SAFE-until proven otherwise

I recently caught an article from msnbc about how the FDA will try and be more open about genetically engineered foods and drugs placed on the market. This is a crippled baby step (sorry for the imagery) in the right direction, however, this doesn't really seem like it will help anyone make an educated choice about the products they are buying since there will be no labeling on the GE products themselves. In order to obtain information about what products are genetically altered you would need to visit the FDA website and look them up (great more people surfing the net at the grocery store).
Furthermore, the FDA said they will not allow any GE products on the market without submitting them to scrutiny by independent advisers at a public meeting. Also they will "not approve any application until we are convinced of the safety and effectiveness. The public should rest assured that we are not going to be rushing any decisions." OH good! I feel so reassured now, I thought maybe GE foods might slip through the bureaucratic cracks like MSG (generally recognized as safe) or Aspartame (breaks down to formaldehyde and also linked to brain cancer) or something like that.
The main point is that the FDA and the government at large, are ignoring the consumers desire and right to know what they are purchasing. We already have labels informing us of the nutritional content and ingredients as well as possible allergen contents of products, why can't we get them to place a simple GMO (genetically modified organism) label on the package as well? I know they will posture that they are building a better product and there is nothing to be concerned about. You know what? We've been "building a better product" for hundreds, even thousands of years through cross breeding (various breeds of like animals) and cross pollination (various types of familial plants), that doesn't concern me too much, but playing god with unlike species and genus, cutting and pasting together plants and animals? I think I'll be concerned! Not to mention the fact that these "Better" products can and I would venture to say will infect the general population of fauna and flora and likely cause a great deal of damage, just look at the dilemma with GMO canola in Canada and how it has repeatedly infected the fields of organic farmers and ruined their financial well-being. Animals will find a way out of their cages, plants will find a way to spread their seeds, they will create a new problem. Look at the Africanized Honey bee (killer bee to most of us) they infest domestic colonies and take over the hive everywhere they go, destroying the indigenous species. and this was just from people traveling across the sea, just imagine with us more purposefully imposing our ideas on nature.
The other "noble" proposal behind GMO products is that they will help underprivileged areas of the world with higher productivity of crops and thus greater availability of foods and income. That would work if they 1. didn't have to pay for the products or at least didn't have to pay a higher price for it. 2. They were permitted or even capable of saving some of the seed for next planting as farmers have already done for so long. 3. The products actually perform as they are supposed to, thus making the higher cost worth while.
No instead we see farmers paying higher prices for seed that grows GMO plants that DON'T perform better, thus losing their money and in cases such as India's cotton farmers, losing their land. We see products like Roundup Terminator seeds that have genetic alterations to cause their offspring seeds (those produced by the mature plant) to be worthless for planting, thus you have thousands of corn farmers having to constantly buy more seed every year, usually at a higher price. This is detrimental to third world farmers that rely on saved seed just to make it to the next planting.
Sorry folks, I'm not buying your logic, and you can be damn sure that I'll do all I can not to buy your Frankenstein products either, so you can keep your corn!
-g

George Washington Carver Never Meant to Kill Anyone

Newcomer to the foodbourne illness posse-Peanut Butter, a family favorite for years, even popular with the health food types. Recent news has this tasty-pasty treat linked to one of our old favorites, Salmonella, you know, that cootie made popular and powerfully widespread by washing the chicken we are going to eat in fecal stew. So far I haven't sen or heard anything explaining how that particular bacteria ended up in a vegetable based food stuff, but I'm sure the explanation will be well thought out and acceptable (sarcasm).
Now if you're an avid reader of this here "publication", you'll likely remember the post "Stop Shitting in My Spinach" where I listed numerous outbreaks linked to spinach contaminated with E.Coli as well as other food contamination's and their related illness/death tolls. Well so far, the latest report that I have read stated that more than 470 people in 43 states have become ill, 90 of which needed to be hospitalized and there have been 6 deaths. SIX PEOPLE DIED FROM EATING PEANUT BUTTER! This may not seem strange to those who have a food allergy to peanuts, however, to those of us without over-reactive immune systems, this makes no damn sense.
That brings me to one of my favorite government agencies, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, or as I call them Freakin Dumb Asses), they apparently may or may not have the "authority" to demand food recalls from companies that produce foods (or drugs), when there is a public health concern revolving around that companies product. What they DO instead of reacting in the public best interest is "request" that the company test their product and consider voluntary recalls. On top of that, the Health Officials are cited as saying that consumers that have purchased any of these products should throw them away. Um, did we pay money for this product? I think a better idea is that we return these products for a full refund and the stores we purchased them from will also receive a full compensation for their losses, to be paid by the producer, who should NOT be eligible for any government handouts to keep them from feeling the financial pain caused by their negligence. We live in an economic system that at least lately only seems to punish the middle and lower classes for making poor choices, whereas the already wealthy are able to obtain more money to try and fix their mismanaged businesses, but that's another problem all together.
We have an antiquated regulatory system in place, the FDA is impotent to prevent and react to the onslaught of foodbourne illnesses and contamination's that have begun to take over our multinational food system. We need to institute new ways of tracking foods from field to home and all steps in between if we ever hope to prevent even larger scale outbreaks, God forbid anyone try to "attack" us via our food supply chain, we could have serious problems in just a matter of days. Is processed food really an added convenience if it requires a trip to the ER or the morgue? It's not a pretty thought but I'm not here to blow smoke up your ass, just to help you eat that corn.
-g