GLYPHOSATE IN OUR FOOD

There is glyphosate in our food, including infant cereal. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world.

Tony Mitra, a retired engineer living in Vancouver, asked the CFIA for test data on glyphosate, and they provided it this year. The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has been testing the food in Canada for only about 2 years.

Mr. Mitra has found (so far):

Infant cereals are contaminated, except for Nature’s Path Organic and imports from Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
Wheat and its products are contaminated. Bran is extremely high on a relative basis. Organic is better in all wheat cases.
Gluten-free products are relatively high. Organic gluten-free products are much lower.
Rice is not bad, especially from India and Thailand. No mention so far of organic.
Legumes from the US and Canada are contaminated, especially garbanzos/ chickpeas. No mention so far of organic. Chinese imports appear to not contain glyphosate.
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The Pickle of Labelling GM Salmon and Foods, and How to Avoid It

Health Canada in May, 2016 approved a genetically modified animal (salmon) for human consumption. This food is the first of its kind in the world. A federal committee that looked at the issue has provided its report, which effectively includes a recommendation to not label GM foods.

The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Ari-Food stated it supports mandatory labelling “only when a risk to health has been established …”, and that “no risks to health have been identified for GM foods approved in Canada”. (7,8)

But of course no health risks can be identified, because GM ingredients can’t be traced. Why not? Because they aren’t labelled.  Bit of a Catch 22, eh?
The Pickle.
Canadians want labelling of GM foods. Health Canada in March, 2016 commissioned research to “obtain a more current reading on public opinion”. The findings (at 5) were that 78% of participants want GM foods clearly labelled on packaging, and that …Read More

SynBio, Gene Editing and Other New Stuff: Same Concerns, Supersized.

New words like “synthetic biology”, “GMOs 2.0”, “CRISPR”, and “new biology” are being heard.  And new compounds are in our fragrances, flavourings, cosmetics and foods.

The new words are for new techniques of genetic engineering. What are the techniques and their products, and should we be concerned?

New Techniques­

The old techniques of genetic engineering (GMOs 1.0) dealt with organisms, and inserted genes by either blasting them into an organism or transferring them via a virus. This was not very precise.

1. Gene Editing. A new technique is called “gene editing”. It is more on target. It can cut the genetic code of organisms with greater precision, insert new code, remove a code and swap out genes with others. Tools used in gene editing include “CRISPR-Cas9”, “Zinc Finger Nucleus” and “TALEN”.

2. Synthetic Biology. Another new technique is the creation of genetic code from scratch, without involving living organisms. This is called “synthetic biology” or “put …Read More

A BEEF ON LABELING: IRRADIATED MEAT GETS A LABEL; BUT GM FOODS DO NOT

Health Canada is going to allow the beef industry to irradiate beef: to blast it with radiation. But it insists that such beef be clearly labeled so that “consumers wishing to purchase irradiated ground beef would easily be able to identify it on store shelves.” [i]

However there is no requirement to label genetically modified foods.  It is hard to understand why there is a requirement to label one but not the other, because they are similar in many respects. Here are the similarities:

Both Are Processes at the Molecular Level

Irradiation is a process, according to the Technical Summary[ii], that is applied to ground beef at the molecular level, the level of DNA.  The Updated Evaluation[iii] of irradiated beef states (at 5) that “The mechanism of action for microbial inactivation using ionizing radiation is understood to involve breakage of the chemical bonds in the microbe’s DNA by free radicals, which arrests microbial …Read More

Past Events

Farm to Fork On Common Ground

September 24-25, 2016
Presented by Toronto Non-GMO Coalition/Safe Food Matters and Historic Fort York.

Farm to Fork On Common Ground celebrated the harvest season and national Organic Week with a festival of safe and healthy food, music, arts, and community. Featuring an Ontario organic farmers’ market, organic beer and wine, dozens of Non-GMO and organic food vendors, well-researched speakers, soulful music, Indigenous artists and elders, food workshops, environmental defenders, and of course food safety and seed freedom educators.

 

Celebrate Farm to Fork ~ Toronto GMO-Free Festival

May 20, 2017
Presented by the Toronto Non-GMO Coalition/Safe Food Matters and the David Suzuki Foundation.

Celebrate Farm to Fork, Toronto’s only GMO-free & organic food festival celebrated Ontario’s thriving non-GMO and organic sector. Educating consumers on where our food comes from, the festival featured local food system, pesticide and organic agriculture experts, local musicians, environmental exhibitors and safe food vendors.

 

TO THE SALMON CONSUMER: I’M NOT BUYING IT.

Salmon that has been genetically modified to grow faster has been approved. Health Canada states “in every other way, the AquaAdvantage salmon is identical to other farmed salmon”. Not true. For one thing, it has higher levels of the growth hormone IGF-1[i] [ii], which is tied to several common cancers, including prostate, breast, colorectum, and lung[iii]. For another, some of the GM salmon show a statistically significant increase (1.5 fold) in allergen content. Lastly, the eggs are pressure shocked to produce an abnormality so that they aren’t fertile.

I’m not eating that fish. Would you eat that fish?

And these three points on GM salmon are set out in Health Canada’s own document[iv]. So how can Health Canada approve the fish? Simple: it is silent on these points or it accepts the explanations presented by AquaBounty that the points aren’t “relevant”:

On the finding of higher levels of IGF-1, Health Canada accepts …Read More