates through growingSOUL represents a sustainable model for local food production, consumption, and recycling that continuously replenishes itself with its own outputs.

The operation quickly outgrew the space they had available. After a year-long rollercoaster of site changes, logistical hurdles, and a fallen-through lease agreement, growingSOUL finally found a site to call home and a means to expand their client base in late 2010. Their biggest partner is Chipotle Mexican Grill, which composts four tons of food waste each month at the farm. Even the truck they use to collect compost from various sites runs on waste vegetable oil.

growingSOUL’s compost includes meat and dairy products because their piles get so high and generate enough heat as they decompose to kill bacteria and pathogens. But, Weiss says, at-home composters are better off sticking to plant matter. You can compost skins, peels, egg cartons, coffee grounds, tea bags, coffee filters, paper soiled with food, junk mail, cotton underwear, dryer lint, even the hair you pull from your brush.

Sadly, a tornado in February of this year wracked the land where growingSOUL had finally settled down, destroying the hoop house in which their produce grows and ripping apart their aquaponics system and shelving. “We lost all our livestock,” Jessica tells me. “What kind of animals did you have?” I wonder. “Worms,” she says somberly. “We had 50,000 worms.”

Despite the frustration and disappointment she felt at losing so much of what she and her team had built over the past year and half, Jessica remained optimistic. “We still had all our compost and our relationships, which is the most important thing,” she says.

Today, the future is looking bright for growingSOUL. Sixteen student interns from South Korea are coming to work on the farm this summer, and students from the local high school can now volunteer there for physical education credit. Jessica is hoping to secure a lease for a large property where the organization could open a Small Farm Incubator and vastly increase their composting capabilities, and another where she plans to house a broader community training center. The center is slated to include an aquaponics food production system (based on Will Allen’s Growing Power model), integrated rotational grazing of animals (as at Polyface Farms), a commercial kitchen space for community use, a garage to filter waste vegetable oil from partners like Chipotle for production of biodiesel, and wind turbines that capture energy from the breeze.

A third project, a mobile farmers’ market that runs on waste vegetable oil (“Vida.Vita.Vegemobile is her working name,” Jessica adds), will travel to schools where a significant portion of the students live below the federal poverty level to teach students how to compost with worms and then build salsa, pizza sauce, and kim chee gardens using fish tanks and clementine boxes. “At the end of the day, the kids can choose fresh produce from the market on board the bus and pay on credit using SNAP or WIC benefits. After each 8-12 week session, we will bring students from all over the region to our community kitchen and teach them how to make prepared food from what they grew and harvested: kim chee from chard, spinach and kale, salsa from tomatoes, onion chives, cilantro and garlic, and pizza sauce from tomatoes, peppers, basil and oregano. We send them home with the hand-prepared food and their recipes as well as an understanding of the importance of recycling your food scraps into nutrient-rich, community-grown soil and handmade food.” Ideally, this project will become a model for other initiatives across the nation.

“We are continuing on our mission to fill bellies instead of landfills,” Jessica concludes. For all the inspiration she has gathered from food movement pioneers before her, Jessica and growingSOUL are creating plenty more to go around.

jenny@freshthemovie.com.

Our blogger serves the Fresh community as a volunteer. To support her work, consider making a donation to our Writers’ Fund.

Posted on June 22, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Eat Smart: Avoiding Pesticides While Saving Money

Of all the reasons to buy organic produce, many people cite “avoiding pesticides” as their top motivator: 98% of conventional apples and 96% of conventional celery contain pesticide residues. But not all conventional produce is ridden with chemicals. Residues were found on less than 10% of conventional onions, sweet corn, and asparagus.

To help consumers make informed choices about what produce to buy organic and what’s safe to purchase conventional, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released the seventh edition of its “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen,” which compile the most and least contaminated conventional fruits and vegetables into accessible lists based on data from the USDA’s Pesticide Testing Program.

Apples topped this year’s Dirty Dozen, with 98% of samples containing residues and 56 different pesticides detected. Mushrooms made it into the Clean 15 for the first time. See the lists below or check out the full study to learn how the in-between produce stacked up.

Hidden Threats

Pesticides are designed to kill living organisms, so it’s no surprise that they negatively impact human health. Over time, exposure to the pesticides used on food products can cause birth defects, nerve damage, hormone disruption, and cancer. Babies and children face the greatest risks, because their organs are still developing and they eat and drink more than adults do in relation to their body weight. A 2009 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found pesticides in blood and urine samples of 96% of Americans age 6 and older.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with regulating the safety of pesticides used in the US and determining limits (“tolerances”) on how much of each chemical may be left on food sold to consumers. But current standards don’t do enough to protect our health. Residue monitoring only covers those pesticides that are registered for use in the US, so tests may not even detect some highly toxic chemicals. (A 2009 study showed that FDA inspections did not test for 71% of the pesticides used on squash and 61% used on chayote grown in Costa Rica for the US market.) Federal scientists recently found 33 unapproved pesticides on nearly half of cilantro samples, indicating that sporadic testing is not sufficient to protect consumers. Moreover, established “safe” limits do not effectively account for combinations of the many pesticides present on foods and various sources of exposure to chemicals in our air, water, personal care products, and household cleaning supplies that collectively impact our health.

What Can I Do?

Washing and peeling your produce can help reduce pesticide exposure, but do not eliminate residue. Many chemicals are absorbed systemically, so no amount of washing will remove them. Inspectors prepare each fruit or vegetable as it would normally be eaten before testing (e.g. peeling bananas, washing apples and peaches), so detected residues reflect what actually goes into your body when you eat each food.   

The health benefits of a diet full of fruits and vegetables—conventional or organic—far outweigh the health risks presented by pesticide residues on produce. But you can substantially reduce your exposure to these toxic substances by choosing organic versions of the 12 fruits and vegetables most likely to be contaminated by pesticides. If you can’t go all organic, the Clean 15 helps you choose the safest conventional produce.

 Dirty Dozen

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes (imported)
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries (domestic)
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/collard greens

Clean Fifteen

1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplants
9. Cantaloupe (domestic)
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

E-mail me at jenny@freshthemovie.com.

Our blogger serves the Fresh community as a volunteer. To support her work, consider making a donation to our Writers’ Fund.

Posted on June 17, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Wake Up and Smell the Rhubarb

Photo: http://catsue.wordpress.com

Growing up in Minnesota, where snow often remains on the ground well into April, I anticipated the arrival of the first spring vegetables with an especially ravenous impatience. My parents grew green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and pumpkins (accidentally), but before any of those were ready to eat, our garden grew brilliant with rhubarb. Their elephant ear leaves, big as my head, obscured thick vermillion stalks that gleamed like firepokers in the sun.

When the rhubarb grew ripe, Dad chopped the thick stalks into chunks like celery and the kitchen smelled fresh like a rainstorm. That was how I knew we would have crisp for dessert. Some evenings we ate it with vanilla ice cream, other nights in a rich puddle of half-and-half. I liked the crisp best fresh out of the oven, the warmed cream soaking up cinnamon and sugar. I drank it all, like cereal milk.

Grandma made rhubarb pies, their crusts redolent with nutmeg and the gentle porkiness of lard. An egg beaten into the filling prevented the juice from bursting Its banks. She packed so much rhubarb inside that the pie had altitude, rolling hills of spice-dusted crust on top.

I still love any dessert made with rhubarb, but have learned that it complements savory dishes just as well. Simmer diced rhubarb with ginger, garlic, sugar, spices, and cider vinegar to make a tangy chutney that you can serve with grilled cheese sandwiches or pork tenderloin; combine it with red lentils, cilantro, and chilies in a hearty curry, or puree it with strawberries, orange juice and sugar and chill for a refreshing summer soup.

The following recipe for rhubarb chutney comes from Loulies, my favorite source for simple seasonal recipes using whatever’s fresh locally here in DC.

Rhubarb Chutney

Makes about 2 cups

4 c. fresh rhubarb (about 1 pound)
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. cider vinegar
1 Tbls. minced peeled fresh ginger
1 Tbls. ground garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. dried crushed red pepper

Rinse and cut rhubarb into small pieces. Combine all ingredients, except rhubarb, in heavy large pot. Bring to simmer over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add rhubarb, increase heat to medium-high and cook until rhubarb is tender and mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. Place in a glass jar and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

E-mail me at jenny@freshthemovie.com.

Our blogger serves the Fresh community as a volunteer. To support her work, consider making a donation to our Writers’ Fund.

Posted on June 14, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Choosing Sustainable Seafood: 4 to Avoid and 4 to Seek Out

Our guest post today comes from sustainable seafood expert Casson Trenor, Senior Markets Campaigner at GreenpeaceUSA, author of the book and blog Sustainable Sushi, and sustainable seafood consultant for the San Francisco restaurant Tataki. We look forward to continued collaboration with Casson in the future!

Our oceans are in a perilous state. Rampant abuse and rapacity has led us down a dangerous path; stories of overfishing, toxic contamination, and ocean acidification put consumers in a state of confusion and fear at the seafood counter. Luckily, all is not lost—by making informed choices, we can enjoy healthy, delicious seafood while supporting fishermen that are doing their utmost to work in harmony with the planet. Here are four examples of fish we just shouldn’t eat, followed by four sustainable, restorative seafood options that merit our support:

Bluefin Tuna

The fish that fed Rome’s legions now barely ekes out an existence as it is hunted relentlessly to satisfy the top echelon of the world’s sushi industry. Bluefin prices soar while stocks continue to plummet, shackled to the twin lead weights of insatiable demand and ineffectual management.

Bluefin stocks around the world are verging on utter collapse and yet fishing pressure does not abate. Politics and short-sighted economic interests are nearly always victorious over science and environmental consciousness whenever this bluefin is involved. But even if we can’t depend on political processes, we can least put the chopsticks down.

Orange Roughy

Orange roughy simply isn’t built to withstand heavy fishing pressure. First off, it reaches market size well before sexual maturity — a lamentable characteristic, since this results in many roughy being eaten before they’ve had a chance to reproduce and repopulate the fishery. Second, the animal itself can live to a tremendous age — 90-year-old roughy are not uncommon (at least, they weren’t before we started eating them all). Fish that live that long are generally not built to reproduce in great numbers; they have evolutionarily invested in longevity rather than in quantity of offspring.

To worsen matters, orange roughy is caught using wantonly destructive bottom trawl nets, and its flesh is a simple, flaky white fillet (there are other, more sustainable sources for this type of product.) It’s best to avoid this species altogether.

Shark (and Shark Fin)

Sharks are apex predators, feeding slowly from the top of the food chain and ensuring the populations of other animals in their areas are kept in check. Without sharks, we see population explosions of their prey items, which in turn devastate the organisms they prey upon, and so on. The removal of a single shark from the food system it polices is akin to hurtling a massive monkey wrench into the core gears of the ocean’s ecological stabilization machinery, and we are tossing out somewhere between 50 and 100 million of these wrenches every year.

While many sharks are killed accidentally as bycatch in longline fisheries that target other animals (longlined swordfish is particularly worrisome), the majority of annual shark casualties are perpetrated intentionally by those in the shark fin industry. Shark fins—used for soup, especially for weddings and other significant events, by certain segments of the world’s Chinese communities—can fetch astronomical prices and are often used to convey a message of status and wealth.

Chilean Sea Bass

The Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish (aka Chilean sea bass) are long-lived, slow-to-reproduce apex predators. Decade after decade, we have pushed the boundaries of our oceans in every way imaginable — geographically (ships are going further), bathymetrically (ships are fishing deeper), and temporally (ships are spending more time on the water). In our quest for seafood, we strain at the very boundaries of our food system, until we reach the ocean’s farthest-flung reaches in all three categories — by dropping hooks to the ocean floor off of Antarctica in the middle of winter.

That is how, where, and when we catch Chilean sea bass.

Sustainable fishing simply cannot occur in an area and at a depth that is so obviously a reaction to an overblown and exhausted food system that, because of its inability to balance itself, has cantilevered out into dangerous extremes.

Still, it’s not all doom-and-gloom in the seafood world. Here are four great options that merit our support – fish and fisheries that are hallmarks of a different kind of seafood industry: one that operates with the welfare of the oceans in mind.

1. Sardines

First of all, I’m not talking about the unidentifiable, semi-fossilized fish paste that you find covered in oil or mustard sauce when you open up a sardine tin — fresh sardines are a totally different animal. They are inexpensive, delectable indulgences that carry fabulous flavors, perform marvelously on a grill, and are used by top-level sushi chefs to make mouth-watering nigiri and sashimi dishes. Even better, these tiny delights are packed full of Omega-3 fatty acids while their short lifecycle keeps them relatively mercury-free. Unfortunately, we’re using them in the worst possible way.

The vast majority of our sardines are sold to foreign bluefin tuna ranches, where they are used to fatten up juveniles that have been purloined from wild stocks. This is a problem on many levels: bluefin tuna are severely endangered, have little Omega-3 content, can be extremely high in mercury, and are exorbitantly expensive. We’re using our sardines — healthy, delicious fish that most Americans can afford — to fuel a foreign industry that is harming the ocean in order to create a luxury good with dubious health benefits that is only available to the very wealthy.

Buying sardines from your local fish market helps to create a reward system for sardine fishermen. If the demand for these fish in the US marketplace continues to grow, our fishermen won’t need to sell their entire catch (at a ridiculously low price, I might add) to a foreign bluefin ranch.

2. Wild Salmon

There are four reasons to eat wild Alaskan salmon. One — it tastes fantastic. Two — it’s a high-Omega-3, low-mercury fish. Three — it’s a relatively sustainable industry that merits our support. And four — the alternative, conventional farmed salmon, sucks.

Farmed salmon tends to be raised in the open-net pens situated in sheltered bays and coves. There are no controls to mitigate the flow of ocean water in and out of these pens. As such, there are tremendous problems with the transmission of diseases, parasites, genetic material, and waste from these pens to the ecosystems around them. Links between salmon farms and the degradation of wild salmon populations in places like Canada and Norway are well-established. Also, the salmon farming industry has a real problem with antibiotic abuse.

Wild Alaskan salmon provides a delicious alternative to all this nonsense. Thanks to progressive fishery management, we have access to a domestic product that is comparatively sustainable and healthy. To make matters even better, recent marketing efforts for previously underappreciated species like keta (chum) and sockeye have helped to make wild Alaskan salmon available at price points that are competitive with farmed products.

3. Dungeness Crab

For shellfish lovers, it is difficult to find a better option than Dungeness crab. These fisheries are extremely well-managed and have been so for decades. The crabs are caught in non-lethal traps which keep bycatch at negligible levels and allow female and juvenile crabs to be returned unharmed to the seabed. This process, whereby only mature males are taken, helps to keep Dungeness crab populations resilient and robust. Additionally, the number of crabs that can be landed during a given season is carefully measured and kept to levels that will keep populations thriving.

With such precise targeting on top of strong science-based quotas, our Dungeness crab fisheries provide excellent examples of progressive resource management. And the kicker? Dungeness crab is among the best-tasting shellfish in the world. Grab a cracker and go to town.

4. Pole-caught Skipjack Tuna

Canned tuna is a hugely popular seafood item, and also a tremendous problem. The species that’s most often used for this purpose is a small, quickly growing tuna species called skipjack. Due to its physiology and life history, skipjack has the potential to be a strong sustainable seafood option; unfortunately, the tuna industry that feed our appetite for ersatz, steam-cooked tuna meat is wreaking havoc on our oceans. Skipjack boats generally fish with purse seine nets and fish aggregating devices (free-floating rafts that attract many different types of fish), also known as FADs. The use of FADs ensures that these boats take far more creatures than just mature skipjack — billfish, sharks, juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas, and even turtles are attracted by the FADs and subsequently ensnared by the seine nets.

Thankfully, a new industry is beginning to develop — skipjack tuna caught on a pole-and-line. It’s the same fish, but the use of a pole rather than a FAD and purse seine allows fishermen to be much more precise about what they do and do not catch. Next time you’re shopping for canned tuna, look for the words “pole caught” on the can to support companies that are trying to do right by our oceans.

Casson Trenor is Senior Markets Campaigner with Greenpeace USA, where he spearheads the organization’s efforts to hold restaurants and supermarkets accountable for their seafood sustainability practices and to help educate the public about the global fisheries crisis. He is the author of Sustainable Sushi and a founder ofTataki Sushi Bar, the world’s first sustainable sushi restaurant. The material in this post originally appeared on Alternet.org.

Posted on June 10, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Fair Food for All: A How-To Guide

Photo by Crystal Cun

We’ve all heard the advice to “vote with your fork.” But there is more each of us can do to create sustainable local food systems that serve everyone—not just the wealthy.

The new book Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All by Oran Hesterman provides a roadmap for how to do your part. The book, Hesterman says, “is intended to add needed perspective and pragmatism to a shelf dominated by journalists and chefs.” While it continues the awareness-raising work jumpstarted by Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, Fair Food goes one step further by dedicating several chapters to the “how” of food system reform, including plenty of case studies of local and regional initiatives that could be replicated nationwide.

Beyond eating seasonally, visiting the farmers’ market, and planting a garden, how can you make a difference? Here are a few of Hesterman’s suggestions:

• Organize a buying club among friends and neighbors interested in purchasing good food in bulk directly from a producer, providing economic benefits for both buyers and seller. This is a simple way to make free-range meat, wild-caught seafood, and dairy products from pastured animals more affordable.
• Find a community kitchen (or “kitchen incubator”) in your area, or start one! A community kitchen provides commercial kitchen space to individuals or groups to produce food for sale. Some also offer new food entrepreneurs business development services, Internet access, and expert resources.
• Volunteer to take part in a community food assessment. By talking to residents in vulnerable neighborhoods about their needs, inventorying selection at local corner stores and groceries, or noting potential places for community gardens or small farms, you can begin to transform a food desert.
• Get a small group of parents together to talk to the school food service director at your child’s school to find out whether they have the equipment needed to consider using locally sourced food, whether they have any connections with local farmers, and if there is anything you can do to help.
• Similarly, encourage your college campus, corporate cafeteria, local hospital or nursing home to source more of their food locally and ask how you can help them do it.
• Find out if there is a food policy council in your state or area and, if not, contact your city council to express your interest in starting one. These bodies typically connect policymakers with concerned citizens and local experts to work on concrete issues like zoning for urban agriculture or improvement of food assistance programs.
• If you are connected with an institution that uses public funds to procure food (such as universities, day care centers, state office cafeterias, etc.) contact them to see if they have any targets for procuring a certain percentage of their food locally. If they don’t, ask what you can do to help get a target set, whether it’s calling your state representative or contacting the governor’s office.
• Educate yourself about the issues at stake in the 2012 Farm Bill. For instance, did you know that approximately 68% of the money allocated through the Farm Bill goes toward nutrition programs, while 12% goes toward crop subsidies? Get involved with local organizations to advocate for more equitable and environmentally sound policies.

At an event earlier this week to celebrate the book’s launch, Hesterman pointed out that The New York Times just printed a review of Fair Food in the business section. Why there? Because fresh, local, fair food is no longer a fringe concept. Farmers’ markets are booming across the country, CSA subscriptions are skyrocketing, and supermarkets are increasingly offering local options amidst the sea of travel-weary fruits and vegetables. Yet, to quote the book’s introduction, “while there is the beginning of a national conversation about our food system that sings the praises of backyard vegetable gardens and pricey organic produce, the people of Detroit don’t even have a supermarket.”

Even as we transform our own dinner tables, this book urges us to think bigger and do more. While the existence of a food policy council and Farm Bill advocacy can’t guarantee reform, they do demonstrate to lawmakers, businesses, and producers that people care not only about their own meals and where they come from, but are also willing to fight for others’ right to enjoy fresh, nutritious food.

E-mail me at jenny@freshthemovie.com.

Our blogger serves the Fresh community as a volunteer. To support her work, consider making a donation to our Writers’ Fund.

Posted on June 6, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

What You Don’t Know About GMOs CAN Hurt You

Photo: AP Photo/Greenpeace, Melvyn Calderon

Guess what? You probably ate genetically modified (GM) food sometime in the past week. After all, approximately 75% of processed foods contain GM ingredients, including most cooking oils, boxed cereals, and other grain products. If you had realized your dinner contained GM ingredients, you might have chosen something else, but you likely weren’t given a choice—GM foods are not required to be labeled in the United States and Canada (though they are in the EU). And while the biotech industry argues that GM foods are no different from their natural counterparts, a mounting body of evidence shows that’s just not true. The GM ingredients we don’t know we’re consuming pose serious threats to our health, our food supply, and our environment.

GMOs (“genetically modified organisms”) are created when gene material from one or several species is inserted into the genetic code of another organism, creating a new combination that does not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding. Through experiments like these, scientists hope to introduce or enhance qualities (e.g. higher crop yield, faster growing speed, or resistance to pests) to make them better suited to human use and varying environmental conditions. However, artificially splicing unrelated organisms’ DNA together leads to unpredictable mutations that can cause undesirable and potentially harmful effects on the organisms themselves and those who consume them.

Health Concerns

Incredibly, the FDA does not require any safety tests to be conducted on GM foods, thanks to a 1992 decision allowing companies that produce GM foods to declare them GRAS (“generally recognized as safe”) without oversight. While industry-sponsored safety studies have been conducted on all GM crops approved for planting so far, they’ve been far from rigorous, and many of them violate basic scientific standards.

Independently conducted studies reveal disturbing links between consumption of GM foods and negative effects on health. For instance, when mother rats were fed GM soy, over half the babies died within 3 weeks. The longer mice were fed GM corn, the smaller and fewer offspring they had. Soy allergies increased by 50% in the UK after GM soy was introduced there. Other studies implicate GM foods in disrupting functions of the kidneys, liver, and pancreas; increasing susceptibility to disease; and causing infertility.

In January 2011, plant pathologist Don Huber sent a letter to USDA secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to delay approval of Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready GM alfalfa. His team had discovered a pathogen in RoundUp Ready corn and soybeans that seemed to be responsible for crop failures, as well as infertility and spontaneous abortions in livestock. Huber’s warnings went unheeded, and GM alfalfa was approved for planting.

Despite mounting evidence that GM foods are unfit for human consumption, the US government continues to maintain that they are safe. In the past year alone, three new GM crops (alfalfa, sugar beets, and a type of corn used for ethanol production) have been approved for planting, and genetically modified salmon may gain approval any day. Why? Likely because the connections between biotech giants and the government agencies assigned to regulate their safety run deep: the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, Michael Taylor, is the former vice president for public policy at—surprise!–Monsanto. With such a biotech-friendly face at the FDA’s helm, it’s no wonder critiques of GM foods fall on deaf ears there. (See an explanation of the complex breakdown of regulatory powers governing GM foods.)

Environmental Hazards

GM crops that produce their own pesticides (“Bt” crops) have been promoted as environmentally friendly alternatives to natural plants that require heavy applications of pesticides when grown on an industrial scale. However, this toxin still contaminates nearby waterways when plant material washes into them, disrupting aquatic life. It kills indiscriminately, affecting even beneficial insects like butterflies, and irrevocably disturbs delicate ecosystems. As pests develop resistance to Bt toxin, application of additional pesticides will become necessary, negating any purported benefits.

Similarly, crops genetically engineered to produce their own herbicide threaten to create “superweeds,” resistant to the engineered toxins and requiring renewed use of chemical herbicides.

Worse still, when most GM crops (with the exception of GM soy) are introduced into the environment, their pollen spreads far and wide, introducing genetically-modified DNA into formerly natural plants. Once planted, there is no way to prevent cross-contamination. Thus, organic farmers may find their fields contaminated by GM crops, risking their status as certified organic producers.

GMOs Won’t Feed the World

Proponents tout GM crops as a means to increase crop yields, particularly in the developing world where hunger is concentrated and population is growing fastest. But several major studies have shown that GM crops do not significantly increase yields, and in some cases actually decrease them. Moreover, the root causes of global hunger lie not with a physical shortage of food so much as a lack of resources to purchase it.

Intellectual property protections on GM seeds require farmers who plant them to sign agreements stating that they will not save seeds from one year’s crop for replanting the next. Instead, they must purchase new seeds each year, locking many into a permanent cycle of poverty and debt. Addressing poverty, unemployment, and mismanagement of agricultural resources will do far more to prevent hunger than investment in proprietary biotechnology.

What’s Next for GM Foods?

In the US, AquaBounty Technologies has genetically engineered a new salmon to grow twice as quickly as natural salmon. They are also working on GM trout and tilapia. The FDA held hearings to determine whether the GM salmon are materially distinct from natural salmon and is currently considering whether to approve the fish for human consumption.

Canada has approved limited production of the so-called “Enviro-pig,” a GM pig whose waste contains 65% less phosphorus than that of natural pigs. Designed to reduce phosphorus runoff that creates dead zones in nearby waterways, the pig has not yet been approved for consumption, though that possibility is still down the pipeline.

Several EU nations have banned the planting of GM crops, but the European Court of Justice ruled in March of this year that individual member-nations cannot institute blanket bans, reserving that right for the EU as a whole. It remains to be seen whether the Union will take up such a ban. The US is lobbying hard to remove all restrictions on GM foods in Europe, citing free trade rules.

What Can I Do?

Biotech companies have so far stymied efforts to mandate labeling of GM foods in the US and Canada. It’s no wonder they are worried about their profits should labeling requirements be enacted: a recent New York Times blog poll found that 89% of respondents want to see foods containing GM ingredients labeled as such.

While the FDA and USDA continue to dig their heels in, you can at least take steps to protect yourself and your family from the dangers posed by GM foods. Plus, register your concern by signing our petition demanding that consumers be given a choice to avoid GM foods through mandatory labeling.

E-mail me at jenny@freshthemovie.com.

Our blogger serves the Fresh community as a volunteer. To support her work, consider making a donation to our Writers’ Fund.

Posted on June 6, 2011 - by Jenny Holm

Want to Steer Clear of GMOs? Here’s How.

Image: http://blog.seedalliance.org

Are you eating genetically modified (GM) foods? Chances are, the answer is yes. Even if you shop mostly on the perimeter of the grocery store, most likely your cooking oil has GM corn or canola in it and your sugar came from GM beets. In fact, GM ingredients show up in 75% of processed foods in US groceries, but they’re not labeled, so consumers cannot discern GM products from natural ones.

FRESH is asking the FDA to mandate GM labeling now, but until they do, here’s how you can avoid GM foods in your diet:

1. Choose organic!

To earn the “certified organic” label, a product cannot contain any GM ingredients, so buying organic foods is the easiest way to ensure your food is GMO-free. This applies even to products labeled “made with organic ingredients,” which must be 100% GMO-free, even if not all their ingredients meet other organic standards.

2. Look for “non-GMO” labels

Though you’re unlikely to see a product labeled as containing GM ingredients (at least in the US), many companies want consumers to know that a product is GMO-free. Some limit their claim to only high-risk ingredients, like corn, soy and the others listed below.

3. Check the PLU code on produce

In many groceries, fruits and vegetables are marked with a produce look-up (PLU) code. You can identify different types of produce with the following rules:

-Conventional: Standard four digit PLU numbers (XXXX)
-Genetically Modified: four digit PLUs prefixed with an 8 (8XXXX)
-Organic: four digit PLUs prefixed with a 9 (9XXXX)

Correction: A commentator has informed us that the PLU codes can not be used to determine whether produce is genetically modified.

4. Steer clear of products containing high-risk ingredients

If you can’t find an organic or clearly labeled non-GMO alternative, you can protect yourself by simply not buying products that contain ingredients most likely to be genetically modified. These include:

Corn: corn flour, corn meal, corn starch, corn oil, corn gluten, and corn syrup; sweeteners like fructose, dextrose, and sucrose

Soy: soy lecithin, soy protein, soy flour, isoflavone; vegetable oil and vegetable protein; tofu, tamari, tempeh, and some alternative meat and dairy products not specifically labeled as free of GM-soy

Canola: canola oil (also known as rapeseed oil)

Cotton: cottonseed oil

Margarine: almost always contains GM oil (either soy, corn, cottonseed, or canola)

Sugar: GM sugar beets were recently approved for planting. To avoid GM sugar, purchase organic bulk sugar and products sweetened with 100% cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, agave, or organic/non-GMO sugar.

Artificial Sweeteners: aspartame (NutraSweet^TM and Equal^TM)

Meat, eggs, and dairy products: Avoid products from animals who have eaten GM-feed and dairy products containing the GM hormone rBGH/rBST

Papayas: About half of the Hawaiian papaya crop is now GM.

Vegetables: A small number of zucchini, sweet corn, and yellow crookneck squash are GM.

5. Carry a non-GMO shopping guide

Several handy tools and tip sheets are available to help you make informed choices at the grocery store. Here are a few to choose from:

• True Food Shoppers’ Guide from the Center for Food Safety, available in print and as a free mobile app for iPhone and Android
• The Non-GMO Project Online Product Directory, also available as a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
• The Non-GMO Shopping Guide from the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Non-GMO Project, available online, as a PDF download, or in a handy pocket version.
• We recently learned that the GMO Truth Alliance has compiled links to several guides and apps on their Facebook page. Thanks for alerting us to it in the comments!

For more information on the dangers posed by GMOs and why we can’t continue to ignore these risks, see our blog post What You Don’t Know About GMOs CAN Hurt You. To join us in our fight to get mandatory GMO labeling, sign our petition to the FDA now!

Have other suggestions for how to avoid GMOs? Leave them in the comments below!

E-mail me at jenny@freshthemovie.com.

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