Is it just me or has everyone else noticed that GMOs have been in the news a bunch lately? Maybe it’s because October is Non-GMO Month or maybe it’s because it’s a subject near and dear to my heart and I tend to notice it more. Whatever the cause, I think it’s a good thing.
Recent polls are showing that people know what GMOs are and want them labeled. A few years ago, similar polls showed that people had no idea what a GMO was or that GMOs were in most of the processed foods they were eating.
Just in case you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, let me quickly explain. GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms (also known as Genetically Engineered (GE) food) are foods that have been engineered in a lab by inserting foreign genes into a particular crop to get certain traits that can’t be bred into them the traditional way. These foreign genes come from other species or from viruses and bacteria.
The science of inserting the gene is not exact and the outcome of this mutation cannot be exactly predicted. So far the only GE food (that we know of) to cause acute symptoms in humans is Starlink corn (it was never approved for human consumption but got into our food stream anyway). However, there are no long-term human studies of the chronic effects these engineered foods might have on us (the cynic in me says we are all that long term study). The companies producing GE foods conduct all of the research that the FDA uses to determine if these frankenfoods are safe; no third party scientists test these findings.
These companies (Monsanto being the biggest and baddest of them all) claim that GE foods are better for us and will feed our hungry planet. So far, the commercially available genetically modified crops have been modified for one of two reasons, either they can tolerate massive doses of an herbicide that (coincidentally) the same company makes, and/or every cell of the food contains a pesticide. Neither of these modifications has been shown to increase human health or crop production levels over the long term; only corporate profits. I could go on but I want to get to the good stuff. There is tons more information like this on-line if you want to learn more about GMOs and why you want to avoid eating them.
By now you can tell I’m not a fan of GMOs and would love to know if they are in the food I’m eating. There seems to be a rising tide of people who feel the same way, but before I get to all the good news I’ve seen about GMOs I need to tell you a bit of the bad news.
The FDA is poised to approve GE Salmon. The company that created this frankenfish is close to bankruptcy but the USDA just gave them a $500,000 research grant. I smell something fishy.
Monsanto plans to begin selling seed for sweet corn this fall. This would be the first GE food eaten “straight up”. Almost all other GMOs are made into processed food or fed to livestock, which we then eat. The corn will be both resistant to Round Up and have Bt toxin in every cell. Considering a recent study found Bt toxin in the maternal and fetal blood of 93% of the samples tested (a place Monsanto swore it could never end up) and that that level was just from eating the smaller amounts of GMOs in processed foods, I wonder what eating a whole ear of corn in which every cell contains the toxin will do to us? Since it won’t be labeled, I’ll stick to organic fresh corn and not bother to find out.
And now the good news:
Locally, Winter Ridge celebrated Non-GMO month by highlighting Non-GMO Verified products and by donating 5% of their sales on Oct 19th to the Non-GMO Project (full disclosure: I work there). The most exciting thing about the donation day was that customers were asked to round up their purchases to increase the donation. An unscientific poll showed that about 80% of customers donated. That means even in little old Sandpoint people know they don’t want GMOs in their food.
Over a thousand stores participated in Non-GMO Month this year and over 3000 items are now non-GMO verified. Non-GMO food is the fastest growing category in natural foods today, with a 24% increase this year.
There are other movements gathering steam out there to push for labeling of GE foods. Just Label It, which is a group partnered with hundreds of like-minded organizations from concerned parents to health care professional to businesses, submitted a legal petition to the FDA calling for the mandatory labeling of GE foods. You can sign the petition on their website.
The Right To Know March traveled over 300 miles starting October 1st in New York and ending October 16th in front of the White House to demand the labeling of GMOs and to bring awareness of the issue to the public
Lastly, the Occupy Wall St. movement is bringing new light to the incredible amount of influence corporations have over our government. The government’s continued support of GMOs, when a recent poll showed that 93% of those surveyed wanted mandatory labeling, is a perfect example of the corporate takeover of our government. The FDA and the USDA have long been a revolving door for biotech industry execs who go between working at Monsanto and then for the government and then back to Monsanto. Maybe if people get fed up enough, we can kick the bums out.
I’m a hopeful kind of person and all this good news makes me think that someday soon this country will have mandatory labeling laws like the 40+ other countries that already do (obviously it’s not impossible). Until then, I will continue to support the companies that go to the extra effort to get non-GMO verified, eat organic, and try to avoid processed foods. And I’ll keep signing those petitions!
Showing posts with label GMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GMO. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Celebrating Choice this October
October is Non-GMO month. Sponsored by The Non-GMO Project, Non-GMO Month was created to raise awareness of the proliferation of genetically modified organisms in our food supply and to offer an alternative to eating them. We should all be celebrating.
I’m sure my regular readers know all about GMO foods (I write about it at least once a year) but there are many people who are still unaware that this technology exists and that they are definitely consuming it (whether they want to or not). Loyal readers, bear with me while I start off with an explanation of what GMOs are and why you might not want to eat them.
GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms, also known as Genetically Engineered (GE) foods) are foods that have been bred, not in the age-old way of crossbreeding 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.
Proponents of genetic engineering will tell you that these new foods, which could never occur naturally, are perfectly safe to eat, won’t cause any environmental damage. and are the only way to feed the 7 billion people now living on the planet.
The companies who created these Frankenfoods (mostly Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta) conducted the safety studies, so, of course, the tests show there is no harm in planting or eating GE foods.
Under industry pressure, laws were passed in the 90s that allow GE food to quickly enter the marketplace if they are found to be “substantially equivalent” to their non-genetically engineered cousin. However, since gene splicing is not an exact science and the substantially equivalent test only looks for known components of the foods, this way of evaluating the safety of these novel foods is flawed. New toxins could be created and we wouldn’t know from the substantial equivalency test. Only if the new toxins were allergenic (like in the case of Starlink corn) would we know right away. Some toxins could take generations of eating GMOs to discover, as some of the new testing on rats and mice is showing. Strangely enough, when it comes time for the biotech companies to patent their new foods, they claim that they are completely novel.
Biotech companies have touted that GMOs will reduce herbicide and pesticide use and increase yields, thus causing less environmental harm and putting more money in farmers’ pockets. Recent reports of superbugs that have developed immunity to pesticides and super weeds that can withstand heavy doses of herbicide cast doubt on these claims. Studies also show that the money being made on these crops is ending up in the seed companies’ pocket, not the farmer’s.
The majority of genetically engineered plants on the market either have the Bt bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring soil bacteria that is used as a pesticide) inserted into every cell of the plant or they have one of their genes reengineered to tolerate specific herbicides. None of the genetically engineered plants on the market today are designed to increase nutrition value and early claims of increased yields that would feed the world are not coming true. Scientists are also starting to discover Bt in the human digestive track, a place biotech companies said it would never end up. What its effects are, we don’t know.
If you are still with me, you might be wondering if 90% of the soy, 85% of the corn, 90% of the cotton, 90% of the canola, 95% of the sugar beets grown, and soon a huge percentage of alfalfa, in the US are genetically engineered why we can’t tell if we are eating them and why so many people believe they never have (if you are one of those people, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you’ve eaten any processed food or any conventionally raised animals in the last ten years, you’ve eaten GMOs)
Although at least 40 other countries require GMO foods to be labeled, the United States does not. Up until now, the only way to try and avoid eating GMOs was to eat only organic, especially if the products contained any known genetically engineer ingredients (i.e. corn, soy, cottonseed, sugar beet, alfalfa, squash, papaya, milk, and now sweet corn). However, eating organic is not a sure fire way to avoid them. There is plenty of room for contamination and most processed organic foods contain some non-organic ingredients. And those non-organic ingredients are the ones most likely to contain GMOs.
That’s where the Non-GMO Project comes in. The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit, third party certifier that tests and verifies products are substantially (more than 99.1%) free of genetically modified organisms. If you’re like me and you’re not convinced that GMOs are safe and want to be able to decide for yourself if you want to eat them or not, the Non-GMO verified label is the only way to be sure.
Last October was the first time Non-GMO month was celebrated. At the time, there were about 1000 products certified. This year there are over 3000 and many of them now bear the non-GMO Verified label on the package. There are thousands more products that are enrolled and waiting for testing results. If we buy only non-GMO verified products in October, we will send a strong message that we want to know what’s in our food and we’re willing to pay for it.
Maybe then, food producers and government officials will start listen to consumers (rather than Monsanto execs) and traditionally bred crops will once again be the norm. Until then, I’m looking for that label.
I’m sure my regular readers know all about GMO foods (I write about it at least once a year) but there are many people who are still unaware that this technology exists and that they are definitely consuming it (whether they want to or not). Loyal readers, bear with me while I start off with an explanation of what GMOs are and why you might not want to eat them.
GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms, also known as Genetically Engineered (GE) foods) are foods that have been bred, not in the age-old way of crossbreeding 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.
Proponents of genetic engineering will tell you that these new foods, which could never occur naturally, are perfectly safe to eat, won’t cause any environmental damage. and are the only way to feed the 7 billion people now living on the planet.
The companies who created these Frankenfoods (mostly Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta) conducted the safety studies, so, of course, the tests show there is no harm in planting or eating GE foods.
Under industry pressure, laws were passed in the 90s that allow GE food to quickly enter the marketplace if they are found to be “substantially equivalent” to their non-genetically engineered cousin. However, since gene splicing is not an exact science and the substantially equivalent test only looks for known components of the foods, this way of evaluating the safety of these novel foods is flawed. New toxins could be created and we wouldn’t know from the substantial equivalency test. Only if the new toxins were allergenic (like in the case of Starlink corn) would we know right away. Some toxins could take generations of eating GMOs to discover, as some of the new testing on rats and mice is showing. Strangely enough, when it comes time for the biotech companies to patent their new foods, they claim that they are completely novel.
Biotech companies have touted that GMOs will reduce herbicide and pesticide use and increase yields, thus causing less environmental harm and putting more money in farmers’ pockets. Recent reports of superbugs that have developed immunity to pesticides and super weeds that can withstand heavy doses of herbicide cast doubt on these claims. Studies also show that the money being made on these crops is ending up in the seed companies’ pocket, not the farmer’s.
The majority of genetically engineered plants on the market either have the Bt bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring soil bacteria that is used as a pesticide) inserted into every cell of the plant or they have one of their genes reengineered to tolerate specific herbicides. None of the genetically engineered plants on the market today are designed to increase nutrition value and early claims of increased yields that would feed the world are not coming true. Scientists are also starting to discover Bt in the human digestive track, a place biotech companies said it would never end up. What its effects are, we don’t know.
If you are still with me, you might be wondering if 90% of the soy, 85% of the corn, 90% of the cotton, 90% of the canola, 95% of the sugar beets grown, and soon a huge percentage of alfalfa, in the US are genetically engineered why we can’t tell if we are eating them and why so many people believe they never have (if you are one of those people, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you’ve eaten any processed food or any conventionally raised animals in the last ten years, you’ve eaten GMOs)
Although at least 40 other countries require GMO foods to be labeled, the United States does not. Up until now, the only way to try and avoid eating GMOs was to eat only organic, especially if the products contained any known genetically engineer ingredients (i.e. corn, soy, cottonseed, sugar beet, alfalfa, squash, papaya, milk, and now sweet corn). However, eating organic is not a sure fire way to avoid them. There is plenty of room for contamination and most processed organic foods contain some non-organic ingredients. And those non-organic ingredients are the ones most likely to contain GMOs.
That’s where the Non-GMO Project comes in. The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit, third party certifier that tests and verifies products are substantially (more than 99.1%) free of genetically modified organisms. If you’re like me and you’re not convinced that GMOs are safe and want to be able to decide for yourself if you want to eat them or not, the Non-GMO verified label is the only way to be sure.
Last October was the first time Non-GMO month was celebrated. At the time, there were about 1000 products certified. This year there are over 3000 and many of them now bear the non-GMO Verified label on the package. There are thousands more products that are enrolled and waiting for testing results. If we buy only non-GMO verified products in October, we will send a strong message that we want to know what’s in our food and we’re willing to pay for it.
Maybe then, food producers and government officials will start listen to consumers (rather than Monsanto execs) and traditionally bred crops will once again be the norm. Until then, I’m looking for that label.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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.
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.
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