As a follow up from my previous post, here’s a bit of good news. Following the launch of TrueFood 2011, Greenpeace’s guide to non-GM food brands, and the ensuing media coverage, Kellogg’s has announced that they will be adopting a GM free policy. Kellogg’s K-time twist bars were given the red-light for containing high fructose corn syrup which, being imported from USA, is in most cases manufactured from genetically modified corn.

Kellogg’s adoption of a GM free policy is a huge win. Genetic modification has great detriment to natural crops, and only benefits the chemical companies (these are not agricultural companies) who produce the patented product. American farmers are being successfully sued by GM corporates, then forced to burn down their own seeds when GM seeds self-germinate in the farmers’ fields. These GM seeds are transported by air, birds, passing trucks, you name it, so the likelihood of them spreading is almost guaranteed. Patents of genetically modified seeds are used to monopolise agricultural markets which in turn will lead to a handful of companies literally owning the world’s food supply. Across the world farmers rely on their ability to save seeds from one crop to the next to ensure their livelihood, and our food supply.

TrueFood 2011 Kids Edition Launch, clockwise from top left: Murray from the Wiggles with children from Darlington School, Murray and Danks Street Depot Head Chef/Owner Jared Ingersol, Speakers Nick Ritar from Milkwood Farms and Greenpeace Genetic Engineer Campaigner Laura Kelly

If you are not convinced of how wrong GM food is, purely based on the idea I expressed above, consider this. Genetic modification is dissimilar to natural hybridisation and breeding. Breeding uses two very similar animals, for instance, two types of sheep, and through animal husbandry and a long period of selection of the fittest offspring, we end up with a certain type of breed. Genetic modification is, in contrast, bringing genes from two very separate species (bacteria and corn for instance) and fusing DNA to create a totally new species, with absolutely no guarantee that this species is safe for consumption. The safety of GM food is based on research done by the manufacturer, rather than by unbiased independent study. We all know how that story goes.

Shamefully, Australian law allows genetically modified crops to exist, and they are in our food chain. Yesterday, at Danks Street Depot, Greenpeace has released TrueFood 2011, Kids Edition. This handbook allows me, as a parent, to choose the right food for my daughter. As people like you and me boycott genetically modified brands, the companies producing them will eventually go out of business. If you feel the problem is bigger than you and me, ask yourself, what would Michael Jackson do? I did, and as such, I’m starting with the man in the mirror 🙂