An artichoke plant grown from seed. Once it flowered, more graines were collected; with them I hope to grow a new plant in our garden. Is it true that seed collection–from our own gardens–may one day be illegal? Or is this just one of those conspiracy-theory rumors? By the way (and not in the same breath as conspiracy!), the film Genetic Roulette is free for viewing today (Friday), after which you will have to pay to see it!
For those waiting to read the English translation to Jean-Marc's story, click here.
OGM (oh-zhay-em)
: un organisme génétiquement modifié
: a genetically modified organism (a "GMO"); a plant, such as corn, that has been genetically modified
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
In the past month, apart from enjoying every moment with my dear mom (Jules left yesterday…), I have been learning about food, specifically genetically modified food–something that is banned here in France (due to the need for further testing regarding health risks…).
In the United States, genetically modified foods are prevalent, having been silently introduced into the market place in the 1990s. Found in fruits and vegetables, GMOs are in everything from ketchup to peanut butter to kids' breakfast cereal, and are served in restaurants, on airplanes, and in school cafeterias. Currently genetically modified foods do not require labelling (in the States) so there's no knowing whether or not an apple or a cookie or a jar of peanut butter contains them.
Because the following topic could be a touchy or emotional one… I'm going to play it safe and assign myself the role of debate moderator–rather than debate participant! (go ahead and call me une poule mouillée or wet chicken–anything in order to hear your personal view on this GMO topic!)
Thanks for adding any related links (to documentaries, websites, books) that might persuade some of us to agree with you!
Share your view here, and enter to win seeds from this amazing artichoke plant, grown in my garden in Sainte Cécile-les-Vignes… and soon to be planted here in our new garden near Bandol.
Click here to enter the discussion: "For or against GMOs".
One of the most exciting days of my life was seeing this gorgeous artichoke plant arise… from a single seed!
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They should be labelled and I wouldn’t eat them. Absolutely not. I live in the US and Monsanto are genetically modifying crops specially designed so that they will only grow with their own particular pesticides. Corn is one of these crops. We have no idea what this kind of tampering on a molecular level has longterm on the human body, or the results of crop cross contamination. We need to go organic, but even organic food is produced with organic pesticides – something most people don’t think about, and these are dangerous to the human body as well. I once asked a vendor at a farmer’s market in Berkeley if the strawberry I was about to sample had been washed. She said, No – it’s organic! Organic does not mean grown without pesticides.
Yes, I think all GMO foods should be labeled! Period.
Fellow Californians, there is an initiative on our ballots in November for the mandatory labeling of Genetically Modified food. This will clearly let consumers (in California) know if foods are genetically modified. This would become the first law of this kind in the US. Please Vote Yes on Prop 37.
I am against GMOs, although as Maria pointed out, they can help produce food in poorer countries…however, I do believe that people should know what is in their food and where it comes from, although in the US, this is very difficult. This is one of the many things that I love about France. I love how people know (and want to know) where their food comes from and are passionate about the quality of what they are eating. While there are “pockets” of people who do genuinely care where their food comes from in the States, I feel that our country as a whole does not see the value of quality food.
In California, Prop 37 is supposed to help put labels on genetically modified/engineered foods. While it will not cover everything, it would be at least a start for California (a whole other debate there), but I thought it was relevant to the conversation on here. Here’s a link to an article if anyone is interested.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-prop37-exemptions-poll-20121012,0,3501046.story
Also, I just wanted to say it’s very interesting reading everyone’s comments and viewpoints – very interesting topic to think about.
Wow! Lots of discussion here! Without taking the time right this minute to read all, I’ll weigh in: I know I eat GMOs sometimes (on airplanes, in restaurants, and so forth), but buy organic whenever I can. I wholeheartedly support Prop 37 and believe that the near-wholesale US embrace of GMOs is dangerous!
I try to eat foods that are as pure as possible. If you see a worm you know it’s most likely pure. I agree that food should be labeled if genetically modified.
we have been genetically modifying plants for years….crossing one variety with another. The question is what else is in that genetically modified seed….round-up ready in corn for example.
Full disclosure: I wrote the two stories I’ll link below. But may I point out here (as I also do in one of the articles) that Alicia is muddying the argument. Yes, we’ve been altering crops through hybridizing and breeding. That’s crossing one great corn attribute with another corn attribute. With the current genetic engineering that’s happening, two different species are being crossed. We might, in nature have a Springer Spaniel/ Golden Retriever mix. We’d never, ever in nature have a cat/dog cross.
http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2012/08/gmo
http://www.attainable-sustainable.net/gmo/
I try my best to eat organic and as pure as possible if not organic. Am I eating GMO’s I really don’t know. Since there is no labeling I guess I wouldn’t know. There is so much being done to food now, it is scary.
Love the picture!
xoxo
I moved to the U.S. 10 years ago with my parents, and I must say, that I am very upset about the low quality of food and food regulations in this country. I am worried that eating GMOs and other meats (in restaurants) that contain hormones will one day show its results and harm the health of people I love. I am thankful that organic food exists, however, it is still sad that you cannot trust your government’s food regulations, especially when labels are missing.
The issue here in the US is that we don’t even have a choice! Too much money to be lost by Big Agri-Business… Trust in this country has eroded so that we would question even when things did get labeled. Labeling will be a start though! I fear for my deathly-allergic little niece. She could react to the odor of peanuts and groundnuts. I wonder when her mother will be faced with an allergic reaction that she cannot identify because she ate something that had a genetic link to her allergens. JMHO.
There is no argument here. Rather in speaking about this issue which definition are you taking about in relationship to the concerns? The scientific definition or that of the Union of Concerned Scientists?
Hi Kristin,
I just saw a news report on this the other night. I guess it is expensive for the grocery stores to label products as GMO. I just try to buy as much local produce and meats as possible. If we could all just have our own little gardens and grow our own produce, but that’s not possible for most people. It’s scary sometimes wondering where our food is coming from or how it’s been handled.
GMO’s are not safe or Monsanto and the other agri-business giants would not be spending millions of dollars to defeat Prop 37 in California. I try to eaT organic and grow as much of my own food as possible although I don’t know how much I trust the govt regulated labeling of anything.
I didn’t even know about GMO’s. I live in the dark when it comes to news; always hearing after the fact. It sounds like an interesting debate. I just got back from my mom’s house so I will read up on them in your blog tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend!!
Simply put, I don’t now and never will eat GMO foods. As a strict vegetarian, I’m not excited about chicken genes in my artichokes!! So we buy as much non-GMO organic and/or local food as possible…and the hope that the labeling is trustworthy. As my husband always says, when the government tells you to do something, RUN RUN RUN the other way!!! 🙂
I agree that we need honest labels so we can decide if we want to eat food that’s been modified or not. It won’t keep us from ingesting GMO’s at restaurants, on airplanes, etc., but it’s a start. I intend to vote yes on prop 37 in California in November.
As a nursing mother I try to eat organic and no GMO’s. My family has allergies and I am worried about what Monsanto is doing to our vegetables. I plan, eventually, on living in France and thank goodness I won’t have to worry about it there!
What a “fire” you’ve started, Kristin 🙂 This debate is as diverse as the feelings of a person having the luxury of “shopping” at a wonderful open air market .. deciding whether to buy organic or non-organic (depending on how much money they have on that day) AND the parent of a 5 year old child (or, an orphaned street child)in a poverty stricken country, whose only chance at BASIC SURVIVAL is digging through filthy garbage dumps in search of scraps of food for sustenance.
Yesterday journalist, best-selling author and all around food guru Michael Pollan came out with an inspiring piece in the New York Times about the food movement and more specifically Prop 37 in California, the ballot initiative to label genetically engineered foods.
Pollan’s article wrestles with the importance of the conversation on genetically engineered foods in the U.S. and what Prop 37 to label GMOs in California means for the rise of a new food movement as a political force to change the conversation in Washington, something we at Food Democracy Now! believe is vital to protecting our planet and our basic democratic rights.
Pollan’s delicious NYT’s article “Vote for the Dinner Party”
The GMO debate is so fierce here in the US. The focus is on California now, in hopes that proposition passes, and labelling will be required there. That might get the ball rolling for the whole country.
GMO does make money for the Monsantos of this world, as the farmers are forced to buy seed, do not have the option of saving their own seed. And the bizarre lawsuits if the pollen is carried by wind to their fields! Too much control by the large corporations, I think.
For me, the organic food movement is all about how farming is done — though I am not a farmer myself. If we are foolish in farming practices, we lose in the long run. Photos of the dust storms of the 1930s in Oklahoma, a dramatic reminder of poor farming practice and its bad results on more than one farmer.
In later life an illness altered what I can eat, making the pesticide issue more personal. Now, my concern for organic is not just for the farms, but also for myself. I buy it exclusively.
The argument about labelling the food as GMO, I cannot understand it. The companies are not very subtle in saying, we know you will not buy it if you know it is GMO. The politics of it, passes me, I am no politician.
One more reason to live in France, GMO not allowed.
Even in the fast food restaurants that have invaded you from the US?
I cannot imagine a scenario where collecting seeds from your own potager could ever be barred. Not in France. The crazy US, who knows!
Thanks for the photo of the artichoke on the plant. A new image for me, and I hope the artichokes tasted fantastic.
What a surprise to see your article today! And what a reaction with so many people weighing in on the OGM subject. I’m on a break so have no time to read all views.
C’est une poule mouillée, moi aussi; mais personally, I’m cautious, and hesitant to eat OGM products due to articles I’ve read before. I wish all products were labeled properly so people can make their own choice.
I fondly remember seeing the beautiful artichoke plant at your house. I hope the seeds do well at your new home!
Long discussion here which I haven’t had time to read fully at the moment. (My housecleaner is waiting for me to straighten up the living room.) I’m not at all worried about GMOs. I do worry about pesticides … since those are designed to kill, their effect on humans and animals we like must be carefully studied.
I buy almost exclusively organic, but am sure we eat lots of GMO’s, especially when we go out to restaurants. In a perfect world, there would be no GMO’s. Let’s hope it may happen. Some day.
Until there is proof that ogms are dangerous, I am happy eating them, even though I grow most of my food and eat organic products here in France. However, it is well known and often discussed that parents one day will ‘modify’ their embryos to be what they want: color of hair, eyes, mental agility, etc. Interesting subject.
There is a proposition on the November ballot in California (USA) that says GMO food must be labeled as such. The California farmers are against it, naturally. We’re big on labels here, even though many people don’t bother to read them. GMOs will never be outlawed in the USA because of the profits of feeding many people faster, ad nauseum.
I’m sure I have eaten GMO food many times and didn’t know it existed until I went to a language school in Bordeaux in the early 2000s. I would like to know if a food is genetically engineered and would prefer non-GMO food. The taste of a lot of older varieties is lost through this process, not to mention the possible effects. It’s disconcerting also that many plants can’t be propagated now through rooting! Something that could once be shared with friends is no longer possible.
I haven’t finished watching the movie yet, however, at 31:26, one of the doctors suggests how a “new organism exposed to a ‘pregnant chicken’ killed the embryo in 48 hours”. Now, I’ve been raising chickens for 4 years and I haven’t ever seen a “pregnant chicken” – chickens lay eggs, if the egg was fertile, it may hatch, otherwise they make great omelets!
Beautiful pictures,dear Kristin,as always!
A wonderful part of our freedoms is freedom of choice! We’re each responsible for our own well being,and thankfully,we can choose what nourishment is best for our own bodies.
The upside of being in the Trisieme Age is not being afraid to speak up;the downside is more days behind than ahead(!)
All the more reason to be super careful and prudent!!
Love, Natalia XO
GMO food is not permitted in the UK.
To the comments saying there has been genetic manipulaton for centuries, true, but not substituting fish genes and other wildly divergent genes from other species. So much of this is new and there’s no way to know the outcome. No GMOs for me, although we probably consume much more than we know.
GMO’s? No thanks! Hybridizing plants is one thing, but introducing animal genes into plants, and especially food products is totally different. Developing a plant that is resistant to pesticides in order to use even more pesticide produced by the same company has had tragic effects in India.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/03/gmo-crops-affect-farmers.aspx
The move to label GMO’s is a good one, in my opinion. Minus the exemptions,that is. Truth in labeling for all products, is what I would like to see. In the meantime, I try to buy organic, or from local vendors that I know grow organically but cannot afford what it takes to get certified. As Joni Mitchell sang, “We’ve got to get back to the garden.”
NO GMO for me ,NEVER.
I moved to the USA 15 years ago, coming from France.
I only eat organic. But I still cannot eat any grain here , too much processed,I have to have my bread, flour, jams etc.. shipped from France. I am often ill because of the food , when I go back to France for vacation, all my symptoms disappear.
GMO is a Russian Roulette, it does have side effects, it is not acceptable. We should be able to have labels with all the details.
Il est evident que les grosses corporations, ne veulent pas d’etiquettes .
We need to fight against them. But who can we trust.
Last week NPR or JPR talked about GMO, side effects have been found, they are dangerous.
I think they modify the food and a lot more over here, compare to France.
I try to buy local … not from the big boys. But that is not always easy. I use the green markets and local seafood suppliers. Also use the local French and European bakeries.
I want to, once again, compliment Kristi on her brillant photography! The artichokes and flowers are wonderful. Merci. Priscilla from La Nouvelle Orleans
If you have ever wondered why more people are irritated by wheat products and have gone gluten-free in addition to organic, please read this article: http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/13908-new-gmo-wheat-may-silence-vital-human-genes
Kristi, I thinnk you opened up a can of worms on this one. NO GMO. Bad for out=r health and environment. There are many articles againist, just put it in your search engine. This is just one of many: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ocean-robbins/gmo-california-vote_b_1955563.html
Be careful when any government tells you something is safe for you! A good friend who served in Vietnam died recently at age 70 from a combination of diabetes, heart problems, two strokes, amputation of several toes, terrible headaches all from what we believe was caused by Agent Orange in Vietnam and the government at that time told us not to worry about it, it could destroy forests and jungles but was safe for humans to be around!
I am definetly against GMO’s. California will be voting on this issue in 3 weeks. The issue will be the labeling of foods that have fallen prey to the GMO, and not banning them all together. But it is a start. One of my concerns is in the seeds we buy when we want to have our own garden…are these seeds already treated? What about all those fruits and veggies that are grown organically? They may be organic, but what about the seeds. So, save those seeds from that artichoke since it is pure and then start marketing them ….. you just may have a new business. Now I feel like I have to find the answer to the seed question. Will let you know when I have an answer.
Since Castroville, CA. is known as the Artichoke Capitol of the World and is about 20 minutes from here I now have to find out if those are genetically modified. Somehow I think not since most of the growers have passed the farms down for generations. Most have been the Swiss and are still family run.
Dead set against! Read Michael Pallon’s book, The Botany of Desire; Random House NY The section on the potato and Monsanto’z reassurance to his questioning the potentials, “Trust Us” would be enough to chill one’s blood on a hot day, and when the author checked gov’t agency resposible for testing found they had no funding to do any testing and asked the representztive, Would you eat one of the a GMO potato, got the response, 3Why would you want to?” Says it all for me.
WOW! Your blog today certainly has brought out the comments.
Firstly, PLEASE don’t fool with Mother Nature. Things were just fine withOUT GMO’s.
Secondly, ignorance is bliss. Until a charming lady in far off France points out what I and my neighbors locally in Florida as well as friends in many areas of the USA had absolutely NO idea. So I am no longer blissful. I’m mad as heck that I had NO idea about GMO’s invading my gastric track nor those of my children and friends and other family members.
I will take those informational packets about NON-GMO foods and leave them on the food shelves of my grocery store so others can find out about GMO’s and foods that are not invaded by harmful chemicals.
I sent the link to the video to my family and friends across the USA to share with their families and friends.
I posted the link to the video on my FB page too.
I’ve printed the NON-GMO food list to share with my neighbors.
And I’ll also mention this to my “women in business” luncheon next week.
Brava Kristen! You’ve enlightened many to this issue with your blog as illustrated by the many comments. Keep growing your garden and sharing with us across the Pond dear.
Cheers! Paulette in Palm Coast, Florida
Just in the past month there have been several articles in French newspapers about GMO. New research has definitely linked these foods to cancer. By the way France bans the production within France but imports GMO foods.
I just finished reading Carol Drinkwater’s ,(by the way, is she a neighbor of yours?) Return to the Olive Farm. It seems the fight for organic farming and the fight for “real food” without the use of unnatural chemicals is as real in your country as ours. Our grocery clerks don’t even know where the produce comes from when I ask in our local store.
I’m definitely voting for California’s Prop 37 for the mandatory labeling of GMOs , especially after reading Michael Pollan’s article
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/why-californias-proposition-37-should-matter-to-anyone-who-cares-about-food.html?smid=fb-share. I’ve been reading him for years, and thoroughly enjoyed the PBS special based on his book, The Botany of Desire. http://www.pbs.org/thebotanyofdesire
If you’re interested in learning more about California agriculture from another thoughtful and intelligent food writer, here’s Mark Bittman’s recent article from New York Magazine — http://markbittman.com/everyone-eats-there
If I know something is GMO, I don’t buy it. The problem is that one does not always know, and until mandatory labeling is required by law, we will continue to be bombarded with it. We are becoming more and more a chemical society, and it is frightening.
Very current topic, kristin. Just read a study this month that “discovered” that GMO fed rats had bad reactions: the male rats grew many more tumors than normal, while female rats’ tumors actually became cancerous. I try to be careful-but is difficult to do this in the US.
Hi from NJ, the Garden State. Our family eats organic (and non-organic from time to time). We were vegetarian for 17 years to avoid the pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and steroids in flesh foods. Now we can get steroid-free and organic flesh foods. We eat only organic dairy. GMOs for us? NO Thank you! and we keep alert. Go California! Speak up for all of us on your wave length. Thank you for your food for us on the east coast. Dina Staggs: the base of obesity is the failure to feed babies only human milk until age one and continue for as many years as one can (maybe 2 to 4) along with organic foods, no bovine milk, perhaps,later, yes, goat milk and sheep yogurt and cheese. Fat in human milk does not lay down in the baby/child the same type of fat cells as bovine milk fat creates (hey, that is for a few hundred pounds of calf, not for 20 pounds of a yearling human) Fat cells stay with a person for life, filling up or releasing contents. You want a human being to have proper fat cells and only human milk can do that in infancy and early childhood. Also a year of only human milk [no solids] and no bovine milk after a year or more or ever may prevent diabetes [see Science News]and in the long run, prevent pancreas problems. Next, here I place what I copied from above so you will read it again: Jolley’s comments about Monsanto! Posted by: JolleyG | Friday, October 12, 2012 at 03:09 PM”
“Regardless of whether GMOs are bad for us health-wise, they are definitely bad in terms of the concentration of food patents in the hands of big corporations like Monsanto. Does anyone foresee any advantage in having all our food produced by big corporations and having it be illegal to get seeds from our neighbors? We buy from the local farmers, and we buy organic as much as possible. We buy seeds from companies that are opposed to patents and grow our own produce.”
Thank you, Andy, to for your comments. For more info on breast milk as THE HUMAN FOOD of CHOICE,read Dr Sears the Elder’s books and read my paper with bibliography: Breast Milk to Solid Foods: At Age One Please write to me at ritatalkin@yahoo.com [ no g in that address]and I will send you a copy. 5 pages. Promote perfect nutrition from the start of life, eat well yourselves, ladies, and feed babies human milk. Joanne
I can’t say that I am that informed but will be more so thanks to this blog! What bothers me is that these GMO’s have been introduced silently and that we are not given a choice via labeling. They are already in the food chain. I will now take a harder look at Prop 37!
Thanks Kristin for shining a light on this topic!
Hi Kristin,
I tried to read every word, but you really did get a lot of responses to the GMO question. First, I don’t recall anyone mentioning the fact that GMO seed crops SPREAD their ‘contamination’ to adjacent crops. This is a serious issue because no one (for those who commented that sufficient testing has been done) knows what this will mean in the near or distant future. Second, isn’t is strange that since the US has been messing with foods such as BHT hormones in dairy products and now genetically modified crops, Americans have a serious obesity problem and more and more people are diagnosed with diseases our parents and grandparents rarely had? Of course, the low fat diet craze didn’t help as people piled on the sugar instead!
When you allow companies to play with nature in producing food, you should expect antibiotic-resistant bacterias, mysterious human and animal health conditions, and irreversible problems.
It’s time that the US and other countries followed the EU in protecting food from the giant agrabusinesses who care only about profit. For those who believe they don’t, it is naïve. But beware! We just returned from a month in France, and there was a lot on TV about Monsanto France. They are there and they are. I believe, up to no good.
I would never knowingly eat GMO foods. I believe there is too little research to verify their safety in the long run. What’s more, it’s a political issue. Monsanto, a major agro player, mandates the sale of sterile GMO seed to impoverished Asian farmers. Another method of perpetuating the cycle of poverty via biological dictate. We in the States are woefully ignorant. For me, GMO is all about profit, nothing about people, and it’s immoral. I feel very, very strongly on this issue. Vandana Shiva has it right.