What Did You Say Was In That Fish?

The first ever Non-GMO month is this month. The Non-GMO Project is sponsoring it and we should all be celebrating.

Why celebrate and what the heck is a GMO, you ask? We should be celebrating our right to choose foods that have not been genetically modified. GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms, also known as Genetically Engineered (GE) foods) are foods that have been bred, not in the age old way of crossing the genes from the same species to get better traits, but by inserting genes from a completely different species into a plant or animal to, hopefully, get a new trait.

For example if you take a gene from the eel-like ocean pout that keeps them from freezing and a gene from Chinook salmon that makes them the largest salmon in nature and splice them into an Atlantic Salmon, you get a salmon that grows twice as fast and gets twice as big as it’s non-GMO cousin.

These “salmon” are nothing like their natural cousins. The company that designed them knows this and knows that if these “frankenfish” were to escape into the wild population there is strong evidence to suggest they would do irreparable harm to the native species (miraculously, the FDA didn’t rubberstamp their approval as a food fish last week, although it still may approve them pending further study).

This is very different from the way Nature does things (I’m pretty sure there’s no way for pouts and salmon to breed in the wild). Sure, humankind has been tinkering with the genetic makeup of plants and animals since we first domesticated them, but we could only do it the way nature did it, just a little bit faster.

Today the technology exists to cross the species barrier and we’ve been doing it for the past 20 years. And you’ve been eating the results of that technology for almost that long.
According to the USDA, plantings of GM soybeans, corn, and cotton this year are at all time highs with 93% of soybeans, 86% of corn, and 93% of the cotton planted in the United States being genetically modified. 80% of Hawaiian papaya, 93% of canola, 95% of sugar beets, and 13% of zucchini planted in the US are also genetically modified. 50% of all GMO crops are grown in the US.

That’s a whole lot of food. Considering the fact that almost all processed food contains at least one of those ingredients, we’re all eating GMOs. Although, when asked, over 50% of Americans think they’ve never eaten the stuff.

That’s because there is no way to find out if there are GMOs in your food (unless you want to pay a lot of money to get them tested). There is no law that requires these products to be labeled like there is in Europe and many other countries, and which, in a recent survey, 90% of Americans want. Our government has decided that genetically engineered food is “substantially equivalent” to the original and therefore requires no special label and, even scarier than that, no special safety testing. (Interestingly, that same food is different enough to allow the company that makes it to patent it).

For years, consumer groups have been pressing for labeling laws to no avail. That’s where the Non-GMO Project comes in. The Project is a non-profit, third party certifier. They test products for genetic markers and set up rigorous traceability and segregation practices to ensure the food with their seal is 99.1% GMO-free. This month is the launch of the program and a few hundred products have been certified already. There are almost 2000 more items awaiting testing results and more are being added every day.

Labeling of some kind can’t happen too soon. GMOs have been on the market for a short period of time but there are already indications that they are causing environmental harm and could have detrimental effects on us.

GE crops that are designed to resist the herbicide Round-up are now having to be sprayed with more toxic chemicals because the weeds that grow along side them that were supposed to be killed by one spray of Round-up are now becoming resistant to it and farmers are having to resort to stronger herbicides to keep the weeds at bay.

The Bt bacteria, which is a naturally occurring pesticide and is used by organic farmers but which is present in every cell of GE corm and cotton, is showing up in the waterways around GE corn fields. What that will do to the beneficial insects that live and lay eggs in those waters is unknown.

Lab tests of mice and rats that are fed a diet of GMO foods to mimic the amount of GMOs that Americans are currently eating show sterility and organ deformation after several generations. Even though the industry that is promoting GMOs (read Monsanto) says that after 20 years, there are no adverse health effects from eating GMO crops, these tests indicate that it may be our great grandchildren who will pay the price for us to be guinea pigs in this experiment.

The fact that the Non-GMO Project, which wants to make sure we are eating GMO-free, can’t guarantee that a food is 100% natural is also scary. This means that “genetic drift” is occurring and we may soon not have a choice in what foods we eat. Pollen from GMO plants can transfer to organic and non-GMO crops contaminating them with their engineered genes.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There are some encouraging things going on in the world of GMOs. The Non-GMO project is a good example. The group was started by concerned retailers, distributors and manufacturers of natural foods. There are almost 500 retailers (of which Winter Ridge is one) and at least 170 manufacturers supporting the effort. And that’s in the first year.

An Ohio judge just overturned a state law that banned dairies from labeling their milk rBGH-free. rBGH is a genetically engineered form of a naturally occurring growth hormone and is injected in cows to make them produce more milk. The judge ruled that scientific evidence showed milk from cows treated with rBGH is inferior to unadulterated milk. It contains more pus and less nutrients and consumers therefore have a right to know if their milk is from treated cows.

In August, a court order stopped the planting of GE sugar beets until further environmental testing could be done. Although the USDA is trying to step around the ruling, the direction the court took is encouraging.

An overwhelming resistance to genetically engineered wheat has kept it out of the market for at least 4 years. Hopefully the wheat farmers and global wheat buyers will continue to resist the introduction of yet another GE crop.

We can continue to fight the battle to keep genetically engineered foods out of our food system. One thing you and I can do is stop eating the stuff. Buy organic and look for the Non-GMO product label. If there is no market for GMOs then there’s no money to be made from them and no one will want to grow them. Get educated. There is lots of information out there about the effects of GMOs and how to avoid them on the web and in print. Get involved. Tell the USDA you want a choice in what you eat and want labeling and safety testing. Write your senators and representatives and tell them you want to know what you’re eating.

One of the things that most amazed me in researching this article is animals like cows, pigs, chickens, and even rats when given the choice between GE and non-GE foods picked the non-GE choice. We’ve got to be as smart as rats, don’t we?

Grilled Salmon with Miso Marinade
serves 4

2 T organic white miso paste from non-GMO soy
2 T mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 T organic tamari from non-GMO soy
1 T minced fresh ginger
2 t cane sugar (not GMO beet sugar)
4 wild Alaskan salmon fillets (not GM frankensalmon although farmed salmon is almost as bad as the GMO stuff) (even better, buy wild salmon caught buy Sandpoint fishermen like Chris White)
2 T thinly sliced scallions, green parts only
1 T toasted sesame seeds


Mix together miso, mirin, tamari, ginger and sugar in a small bowl. Place salmon fillets, skin side down, in a shallow pan and brush mixture onto fillets. Allow to stand at room temp for 1/2 hour.
Start a charcoal or gas grill.
Grill salmon, skin side down, until the thickest part just turns opaque. Serve immediately, topped with scallions and sesame seeds.