Organic food can be GM

[Buzz]

Here's something I found on the Greenepeace website that might surprise you. It did me.

It just goes to show that the only way to know what you're eating is to grow your own.


"A bizarre decision has been made by the EU to increase the maximum limit of GM material allowed in organic food, and effectively legitimise widespread GM contamination.

You might be alarmed to think that any GM ingredients end up in organic food, and you're right to be so. The previous maximum limit of 0.1 per cent was set simply because that was the lowest level that food could accurately be tested for GM contamination.

The new limit is 0.9 per cent, the same that applies to non-organic food, and while this might not sound like much, it does now mean that organic food can be polluted with much greater quantities of GM material before it has to be labelled with a warning. If organic food is tested and found to contain 0.8% GM contamination, it will be labeled as ‘GM free'." :o


More info here:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/gm/consumers-say-we-dont-want-gm-food

[Buzz]

[OliveOil]

In ten years time they will turn around and everything NON GM - really NON GM will be 2-3 times the price of the crap they churn out... look at things with sugar in - 'no artificial sweetners'... 3 times the price! No artificial flavourings. colours etc ... 3 times the price.

Arggh drives you insane the way they play about with our food.

[asbean]

All the more reason to grow your own  :) :) :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I think the real reason for this is to protecrt the organic farmers from being put out of business by spreading GM genes. It's going to be impossible to keep them out, unfortunately.

[quizzical1]

Consider this......... all the different varieties of produce we sow/grow, have been genetically modified in some way so that they are disease resistant, more hardy, sweeter, bigger etc. etc. etc., (and have been since man first started to grow commercially).

That's called cross breeding, but it's still genetic modification.

I know that the GM everyone is on about is the introduction of genes alien to the species, even in some cases animal genes, but the fact remains that ALL (or at least most) of what we grow has had its genes modified to produce the required result.

[Marymary]

I think there is a big difference between sleective breeding [effectively saving the seeds or the offspring of your best producers & maybe crossing them to encourage desired charactistics] and genetic modification.  In the case of the latter all sorts of 'alien' genetic material can be introduced including, for example, terminal genes to prevent seed production so farmers have to buy fresh seeds each year from the multinational seed companies. 

i think we have no idea of the effect we might have on delicate ecosystems by introducing GM plants & animals and as such they should be resisted as forceably as possible.

IMHO  :)

[Suzanne]

I think this confirms that you need to be selective in the "label" you buy - I am not aware that the Soil Associaton has relaxed its standard - I think this means that supermarket organic (incl its hundreds of food miles) will be the most likely to contain trace GM.

[Jeannine]

I totally agree with Marymary's comments, there is a big difference and I also agree we should fight GM crops and seeds as much as possible. I  grow mostly open pollinated veggies, in fact I only grow about 4 things that are even hybrids,and frankly these I don't really need to use. My favourite tomato has been de-hybridised and I will switch to that one now.  I would never buy a seed that is GM. Fortunately there are very few available to the home grower as it stands, in fact I only personally know of one, which happens to be  a tomato y the way. Also I only buy from companies who refuse to sell GM seeds.

I personally think the 'progress' has come too far too fast and we simply do not know what the effects might be, and once we do know  there may be no turning back.

Buying from shops is becoming more and more unnatural and I no longer trust the produce they sell.What we cannot grow now we try to do without, surprisingly we manage it most of the time apart from  fruit

It is convenience versus confidence.

XX Jeannine

[Marymary]

Jeannine, have you read Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence?  It's a couple of years old now but it is an excellent expose of the food industry.  For example I have never bought a bagged salad since reading it, she also explains why so many people have developed wheat intolerance.  I have bought several copies for people & I would be happy to send you mine if you would like to read it.

[Jeannine]

I don't think I have read it, the bagged salad I know, that is scary. I would never buy seed sprouts especially as the level of salmonella in them is very high.Thank you XX Jeannine

[Marymary]

PM me your address & I'll pop it in the post.

[quizzical1]

I totally agree that what we consider to be GM crops should be avoided...that is those that have the "alien" genes introduced. If plants or animals were meant to cross breed, then in nature they would, and those that can, indeed do so in nature.
As Marymary says,

"i think we have no idea of the effect we might have on delicate ecosystems "

I was merely stating a belief I hold regarding hybridisation etc., that IMHO, that is also a form of genetic modification, but selecting the best(strongest) of the existing genes within a single species (animal or vegetable) to achieve a better strain, and is not to the detriment of the breed.  I suppose that's what you would call selective breeding. If it helps produce stronger, healthier, more productive plants or animals, then I believe it should be encouraged, as long as it isn't altering taste, nutritional value etc.. It is a way of producing more crops of staple foodstuffs, and let's face it, with famines etc worldwide, the more we can produce the better.

Generally, again IMHO, that is what they are trying to achieve with GM crops, but they are going down a slippery slope by mixing genes from different lifeforms.


I'm not sure if I've put this over clearly. (Am I just talking a load of twaddle?)

[jjt]

Yeah it's bad but it's not surprising. The lunatics are running the asylum, in the name of economic growth- the one true god.

[OliveOil]

Marymary - what did she say about bagged lettuce? I had 'heard' that they pump it full of carbon monoxide and other gasses to stop it going off.

[OllieC]

I'm all for GM, just s soon as we work out what the 80% of DNA that is not understood does. It's referred to as "junk" (because we don't understand it!). If we actually knew what was being played around with, it would be different.

My brother & my sister both work in different areas of genetic research (involving RNA & DNA) - interestingly one of them is very pro GM & the other very anti. These are people who really understand the arguments very well, and have completely polarised view. And neither of them, as far as I'm aware, are the evil variety of genius.

As I see it, play around with what you want, when you actually understand it.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The essential difference between GM and selective breeding is that the second uses only genes from the species in qustion, or closely related ones that will hybridise, while the first uses genes from just anywhere. They also mark the GM 'product' with a gene for antibiotic resistance. The result of that is that antibiotic resistant bacteria have now turned up in the intestines of honeyees. Before GM, no research at all had been done on interspecific gene transfer; it now turns out to be quite common. So who knows what we're creating?

[Marymary]

Marymary - what did she say about bagged lettuce? I had 'heard' that they pump it full of carbon monoxide and other gasses to stop it going off.

I had to re-read the chapter but it just confirmed why we all grow our own.  First they wash the lettuce in strong chlorine & pack it in a modified atmosphere [less O2 & more CO2] but lots still contain E coli & listeria bugs.  The salad is mainly grown in Spain where it is intensively grown - 3 crops a year from the same soil - all under plastic - so massive use of pesticides & insecticides using illegal immigrant workers who are paid much less than minimum wage and so on and so on.  Apart from the fact that it's such bad value.  Also learned that the trend towards selling lettuce hearts is because of the residues in the outter leaves make them unfit to eat. 

[Multiveg]

Marymary - what did she say about bagged lettuce? I had 'heard' that they pump it full of carbon monoxide and other gasses to stop it going off.

I had to re-read the chapter but it just confirmed why we all grow our own.  First they wash the lettuce in strong chlorine & pack it in a modified atmosphere [less O2 & more CO2] but lots still contain E coli & listeria bugs.  The salad is mainly grown in Spain where it is intensively grown - 3 crops a year from the same soil - all under plastic - so massive use of pesticides & insecticides using illegal immigrant workers who are paid much less than minimum wage and so on and so on.  Apart from the fact that it's such bad value.  Also learned that the trend towards selling lettuce hearts is because of the residues in the outter leaves make them unfit to eat. 

Good job I have nice lettuce on the plot...

[Busby]

Organic, or Bio, are words given to supposedly natural products and are totally exaggerated descriptions.

For example; How on earth can pasteurized milk - heated up to 70°C be called organic? How can fruit juice, pressed and mixed with sugar be organic? And so on...