Food Prices on the Rise - Please Share Your Ideas!

Global food prices have hit "dangerous levels" that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries, according to a new report from the World Bank.

How many of you have noticed our food prices rising? How about the price of gasoline?
Perhaps you've noticed. Perhaps you've given a bit more thought about combining some errands or chosen to eat out less.

For most of the world's population any rise in food or fuel prices means that they go hungry or can't travel to work. Considering that 1:7 Americans receives food stamps, this means many people you know - maybe even you - will soon face even tougher decisions regarding basic needs.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

At at a time when obesity is epidemic in our country it is particularly noteworthy that the cost of vegetables that are rising the most. One reason for this is that vegetables are not subsidized by our tax dollars, unlike commodity crops (corn, soy, and wheat.)

I'd love to hear what YOU are doing in order to keep keep food affordable for your family. Are you creating a garden, perhaps for the first time? Have you purchased a CSA farm share? Are you going to farmers markets? Have you discovered a produce "happy hour" at a grocery store? Are you using coupons? Please share what you're doing and be sure to include links to resources.

Let's work together, neighbor helping neighbor, to continue to eat healthful foods in spite of some troubling economic trends!

Couldn't Sleep with Food On My Mind

I was tossing and turning all night last night. What was on my mind? How can we afford safe food for my family?

One of the threads that kept turning in my mind was the purposeful obfuscation of GMO safety by big agribusiness. Let's remember one thing. These so-called biotechnology companies were simply called chemical companies before they decided to get into the crop development arena. They are still primarily chemical companies using GMOs as vectors for increased chemical sales. They are not altruistically trying to feed the planet. They are seeking to increase market shares by creating new food products, increasing demand for chemical application while performing no safety testing on these new foods.

All the so-called experts claim to have numbers and science on their side.

What I find interesting in the GMO debate is that Monsanto claims to have a precise, predictable, safe food product that needs no testing because it is significantly equivalent to conventionally bred plants. Furthermore, Monsanto goes on to say that it is not even possible to create long-term studies to look at the effects of these foods. (View 3-part Dr. Oz show) So, in effect, there are no studies to point to or numbers to cite. We don't allow GMO labeling in this country. If anyone has a bad health outcome due to eating these GM foods there is strategically no way to link it to the GM food itself. So it is absolutely the truth to say something to the effect of  “There are no known incidents of adverse reactions to the consumption of GM foods since they came on the market nearly 20 years ago.” Right, because how would we even know if there were?

On the other hand, anti-GMO groups point to all kinds of preliminary studies that demonstrate an overwhelming array of adverse and unintended health impacts on animals fed GM foods. However, many of those studies are not repeated or followed up on due to intimidation of the researchers and research institutions by large agribusiness and interest groups. Companies threaten to pull funding  and from the academic institutions that support the research. Individual scientists are maligned, their once promising careers left shattered. The few studies that do make it through repeatable and verifiable trials find few peer-reviewed journals that will publish the findings for fear of recriminations from the scientific community largely funded by these international corporate conglomerates.

So what does a mom who is trying to feed her family safe, healthy food do?

Right now, the primary option I have is to buy food labeled “organic” at quite a steep price increase, often 30 to 40%  more than non-organic foods. Don't get me wrong. I support the organic food industry without reservation. However, it is so incredibly frustrating to no be able to choose the type of food I want to feed my family. Not to mention it takes an unhealthy portion of our family's modest budget to purchase primarily organically produced foods. Since there is no mandate to truthfully label food, there is no other way to avoid all foods with GM ingredients unless you buy all organic. Groups like Non-GMO Project offer a verified shopping guide of certain food brands that have pledged to not incorporate any GM food ingredients into their products. This is a step in the right direction. However we need more to assure consumer rights and food safety in this country.

I don't know definitively if GM foods will be harmful to my family. It seems that no one does. Monsanto would like to keep it that way. They would like to keep the waters so muddy that no one can prove or disprove anything until GM crops are ubiquitous. Monsanto wants to keep us in the dark and be able to plead plausible deniability until they have contaminated all the seed stock and there is no way to recall the GM crops. This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is what is happening every minute of every day around the world.

Our only hope is mandatory GMO labeling. Depending on what study you look at, between 80 and 90% of Americans would not buy GMOs if they had a choice. That is powerful. That is what these agribusiness companies fear most.

I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts and personal reflections on this important issues of our time.