What I like to call Food

I just finished reading my quarterly newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association, and learned that they are still trying to convince the USDA not to allow GMO (genetically modified organisms) salmon to be marketed without being labeled as GMO.

I really find it irksome in the extreme that we have to cajole, connive, and convince the powers that be that we deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about what we are eating.

There should not be any need to explain the importance of knowing what you are eating, but there is. In today's world (or at least in this country) people have come to accept a lot of "food products" as food without asking any questions. Considering that we truly are what we eat (since there is no other input, save for air and H2O, other than the calories we ingest) I think it should be a given that we have access to full information about what it is we are eating.

I want to know if the food I'm being sold has been cross-bred with another species, dosed up with antibiotics or growth hormones, fed recycled animal parts, or sprayed with lethal insecticides or herbacides. I want to know what food is being fed to the animals I eat because they are what they eat, too. I want to know how many additives (and where they came from) are going into my food, and why. Yet, again and again the USDA and FDA are convinced by -- get this -- the corporations who make money on food modifications and additives, to keep much of the process from seed (or birth, in the case of an animal) to plate in the dark.

I'm tired of having to defend my right to know what it is I'm putting into my body. I'm tired of being asked to accept on pure faith that everything served to me on a plate, in a bag, from a bin, is healthy for me and the planet. I want to see less useless, public- relations focused, obscure snippets: "all natural!," "good-for-you-grains," "heart-healthy." I want to see more information about what is in our food, how it was made/grown, and what the source of all ingredients are.

I will continue to stand up and demand that the basic building block of our health and our lives is pure, safe, and, further, labeled so that we can determine whether it is or is not worth our money and our calories. I hope, however, that I don't have to do it for much longer.