The Kerfuffle of the GMO Food Industry: We are Mostly to Blame

If 2/3 of processed food on the shelves is genetically engineered and most of the grains our livestock eats is also genetically modified as Organic Connections Magazine points out, then it seems our modern-day society is in a bit of a kerfuffle. When I think of the size of the problem, I pretty much just throw up my hands. What is to be done about it?

Apparently, GMO food is far better labelled in Europe than over here, so it's clearly possible to fix or at least improve the situation. And yet, we are in the dark ages when it comes to our food labels. Why is this?

The only answer I can come up with besides the fact that our regulators and politicians are in cahoots with the big food giants is that we are to blame for buying food that is not properly labelled. Put simply, it's our fault. We still shop at the grocery stores and we do not demand of the grocery stores that they start selling food that is properly labelled. We just buy it anyway, even though statistics say the majority of us do not want to eat genetically-engineered food. So what should we do?

Buy organic foods as much as possible, and look for foods that are labelled Non-GMO. Grocery stores know what's up. If they know that the consumers are buying organic non-GMO foods as their fancy little computers tell them every second an item is swiped at the check-out, they will start stocking more of those foods. The reason they are not stocking more non-GMO foods is because we still keep buying them. And so nothing changes.

I'd love to say it's all the fault of the politicians and the food giants and the farmers, but this is a cop-out. As global consumers, we really lack personal responsibility. It's really our own stubborn laziness. As long as we continue buying the GMO food at our local grocery stores, they'll keep selling it. It's the basic law of supply and demand. Demand for product rises, supply of product then rises, as do prices. And from what I see every time we go shopping at Dominion or Sobey's, nothing is going to change anytime soon. It's one hell of a kerfuffle, and one in which the majority of us could clearly care less about or we'd change our ways. And until we do, that sign my wife took a picture of in Oakland last year is just that: a meaningless sign.

It would seem that 99% of us do indeed consent to what is going on. And that is our modern-day comedy of errors of which 99% of us are willing players.

Eat B(right),
Veggie Daddy