The Future of Food and What You Can Do About It

I just finished watching the documentary The Future of Food. The film goes into the safety and ethical issues behind patenting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and introducing them into our food supply. Check out the trailer:

If you want to watch the whole film, it’s available for free on Hulu! The facts about Monsanto and the GMO industry are pretty infuriating, but the film ends with an optimistic call to action. We can combat companies like Monsanto by voting with our pocketbooks and making our voices heard!

Labeling
Consumers lose our right to make informed decisions about what goes into our shopping carts when foods containing GMO ingredients remain unlabeled. Not only does labeling let us decide what goes into our bodies, it makes it easier to determine if a GMO ingredient is to blame for bad reactions to the foods we’re eating. Congress failed to pass the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act, but that doesn’t mean we should give up. Let your Representative know how you feel! To find out who your Representative is, you can look up your Congressperson right here.

Get Empowered
Since most companies don’t currently label foods with GMO ingredients, it’s up to us to police what goes into our shopping carts and into our bodies. The Institute for Responsible Technology has put together a Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help you out in the grocery store. You can also take their 30 day No GMO Challenge.

Eat Local
One of the worst problems with large agribusiness is its effect on farmers. Getting organic, local food helps support small farmers, many of whom won’t plant GM crops. You can try signing up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where you purchase “shares” in a local farm in exchange for part of their bounty. To find CSA’s in your area, try the Local Harvest online tool.

The only downside to the CSA is that you don’t really get a say about what’s in those weekly baskets. Don’t despair! Local Harvest is also a fantastic resource for finding nearby farmers markets. I just love a farmer’s market! There’s a special connection that comes with buying your food right from the same folks that planted, nurtured, and harvested it.