Thank you, Barnmom. Very valuable information.

I'm not sure if many food producers use the 8 code yet? Meaning, there is GMO food that does not have a PLU code starting with "8".

But it is a good idea to look for ways to identify GMO. Here are some more, see the link in the article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jeffrey-smith/plu-codes-do-not-indicate_b_473088.html

Here more info on PLU codes, in case anyone wants to wade through it.

http://www.plucodes.com/docs/IFPS-plu_codes_users_guide.pdf

Thanks for the info.....

Alexa

Thank you..I always make sure it organic. I will start looking closer to the codes.

Linda

All food is genetically modified, if it hadn't been modified by our forefathers, tens of thousands of years ago, we'd still be digging roots and eating grubs.

Mankind has continued to genetically modify foods (see Mendel and his peas) down through the millennium, it's not hard to do, but we've just gotten so much more sophisticated in the last 100 years or so, and now we can put weird, unexpected genes in the plants and animals we eat.

Banana's are a case in point, and we may not see bananas in the stores in the future. The bananas you see in the stores today are the product of vegetative propagation (cloning). They have no seeds, no sex life and a very tenuous future.

I suspect that this may be just the beginning of problems with plants and animals that we fiddle with. I'm less worried about eating a GMO food product, than about not having any foods, GMO or otherwise, in the future. And the foods we wealthy westerners have will probably be at the expense of subsistence farmers around the world.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bananas

momj47, I agree, I'm also concerned about future of our food supply, mainly because a few big companies have control of a few varieties and the diversity in our food supply is dwindling fast.

I grow heirloom and open pollinated varieties of tomatoes, pink half runner beans, squash, etc. I try to go with heritage breeds of animals and poultry, fortunately I have an inordinate fondness for some old breeds like Rhode Island Red Chickens and Bourbon Red turkeys. Unfortunately, I can't raise heritage, organic, naturally fed and pastured animals for what you can get a frankenbird for at Walmart, so there's not a big market, you have to find a niche.

So, if you have a choice between paying $15 for a Walmart turkey, guaranteed to be a Broad Breasted White, pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics and as much walt/water "flavor enhancer" as they can inject into it, or $25 for a heritage turkey, go for the heritage bird, brine it and add your own much lesse xpensive salt and water! Eat them to save them, the only way they'll survive is if there's a market for the people raising them.

Eileen, thanks for the info on identifying GMO foods too, the industry is dead set against being required to tell us what's in our food or how it was produced, for very good reasons.

Now, I'll step down off my soapbox and go help Elery make some Italian sausage with local pastured pork and my own grass fed beef. I didn't make the Moscato or the Asiago, though, we had to buy that, but I do the best I can.

Annie

Interesting banana article. Thank you.

I don't like the taste or texture of injected commercial turkeys or chickens so I don't buy them. Finding pork that is natural is another challenge. Hormel seems to be the brand of choice in many stores close to me. Hormel fresh pork is injected with a brine solution. I won't buy it.

Annie walks the talk like no one else I know. :) I don't have the yard to garden except for a few pots. I rely on the grocery store to supply healthful, affordable options. And so does most of the US population. It is important to "vote" with our wallets when we can. If we don't buy it, food producers won't supply it.

I think the term "GMO" is very misleading, since it stands for "genetically modified organism." As Momj47 points out, we've been genetically modifying our food, ourselves and whatever else we can get our hands on for eons, via selective breeding, and more recently all kinds of hybridizations and other techniques, etc. While some folks get all in a tither about "frankenfoods" they are just skimming the surface of the hype. The big issue really is not whether we should genetically modify organisms, but HOW we are doing it, the rate we are doing it at, and WHAT TYPES of genetic modifications we are doing and their implications, and the paucity of research into long term consequences and minimal oversight that goes into the process. The biggest use of "GMO" is not fruits and vegetables in general, but rather potatoes, corn and soybeans that are being bred to have pesticides (Bt) in their tissues, and to be resistant to herbicide (Roundup). Those are the main genetic manipulations that are causing all the hoopla, and you're not going to get a little code on your corn chips, tofu, products with soybean oil, corn syrup, etc. in them. In fact, there is no government regulation for labeling GMO corn and soy. They are becoming so ubiquitous that it is near impossible, so the industry mantra goes. Some companies label their foods, "non-GMO" I've seen that on corn chips and tofu in the health food stores, but you are having to rely on the word of the purveyor. The competition argues that this is meaningless since the genes of corn and soybeans with Bt and insecticide resistence are spreading throughout the fields and into ones that are supposedly GMO free. Plants are INCREDIBLY promiscuous!

Here is a link that might be useful: GMO issues explained by Univ. Kentucky College of Agriculture

I assume your argument is "organic" = "not Genetically Modified"? Since when does it mean that? Something "Genetically Modified" grown without pesticides or man-made fertilizers or the like would qualify as "organic" wouldn't it? Or is "organic" Genetically Modified better than non-"organic" Genetically Modified? I must be missing something.

"The big issue really is not whether we should genetically modify organisms, but HOW we are doing it, the rate we are doing it at, and WHAT TYPES of genetic modifications we are doing and their implications, and the paucity of research into long term consequences and minimal oversight that goes into the process."

Precisely.

@ cynic: Something "Genetically Modified" grown without pesticides or man-made fertilizers or the like would qualify as "organic" wouldn't it?

I believe current 'organic' labeling means NO GMO products, no matter how it is grown.

Adding to the big issue for me is that companies like Cargill and Monsanto want to crowd out and control the seed market, squeezing other seed companies and farmers. Once they are gone we won't have any say. For example they don't let farmers save seed for next year's crops, contracts stipulate they must repurchase. Seed washing/saving, and I'm not the expert, it is just something I read on the net, used to be a cottage industry in itself. Now gone.

Do we have a choice without serious worldwide population control?

Food supply is already stretched to the limit.

"Worldwide around 852 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty. Six million children die of hunger every year � 17,000 every day"

dcarch

Excellent post, lpink. You are well informed.

It's important to have more than a superficial understanding of these issues if consumers best interests are to be fostered. Hysteria is not helpful.

Jessy, like you I am concerned about the business practices of Monsanto and others, which seem to me unfair to farmers. OK if they want to prevent farmers from selling the patented varieties but I think the farmer should be able to plant his own saved seed.

Jim

I don't know if the crops that are genetically modified (not talking about breeding) are safe or not, but one of the things that bugs me is the fact that they breed these crops so they can be sprayed with Roundup and survive. Thus, we are eating Roundup when we eat corn.

As for Monsanto, to me they define the word evil.

Sally

I have been having a very difficult time trying to find banana trees that make fruit. The last one I bought was supposed to make fruit, but I was duped. I've been looking and looking and have not found any banana trees that will make fruit here. I had a banana tree in Houston in the early 1970s that made fruit, and the fruit was very sweet, if small, but now I cannot find such trees. I have not yet given up my search, but I have noticed that I only see ornamental banana trees here, and the fruit bearing trees are very easy to grow, if you give them enough water, which we had plenty of in Houston.

Lars

Lars -- my friend's sister is a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers, and her chapter meets in Palos Verdes, not too far from us.

Someone in that group should know where you can get a fruit-bearing banana tree, or I can ask my friend if her sister knows.

As far as numbers on fruit stickers, I saw numbers starting with 3 on several apples -- does anyone know what that means?

PLU stickers that have 4 digits and begin with a "3â³ or "4â³: produce is conventionally grown. This means that this produce was sprayed with weed killers and chemical pesticides.

PLU stickers that have 5-digits and start with "8â³: produce was genetically engineered (man intervened by manipulating the genes to produce a larger or brighter colored food). This produce may have been chemically treated.

PLU stickers that have 5-digits and start with "9â³: produce was raised organically. You can be sure that this produce was not treated with any chemicals.

I'd take this with some skepticism, things are not always as clear as they appear. Even produce with a "3" or "4" may not have been treated, but for a variety of reasons, cannot be labeled organic.