Dang
farmers! That’s the sentiment I say whenever I get stuck behind a slow moving
piece of equipment or there is mud on the highway. While I say this in sarcasm,
knowing I’ve done both of those things on multiple occasions myself, millions
of Americans don’t say it with the sarcasm. Many Americans really believe it.
With less than 2% of Americans involved in production agriculture, that means
98% of our country is going to have questions regarding their food. One of the
biggest questions right now is…
1. What are GMO's?
When asked this question a large majority of the
American population can't answer what the letters stand for. They just know
that they are BAD and you shouldn't consume them if you care about your family.
One image that comes to mind are syringes sticking into foods, filling them
with chemicals that are toxic to your body. In reality, this is NOWHERE
near the case!
But first of all before we get too far, why should
you believe me? I’m a farmer. We have cow/calf pairs, row crops (corn,
soybeans, wheat), cover crops (triticale, turnips), and we put up our own hay
(triticale, brome, native, sudex/sudan). We don’t have kids yet, but I feed
everything I eat to my nieces and nephews and feel very confident that I’m
feeding them and producing a safe food supply.
GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. Okay
you say, you aren’t helping your case…that sounds SCARY! But it’s not. Let’s
talk about some foods that are GMO’s. Without the changes that scientists have
done over the years, watermelons, bananas, corn and many many more products
wouldn’t look the same at all. GMOs simply mean that plant growers are copying
a desired trait and using it in another plant to create the favored affect.
This has been occurring for YEARS!
When one’s disposable income increases, there is a
shift from, “am I going to be able to feed my family” to “what is in the food that we're eating”. We have more money to concentrate on what we’re feeding our families.
Hence, the desire to know more about GMO’s and has eventually led to a Senate
committee approving a bill to preempt individual states labeling laws. All
these individual state laws will do is increase food prices because the
companies would have certain rules in certain states to keep track of.
2. Are they safe to eat?
So let’s talk about the
safety of GMO’s. That’s what we really care about right? There have been
thousands of studies conducted and do you know how many have found that it is
safe to eat GMO foods...ALL of them! There have been ZERO illnesses linked to
eating GMO’s, human or animal. But who says this? Well, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for one, The
World Health Organization, and the American Medical Association to name
another. There’s been lots of rumors that GMO’s cause cancer. Is this the
case…no. There has been no research proven that cancer is caused by consuming
GMO products.
So the next time you are
slowed down by the slow moving equipment or there is mud, know that that farmer
is doing their best to produce a food supply that they are confident feeding to
their families and knowing they are feeding their children this should solidify
the fact that it’s safe to feed your families.
I would be happy to facilitate any questions you may have! Looking forward to hearing back from you.
