Gen-mod "organic" food

OOPS! I paid too much for something today!

Organic Valley Cream Cheese is $2.99 (discount of 45 cents), but the house-brand was only $1.69. Heck, If I am going to be poisoned, I might as well save money doing it, right?

Now that Organic Valley, Stoneyfield, and Whole Foods have agreed to stop fighting Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) crops, it is only a matter of time before the GM crops will be used to feed "organic" milk and meat animals. Or, are they already there?

"A troubling trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large, formerly-organic brands from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called "natural" ingredients. With the exception of the "grass-fed and grass-finished" meat sector, most "natural" meat, dairy, and eggs are coming from animals reared on GMO grains and drugs, and confined, entirely, or for a good portion of their lives, in CAFOs." (Organic Consumers Organization, January 27, 2011)

Okay, in reading the label on my cream cheese, packet, I see that it was, "Produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones or pesticides." Nothing about GM feed. Nothing about what the animals get fed.

With a goal of feeding my family as close to non-contaminated food as possible, I've been reading labels and choosing organic foods whenever reasonable. The FDA permits some ingredients to go unlisted on food labels, including organic foods. You can't be sure you are getting what the label indicates. Rather than selecting foods labeled "Certified Organic" for better quality, I might as well choose to buy the cheap product. It is almost certainly GM, but unlike the "USDA Certified Organic," they don't spend a lot of money pretending they are not.

This leaves me feeling uncomfortable, though, as I've lived so many years believing that what I eat matters, both to my health and the health of others.

My other choice is to buy from farmers directly. I already buy milk, eggs, cream and butter from a farm directly. I can get grains and flours from another co-op, fresh and frozen veggies, too. Oh, and they'll deliver meat, cheese, kefir, chips, soap, candles, beans, rice, coffee, tea, oils, hm... Ah, lumber and cookies and more. This farm co-op delivers to a church in my neighborhood once each month. These farmers invite their customers to their homes every summer, where they show how they work, how animals are treated, offer the visitors to a tour and a meal. When was the last time an industrial food producer invited you to their home for dinner and a tour of their production facility?

Living in Minneapolis, it can seem tough to find unadulterated foods without driving hundreds of miles. By making contacts, I have put together a pretty good network of suppliers of food which I feel good about serving to my family. I feel good about the farmers who raise that food -- I know they and I are not contributing to cancer and other illnesses. [1][2][3][4]

The challenge is planning ahead for my family's food needs, and collecting my order when the drop-sites are open. So far, it has been worth it.