OK. I’ll try to make this quick. This morning, something dawned on me while I was thinking about Monsanto’s genetically modified “Terminator” seeds. If you don’t know, “Terminator” seeds are GM seeds that only produce once. Meaning, the seeds from the crops cannot be taken and planted to produce more crops. Instead, more seeds have to be purchased and planted. They are patented by the Monsanto Corporation (On a side note, Monsanto is the producer of Agent Orange, Round-Up and aspartame, to name a few damaging chemicals.).

Here is a list of what bothers me, or more so, SCARES me about Monsanto and/or GMO’s:

• the health risk factors of GM food (infertility, low birth weights, under developed brain, liver and kidneys)
• the unintentional cross pollination of GM with non-GM crops
• the spreading of, and contamination by, GM pollen (GM pollen has even been found in Antarctica!)
• the allowing of a patent to be granted for a living organism
• the lawsuits against farmers who are unintentionally “infringing” on these patents because of GM pollen blowing over into their crops
• the contamination of organic crops from GM pollen
• the possibility of “killing” off our food supply because terminator seeds will not produce crops that will reproduce
• the eventual end of the human race and other life because of food shortage due to infertile seeds (maybe that’s why GM food has been linked to infertility?) This makes me think of Easter Island and how its people met their demise from starvation due to their negligent ways of living…

And in case you didn’t know, the new Senior Advisor to our FDA is a former Monsanto VP! How safe do you feel about your food NOW?

If you want to get really in-depth information that you can sink your teeth into, I recommend visiting the following sites and signing up for their newsletters:

• The Institute for Responsible Technology (They are the leader in taking action against GMO companies and policies.) and/or to sign up for IRT’s newsletter
• mercola.com (I recommend doing a search on Monsanto and GMO’s. There is a lot of info.) and/or to sign up for mercola.com’s newsletter.

After educating myself on the detrimental effects of genetically modified (gm or gmo) food and where these gmo’s are hiding in my kitchen, I started replacing the bad with the good… one item at a time. Granted, I initially wanted to comb through and toss anything that could possibly contain gm ingredients. But it seemed a bit overwhelming to do it that way. However, if you have the time and resources to take action in such a bold manner, I salute you.

Start with Your Next Shopping Trip

To begin your vigilant change to non-gmo food, stop buying anything that could contain gm ingredients. It’s easiest just to buy organic for the sake of easy label reading (anything labeled USDA Certified Organic or the ingredients are specified as organic, contain no gm ingredients) or products labeled “non-gmo,” or simply avoid processed packaged foods. But sometimes organic isn’t an option, and we want to get some cereal or crackers (processed food). That’s where you may have to take extra time to read labels of non-organic processed foods.

Where You Shop Can Make This Easier

If you shop the large grocery store chains, finding non-gmo and/or organic foods can sometimes be a challenge. In fact, I recently read that certain large grocery store chains in Canada went out of their way to make this task even harder for consumers by boycotting any food that had a “non-gmo” label! Can you believe that? I’m serious. Look it up and get angry. I did. But on the contrary, some large chains are embracing the organic movement, thankfully, and are now carrying more organic and non-gmo items. Ask the manager to start buying more of these products. The more people ask, they more they are likely to meet their customers’ requests (you know, “supply and demand”).

Then there are smaller grocery store chains, specialty stores, local farmer’s markets, and independent stores and co-ops. These stores usually specialize in “healthier” foods (organic, non-gmo, “natural,” hormone-free, pesticide free, sustainable farming, etc.). If you’re not shopping at one of these types of places, maybe that should be your next “search” item in your area. These places make it much easier to purchase non-gmo food. And for fresh produce, there are also CSA’s (community supported agriculture. A CSA is where you pay an upfront fee and get a weekly box of locally grown produce).

My First Item to Replace

My first item I replaced was my cooking oil, which happened to be canola oil… one of the “big four” gm ingredients (corn, soy, canola, cotton). Since I couldn’t find organic canola oil where I was shopping, (it’s available, in fact, Spectrum make one.) I bought grapeseed oil to replace it. I figured since I use oil often in cooking, that would be a good item to start with. I’m actually glad the organic canola oil was not available, because I discovered that the flavor of the grapeseed oil is really nice.

What’s Your First Item Going to Be?

As I said, if you just try to replace one item at a time, you won’t get overwhelmed or over burdened. So today, choose a gm item that is in your kitchen and replace it with a non-gm version. Then move onto the next item. Before you know it, you’ll (hopefully) have a non-gmo kitchen! Good luck and get going!