American Food Through African Eyes

Like you, Jill, I would prefer (4.00 / 4)

to avoid GMO corn.

Like you, I have given up.  I will settle for grass-fed beef & free-range hens, when I can get them.

The ironic thing is, I probably could have had free-range hens in my own backyard 100 years ago.  Now?  I'm sure the city has laws against it.  (But we still have possums coming up my fire escape?  I don't mind the cats, but: possums?  They carry rabies fer godssakes!)

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

---

by: Youffraita @ Mon Oct 12, 2009 at 22:14:50 PM UTC

Check into that law (4.00 / 3)

there are good backyard chicken laws around the country that can serve as models to your city if they are currently illegal and you want to legalize them. Alternatively, you can have illegal chickens and then bribe your neighbors with eggs. A suggestion if you do that: don't get a rooster.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

---

by: Jill Richardson @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 13:36:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Good points in your article (4.00 / 3)

One of the things I see over and over again in programs like Andrew Zimmern's shows is that, because he often travels to areas where local foods are abundantly available, you can see jus thow differently the peoples of the world eat. That's because most of those areas are still rural or semi rural. There aren't many, if any GMO foods grown because the people don't have access to them for one thing, and also because the GMO plants are designed to be grown in really big blocks, not small holder plots.

Those GMO plants are designed to supply an industrial complex that also doesn't exist in many other countries because so many people are still growing food for themselves, and don't need to be supplied by the industrial food infrastructure like we in the developed countries are.

As people in the developing countries are encouraged to move off the land and into the cities to supply industry with labor and consumers that'll change, and their eating habits and available foods will probably change. I saw information a few days ago that 30% of the farming families in China were expected to move off the farms and into the cities in the next 20 years. They're starting to experience the same type of farming consolidation that we went through in this country begining after WWII.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

---

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Mon Oct 12, 2009 at 23:01:58 PM UTC

Rural vs. urban (4.00 / 2)

Good point, Joanne. I think it is true that in any country, when large numbers of people leave the land for the city, they enter the urban ecology at the bottom of the economic ladder. Regardless of the nature of the nation's agriculture system, the new arrivals can no longer afford good food, their diets and their health decline.  

---

by: count @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 00:01:10 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

GM vs. non-GM (4.00 / 3)

Jill, how the heck can we look a corn kernel and tell whether or not it is GM? Inquiring minds want to know.

---

by: count @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 00:02:38 AM UTC

You can't really (4.00 / 3)

but statistically, you're less likely to run into GMO sweet corn than corn used to make cornmeal. The corn pudding would have been made from cornmeal, the whole kernal corn, being sweet corn, would more than likely been nonGMO, although there have incidents of cross contamination of GMO traits of sweet corn.

Here are a couple of links -
Southern Super Sweet Corn Council from 2000

This one about FEDCO sweet corn seed being contaminated

Corn meal is made from field corn also known as dent corn, I'm not sure if it's made from flint corn.

Your best bet as far as GM corn being used, is to either buy organic or to buy from someone you know who is not growing GMO field corn. Some farms grind their own cornmeal, you can also buy whole corn from a farm and grind it yourself. Small hand operated and electric mills are available. I forget how much they cost though.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

---

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 01:11:04 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Monarch statement is false (4.00 / 1)

the natural migration on Monarchs is through the central U.S. and therefore not even found in the southern U.S.

Monarchs are not constrained to follow the land mass. They fly across the Gulf of Mexico between the Yucatan and Florida, for example. They do migrate through the southern states. A fraction of Monarchs, which are weaker than the others, will keep to the land mass, and they either go through the central states, or they go up and down the East coast but take "the long way around", through the southern states between Texas and the East Coast.

The press release is from 2000, but the Fedco item from 2007 indicates that the industry still was trying to keep sweet corn free of GM. Good luck with that.

---

by: count @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 01:44:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah that was in reference to BT corn (4.00 / 2)

and the toxicity of that corn's pollen to the butterflies.

I have BT here and used it on my brasicas. I only used it once, and didn't notice any effect on the cabbage worms. I think on the bottle it said it was only effective on the larvae of diamond moths, etc. not on the moths themselves.

If people are worried about BT and it's effect on other insects they should refrain from using things like Mosquito dunks, which contain BT. Although I don't know, perhaps the concentration of the BT toxin in a water container would be low enough that it wouldn't bother the butterflies or other benificial insects.

I remember when BT corn first came out. I was in highschool at the time. I don't know how much of an impact it actually has had on benificials. It's been effective on corn pests I think. I don't like it because if BT is sprayed on a crop you can wash it off. If the gene to produce the toxin is engineered into the plant itself, you can't wash anything off because it's inside the cells. Kind of like the E. coli in the spinach. Some people said "Why didn't they just wash the spinach?". The problem is that the plants took up the bacteria with their roots and the bacteria wound up in the cells, not on the surface of the plant. Washing won't get rid of it.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

---

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 02:13:21 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

if it's sweet corn, it shouldn't be GMO (4.00 / 2)

although it's probably contaminated. But that's all the corn you eat on the cob. All other corn (the stuff they feed animals and turn into "food products" and unpronounceable ingredients) is GMO, more or less, unless it's organic. For the most part, they don't segregate GMO and non-GMO corn, unless a farmer will be paid a premium for the non-GMO stuff and it is sold labeled as such.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

---

by: Jill Richardson @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 13:39:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

elegantly done (4.00 / 2)

Your dinner companion knew about and was concerned about GMO, which, as you point out, so many of us have given up on worrying about in the USA.

But still, he trusted you enough to answer honestly.

Nice.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

---

by: Miep @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 05:00:58 AM UTC

! (4.00 / 3)

this is an important article thanks!

---

by: ParisT @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 02:14:33 AM UTC