Just got catalog from my food buying coop this week and noticed a website from GreenPeace listing common brands that contain GMO ingredients, those that don't and others that are phasing them out. I thought I'd share it with the forum because it's a real eye opener! It's www.truefoodnow.org. I'm going to be buying even more from the coop in the future, let me assure you!

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), November 30, 2000

Answers

I just reviewed that list as well.It certainly gets your attention.I'm assuming it's soybean & corn that are two big culprits in GMO food ingredients,but I didn't see that specified.

An aside,I am allergic to corn products,all of them.Corn Oil,corn syrup,meal-check labels and see all the products one of these are in.I didn't used to be allergic to corn. I don't think it is just Starlink corn that is the problem.I think it is all bt corn.And it's in virtually all corn products,bc of both wind pollination and mixing at the grainery.

I use bt in my garden,but I don't EAT it. It's put on the outside of the plant and then also washed off.When it is incorperated into the gene structure you eat it.

I first started to suspect my corn allergy was possibly bt linked this when my brother told me how sick he got after his property was sprayed for gypsy moth with bt,and his symptoms were like my allergy symptoms.

This is really something to contemplate.How do you get something like the bt gene out of a food crop,like corn, once it's there, if it becomes clear it is causing these types of problems? Corn is now off limits to me as food,and I'm not alone.Maybe it is for you too and you just don't know it yet. These GMO's are getting pretty scary, to my way of thinking.

12 years ago when I first toured a research facility that was working on gmo's I truely didn't give it much thought. Boy, have I changed my mind. Now I see trouble galore.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 30, 2000.

OK, what are GMOs?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 30, 2000.

GMOs are genetically modified organisms.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), November 30, 2000.

With all the hormones fed to cattle these days, does that qualify those 12 year old girls with 36 D cup size as GMO ?

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 30, 2000.

Jay, that's what I've thought, too. Awful lot of 14 year old kids makng babies. The mother of a friend suggested a possible link between gay males and the hormones in cow's milk. I don't know about that, but it sure makes you wonder. (New address hrnofplnty@yahoo.com)

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), November 30, 2000.

Cathy.........oh please..................

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), November 30, 2000.

I believe people who are allergic to corn have it the worst because corn is in so many things that people are unaware of. Sweetners for juices and soda, fillers for vitamins and medication, milk cartins - did you know about that one? I am starting to think that my constant stomach pains may be linked to corn and am hoping it is not so. Maybe it's fate that I can't grow corn in my garden.

I wonder what else gets slipped out that we don't know about. How long were those tacos out before someone tested them? What about stuff no one tests? Scary.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), November 30, 2000.

Jay and Cathy, I agree with you on the effects of GMO and the hormones added to our food, Time magazine had a big article on "precocious" puberty in young girls, very scary and eye opening! Do you think it is apparent to these scientists that this crap is causing any of this, no, that would be way too obvious of an answer, and the petrochemical and giant ag. companys that produce GMO foods would never allow it. Makes me very mad and angry that so many people have to suffer because the profits of big business are more important than our good health! Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), December 01, 2000.

Earthmama, I guess that my earlier post could have read that I think there is a link between hormones added to cows milk and the sexual preference of a human who consumes that milk.....I mentioned that a 65 year old woman is pondering that..... I did not say that there is a link, (nor that I think there is a link) I was only saying that with all the unnatural stuff that is added to our food, it makes me wonder how many "side effects" there are that we are not yet aware of as a result of food choices. Think about the number of people out there who still do not understand the connection between sugar and ADD and ADHD, or allergies in kids who consume artificial dyes. My sister, the nurse, has three kids-usually one of them is taking an antibiotic for one reason or another. The 14 year old is on an antidepressant, and the 13 year old is on Ritalin. They eat the Standard American Diet (SAD), loaded with junk. Could there be a link between their diet and behavior? What will kids be like 25 years from now, when much of what they eat is genetically altered? We just don't know. Makes me wonder.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

I have wondered a lot as to to the growth hormone connection. Seems like a herd could be reduced in hormone effect by selective breeding. Instead of breeding for size and fertility, breed for non hormonal. True the cattle would be scrawnier, but the yeild would be healthier. Positive results would be evident after just a couple generations as most growth hormone is supplimental and has minimal effect on the natural hormone bases.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000.

I saw mentioned in an article a surmise that soy-based formulas may cause feminizing of baby boys, just to throw another hot potato out. I don't know if it's true or not, and I don't think the authors of the article were saying that it was a proven fact, just an area of concern because of the natural hormones in soybeans. Also have seen some surmising from doctors writing about our diets that part of the cause of such early puberty in our girls is the excessive amout of carbohydrates, especially processed white flour and sugar, that we are consuming. Don't know if that is true either, but I do know that all three of my daughters reached puberty earlier than I did. I was raised primarily on wild game, they were raised on a high percentage of store-bought meats. And they definitely got more sugar than I did -- we hardly ever drank soda when I was growing up, and only had dessert once a week, but my husband was raised on soda and twice- daily dessert, and wouldn't give either up for the children's sakes.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 01, 2000.

To throw out yet another hot potato, there are a lot of young men showing secondary female characteristics linked to BOTH plastics and THC. I have read several articles linking early sexual maturity to plastics as well as taller and yet weaker people. Pesticides have been decisively linked to ADD and ADHD or whatever they are calling it this week, and hormonal imbalances are rampant. Pesticides also cause an overdose of estrogen because many of the chemicals "read" the same to the blood and they don't get absorbed and passed out of the body but hang up in the glandular and elimination processes.

There is so much stuff in our food anymore it almost makes one not want to eat if they haven't grown it themselves for a few years. I really resent these corporations playing God with the food chain. If He had wanted to put salmon into tomatos I think He would have done it.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), December 01, 2000.

Cathy, I didnt have time to really respond to your post; I was skimming stuff, and reacted from my overreactive gut! Yes, it did sound to me like you were inferring what you stated; a subject that gets me riled. I think most people confuse 'feminizing' , for instance, with male gayness, and they probably have no connection whatsoever. I have gay male friends who are almost obnoxiously macho, and I have known several men throughout my life ( one is an uncle) who were as swishy as can be, as an straight as an arrow. I am annoyed when I sense a Schlessinger/Limbaugh attitude coming down, with that bigoted, ignorance-based "biological error" and "contrary to God's plan' balogney. I don't believe for a minute that any of us is an error; that we are all born just the way we were supposed to be born,and we all beautiful and perfect just the way we are, regardless of how certain religions try to convince us how horrible we are, needing said religions to rescue us from our horribleness. Peace be unto you, Cathy; as my kids would say, YOU Rock!

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), December 02, 2000.

I've read articles that say plastic could be the cause of early puberty.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), December 05, 2000.