Five reasons to feel GOOD (maybe even PROUD) about buying conventionally grown food!

3/7/2015 33 Comments

Five reasons to feel GOOD (maybe even PROUD) about buying conventionally grown food!

I should clarify there are actually only 8 GMO crops -- Corn, Soybeans, Alfalfa, Cotton, Canolo, Sugar Beets, Papays and Squash. Most conventionally grown products are still not GMOs.

This is the guy growing GMOs that they are trying to scare you about. He graduated with two degrees in animal science and plant science, goes to church (although not as often as he should) and is seriously devoted to growing safe food and taking care of his farms.

I asked several of my non-farming friends what their main concerns are when grocery shopping. Most of them rattled off a few things about health and safety and then nearly all of them, almost quietly, mentioned cost.

I am here to tell you it’s a GOOD thing to be considerate of cost at the grocery store and I am going to tell you why you can feel good about, or dare I say PROUD, about buying conventionally grown products!

1.       Conventionally grown is equally as nutritious and safe as its organic counterparts!!

All foods are rigorously tested for food safety in the USA which is why in the rare case when someone does get sick from food, it still makes headlines. In many countries, a person getting sick from food is not even considered news worthy!

Hundreds of tests have been done and there are no nutritional differences in the two. Organic is a method of producing food, not a label that indicates anything about the safety or nutrition of the product.

(Review one of the studies completed for nutritional differences here: http://www.ilsi.org/FoodBioTech/Publications/10_ILSI2008_CaseStudies_CRFSFS.pdf)

Most all produce can be found with extreme trace amounts of pesticide (yes organic production does allow for the use of over 50 pesticides). There is no notable differences in these trace amounts from organic and conventionally grown making both options SAFE options!

2.       Being financially smart is GOOD and IMPORTANT for your family!

I would guess most families are just like mine – living on a budget that most often is pretty tight. When you refuse to pay twice the price for a gallon of milk labeled “antibiotic free” because you know ALL dairy and meat are antibiotic free at the time of consumption, you are telling your family that their financial security is important to you!

I am giving you permission to be financially smart –without guilt – about your buying decisions at the grocery store! Moms especially tend to stress about doing the absolute best for their children. Don't let this be one of the things that adds stress -- because fresh food is always a good choice regardless of how it was produced!

3.       You are supporting family farmers, whose livelihood depends on their farms!

People have a tendency to confuse the “organic” label with “local”, “small” or “family”. Yes, a lot of organic is produced that way (some is not). But guess what – nearly all conventionally grown foods are also grown BY FAMILY FARMERS!!

My husband raises conventional grown (yes that means GMO) corn, soybeans, alfalfa hay and of course cattle and sheep. We also eat what we consume. We also feed it to our livestock and children.

When you purchase products that are conventionally grown you are not supporting some scary “agribusiness giant” – you are supporting him. And hundreds of farmers just like him. A majority of which are also small farmers like our family.

4.       You are supporting technology that allows a safe, affordable food source worldwide!

GMO technology is the most thoroughly tested product on the market today. In fact, there are over 2000 independent and peer reviewed studies that show the safeness of GMOs for both human and livestock consumption!

(See a discussion on those studies here: http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/10/08/with-2000-global-studies-confirming-safety-gm-foods-among-most-analyzed-subject-in-science/)

When you say “Yes!” to conventionally grown products you are supporting further development of this technology that has allowed us to produce more food on fewer resources than ever before!

GMO technology allows us to better care for our land and water. GMO technology allows us to use less chemical and to better negate the risks involved in farming such as drought, flood, pests and disease.   GMO technology is keeping food at affordable prices.

5.       You are teaching your children to base decisions on logic and fact, not fads and marketing.

Many labels were developed as a means of fetching a premium for a product. Many of these practices have higher costs and higher waste, so marketing the product for a premium is vital to the industry. This marketing is often done by ill means – misleading information, scare tactics and food guilt targeted at food produced by other, more modern means.

Organics is a $35 billion dollar per year business – so do not be fooled. It is a business – one that is not anymore concerned about your wellbeing and health than any other business is.

Trust in fact and science to take comfort in your purchase decisions. Trillions of meals containing GMOs have been consumed and not one case causing human harm has been found.

The World Health Organization, AMA, FDA, European Commission, National Research Center and even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation all support the safety of GMOs.

(Someone will argue that some other countries do not allow GMOs, which is true. The reason however has nothing to do with science, evidence or any ill effects of GMOs. It is simply because their governments caved to public pressure when the public was scared by the same tactics being used here now).

Not all of us have the luxury of being able to spend limitless dollars on food. Not of all of us think it’s necessary even if we did have the money.

Many of us know that it’s OK, even something we can feel good about, to feed our families with scientifically proven products, that are safe and nutritious and grown by family farmers!

So say no to #FoodGuilt and yes to #FoodFacts!

For more information about all types of farming, please visit some of the following links:

CommonGround
http://findourcommonground.com/

GMO Answers
http://gmoanswers.com/explore

Genetic Literacy Project
http://geneticliteracyproject.org/

Missouri Farmers Care
http://mofarmerscare.com/

For information regarding the requirements of organic production please visit here:

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/torg.html

33 Comments

Taylor Peck

3/8/2015 05:14:20 am

Well written with great info that I wish more people were aware of! I work in the grain export industry and see A LOT of grain being moved that is eventually consumed down the line. This world would not eat without conventional farming. So many misconceptions when it comes to how our food is made and what is safe or better for you.

jake carlson

3/8/2015 07:41:38 am

Kate raises great points even us in agriculture need to educate or children on the benefits of gmos and our responsibility to feed the world... here in the united states we only spend 10% of our income on food... in the middle east they spend 90% of thier income on food...hungry people are dangerous people... as the population of the world grows we the american farmer need to feed a growing world while maintaining our earth... technology... is how we are going to accomplish this.... i ask that everyone take a scientific aproach and look at the use of gmos for them selves...

jake carlson link

3/8/2015 07:57:37 am

This generation of urban folk have lost touch with the farm... city folk from my parents generation seamed to all have had an uncle joe who farmed and they visited during the summer well uncle joe died or rented the farm out...urban folks have lost touch and want to tell todays farmer that gmos and technology are bad for thier health while eating seedless grapes and playing on thier smart phone

Abbey Hoffman

3/8/2015 10:44:40 am

Very well wrote article with great points. First off most people who are against GMOs read articles that are not supported by studies and facts. They have very little knowledge in the real truth, giving farmers a bad rap. As a mother of 3, a farmer/grain haulers wife we take a lot of pride in what we do and why would we do something if we didn't feel it was safe for our kids? All of it is conventional grown, soybeans, corn and cattle. Please educate your children and yourself about facts and fiction and support gmos!

Krista link

3/8/2015 12:58:16 pm

Well said. As a conventional dairy farm, I can totally appreciate this blog post!

Allison

3/9/2015 03:55:50 am

Thank you for this!

Anna Leigh Peek link

3/9/2015 04:42:16 am

This is a great post Kate. It saddens me to much to see people (especially moms) be guilted in to buying certain labels for no reason. People think GMOs = big companies, but I grow GMOs and I am a small farmer (less than 100 acres).

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog link

3/9/2015 01:45:44 pm

My view on research: when you quote how safe or unsafe something is you should *never* go to the seller or creators websites to pull your information. You should look for outside sources of information. GMO's are NOT safe at all and they are NOT equal to Organically grown crops. GMO's might make it easier to grow crops, but that doesn't make those crops better for human consumption.

Kate

3/9/2015 01:53:41 pm

Hi Helen!

The sources used and studies cited are independent and peer reviewed science. I know it's a popular thing to say Monsanto is behind it all, but that isn't a fact.

Thanks for visiting!!

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog link

3/9/2015 02:17:48 pm

Just some quick links you might read over:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/06/genetic-modification.aspx

http://foodrevolution.org/blog/former-pro-gmo-scientist/

http://enhs.umn.edu/current/5103/gm/character.html

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Syngenta_Charged_for_Covering_Up_Livestock_Deaths_from_GM_Corn.php

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers/health-risks/articles-about-risks-by-jeffrey-smith/Doctors-Warn-Avoid-Genetically-Modified-Food-May-2009#8

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v22/n2/full/nbt934.html

http://www.psrast.org/dnauptakechick.htm

http://www.anh-usa.org/genetically-engineered-food-alters-our-digestive-systems/

jake carlson

3/9/2015 03:21:13 pm

Even names of the web cities are biasand liable

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog link

3/9/2015 04:23:44 pm

It doesn't hurt to have both sides of the story out for people to read though.

David Bittner

3/10/2015 02:25:18 pm

the umn.edu link is a class that actually is is talking about the science behind GMO and how it has decreased chemical use, increased production, better nutrition such as golden rice and how it has been a general benefit. It has talked about some GMO failures but is still mostly how much technology has allowed us to feed the world with less people farming. The rest of the sites I would agree with Jake. Bias info but interesting never the less. I do wonder with many of these sites, how many of these people actually have farmed for living and understand it?

David Bittner

3/10/2015 02:15:22 pm

I am for new technology used in the proper manner. There are always new chemicals, biological controls and others coming out all the time. First off, I don’t read the ads and what the salesmen tell me. I like to see what extension/university research can tell us. They usually are un-bias and compare old and new management practices. While there are times that the tried and true methods work better than the ‘new and improved’, there have also been numerous cases were the use of GMO’s has reduced the amount of chemicals being applied to our crops. For example Bt has decreased the insecticide sprays, in cotton alone the use of Bt has decreased the insecticide use by almost 2 million pounds per year. That’s a lot of chemicals not being used in the environment.

The biggest issue of GMO’s right now is the public perception that it is bad for and the miss understanding of technology in agriculture by the public. I have such a hard time fathoming how people can follow anything they read or see on TV. Recently Cornell was given $5.6 million by the Gates foundation (Bill Gates) to help the agricultural industry educate the public what agricultural technology is out there and how such technology works. It is interesting to me how Bill Nye has become less of a skeptic of GMO’s after actually visiting GMO producing companies and learning what goes into GMO’s and the benefits they have. There is always more research needed for all sorts of pests, diseases and environmental concerns. Who knows if GMO is the long term answer for feeding the world, but we need to be open to it. Currently one farmer, not one farm but one farmer feeds 155 people, meaning my family farm of 35 employees feeds 5,425 people, and this number is only rising. Farmers have one of the toughest jobs out there- long hours 365 days a year, hard work that takes a toll on our health, without the big paycheck. We are expected to feed the public, but most people can’t even tell you how to plant a tomato, or when the proper time is to pick an apple, don’t even bring up the meat industry where many people believe buying meat from the grocery store does not harm animals but somehow just magically appears there.

It is important to be involved in knowing where your food comes from, but proper studies, and research need to be examined and carried out rather than hype and fear induced public panic with wild accusations and misunderstandings.

Kate

3/10/2015 02:32:08 pm

Thank you for visiting David and your thought provoking comments! I appreciate it!!

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog link

3/10/2015 06:49:34 pm

I still feel it is unnecessary to digest something that is genetically engineered to have pesticides IN them, that is why there is less need of pesticide sprays, right? I just don't feel comfortable consuming GMO products because there is so little information that I've come across as to the long term health benefits or drawbacks to consuming GMOs regularly.

I fully believe in gardening myself (and have for 3 years now, providing half our vegetable needs, or more, and giving to others as well). We shop local farmers markets frequently as that is usually the best route for naturally grown foods.

I know too many people depend on big time farmers for their food supply, but I still don't feel that makes it right to use GMO seeds to grow those foods.

And p.s. I dont watch tv. ;)

Kate

3/11/2015 02:30:34 am

Hi Helen!

Your understanding of the science behind GMO technology is not at all accurate. It sounds like you believe they are putting a chemical into the seed, which isn't a very good way to look at it.

I am not a scientist so I encourage you to look into the actual science behind it but let me try.

Natural plant breeding develops species that have genes for certain resistance. Other plants have genes that are toxic to certain types of pests (but this doesn't mean toxic to humans). There are certain weeds a sheep can eat that will knock them dead in minutes. A horse could consume the same thing and not even suffer an upset stomach. A tiny amount of baking soda will kill an ant, but makes a delicious chocolate chip cookie for humans.

Instead of traditional plant breeding methods which is less precise, GMO technology allows the scientist to grab EXACTLY the gene the need from a plant (be it a resistance to roundup or a toxin to corn borer), and place ONLY that gene where they need it.

These are traits that are found in nature already -- survival of the fittest has allowed them to develop and now technology allows us to speed up the process.

Thanks for visiting!

Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog link

3/11/2015 07:54:41 am

Regardless of the theory and ideas, genetic modification of ANYTHING is not a precise science and has not been proven effective.

GMO's need to be labeled so we have the ability to KNOW what is in our food. We deserve to know what is being put in our bodies.

Kate

3/11/2015 08:22:02 am

Here is a great article you might find of interest!

http://www.biofortified.org/2014/04/realizations-about-gmos/

Bailey

3/18/2015 02:57:15 pm

While this is a great article written by a seemingly well-educated woman, I cringe at the point where the writer captions her husband's credibility by claiming that he is a church-goer as if that makes him a more honest and enlightened individual. Just because someone occasionally goes to church doesn't make their viewpoints on anything science-based more convincing, if anything it causes one to wonder if maybe this article is purely opinion with no actual science-backed information before the reader even reads the article, possibly disregarded the entire piece. Tip: get over your church-going selves and don't think it causes anyone to "believe" your point more. Going to church does not make your smarter or your information more credible.

Kate

3/19/2015 10:08:42 am

Hi Bailey!

I am really sorry my description of my husband was distracting from the point of the post!! I was attempting to normalize the folks growing your food and I obviously failed to do that for you.

christie

3/19/2015 01:18:20 am

Bailey, I guess you missed the part where he has 2 degrees but if that's all you took away from this article then perhaps your mind was made up to begin with. I don't believe the author was trying to prove his credibility in anyway but to show us that GMO farmers have many faces and aren't some huge "evil" mega money making conglomerate.

Katie Pinke link

3/19/2015 07:38:19 am

Thank you for being a voice for food choice and advocate for family farmers! I think it is to be celebrated we have choices but NO moms should be guilted into purchasing organic food. If you want to spend more that's fine. I don't have access to organic in my rural ND grocery and won't spend extra anyway. I trust the food we grow on our ND farm and feed it to our families. Just like I trust the American food system! I'm sharing this blog post anywhere I can! Keep writing. Thank you!
Katie in North Dakota
[email protected]

Farmer and Chemical Engineer

3/19/2015 09:29:50 am

There is very limited data on the safety of long term consumption of Genetically Modified Organisms products. I'm not saying they are safe or unsafe. No one really knows.

Kate

3/19/2015 09:57:09 am

That would of course be dependent on how you define long term. There is data for a much longer period than the general public recognizes -- over 20 years (I am sure you know this I just want to clarify because many people think GM technology is new within the last few years.)

But you are right if you define long term greater than that, which most scientists would I am sure.

But this is no different than new varieties created from traditional plant breeding released to the markets. In fact, GM products are tested and scrutinized much more thoroughly than varieties developed by other (less precise) means.

Farmer and Chemical Engineer

3/19/2015 11:03:49 am

There are no long term controlled studies to prove the safety of GMO's. Just because they have been on the market for many years, does not make them safe or unsafe. Many countries have banned them; this does not make them safe or unsafe.

Genetic modification is not the same as traditional breeding which has been in place for a much longer period.

When it comes to genetically modified crops and foods, we really have no idea of what the long term effects will be on the public. The very first commercial sale of genetically modified foods was only twenty years ago in the year 1994. There is no possible way that our health authorities can test all possible combinations on a large enough population, over a long enough period of time to be able to say with certainty that they are harmless.
Uptake and fate of foreign DNA ingested with the daily food intake in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals is not a completely understood topic. Though exogenous nucleotides are essential at least for maintaining host immunity to allergenic tissues and restoring specific immune responses to foreign antigens [2], the amount of DNA in food is relatively low compared to other constituents and does not have significant nutritional value, hence nutritional studies rarely deal with this issue. The final step of uptake of nucleotides in the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract is a relatively well understood complex process [3]. In contrast, the comprehension of the degradation process of long chains of DNA and possible uptake of larger fragments face many methodological challenges and very few studies have been conducted on the digestion of food-derived DNA within the 68 m long digestive tract of adult humans [1]. Animal feeding studies have demonstrated that a minor amount of fragmented dietary DNA may resist the digestive process (for a recent review see [4]) and there are sporadic reports in the literature claiming that orally administered small fragments of bacterial DNA [5] or plant RNA [6] can transgress the intestinal barrier, but no studies have explored the question if large DNA segments can pass from natural food intake to the circulatory system.

Above is from article published in 2013. See below. There is still a lot of unknowns of the effects GMO products with altered DNA may have on us. We are still learning as science advances.
Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood
Sándor Spisák , Norbert Solymosi, Péter Ittzés, András Bodor, Dániel Kondor,
Affiliation: Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary

⨯ Gábor Vattay, Barbara K. Barták, Ferenc Sipos, Orsolya Galamb, Zsolt Tulassay, Zoltán Szállási, Simon Rasmussen, Thomas Sicheritz-Ponten, [ ... ], István Csabai [ view all ]

Kate

3/19/2015 11:19:01 am

Please try to link to articles instead of copying and pasting for clarify and space. Thanks!!

Farmer and Chemical Engineer

3/19/2015 11:12:56 am

From The American Cancer Society

There is no proof at this time that the genetically modified foods that are now on the market are harmful to human health or that they would either increase or decrease cancer risk because of the added genes. But the lack of proof of harm is not the same as proof of safety, and because these foods have been around for a fairly short time, the possible long-term health effects are not known. It is important that the safety of genetically modified foods continues to be assessed to be sure of their genuine safety as well as to increase confidence that their use is worthwhile.

Farmer and Chemical Engineer

3/20/2015 10:52:31 am

Be care Farmers. You are getting the most exposure to the herbicides and pesticides.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/03/20/popular-weed-killer-deemed-probable-carcinogen-by-un

Kate

3/20/2015 10:58:34 am

Yet we are as healthy, or healthier than our non farming counterparts.

Farmer and Chemical Engineer

3/20/2015 12:30:01 pm

Here is link to recent March 20th 2015 from the World Health Organization: International Agency For Research on Cancer

http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf

This article was published in the well respected and peer reviewed medical journal: Lancet.

Round Up was classified as 2A.

Group 2A means that the agent is probably carcinogenic to humans. This category is used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Limited evidence means that a positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer but that other explanations for the observations (called chance, bias, or confounding) could not be ruled out. This category is also used when there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and strong data on how the agent causes cancer.

No one has more respect for farmers than I. My parents were farmers. I raise beef cattle. Exposure to chemicals has the potential to cause lymphoma or cancer many decades later.

Below is link to an article from Toxicology: National Institutes of Health
Discusses benefits and risks of herbicides and pesticides.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984095/

Note: One group listed at most risk: Agriculture Workers

Other readables:
http://www.rodalenews.com/roundup-lymphoma

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24762670

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2078050/

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/52/9/2447.full.pdf

http://www.ehjournal.net/content/7/1/44
Men who had worked for 20 years or more as farmer and machinist were the most likely to develop Non Hodgkins Lymphoma

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-usa-study-pesticides-idUSBRE89100X20121002

$9 billion
Pesticide sales in the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2012, based on research from a U.K.-based agribusiness consulting firm

$12 billion
Pesticide sales in all 47 European countries (including Russia) in 2012, based on that same research

I wish you and your family all the best.

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Uptown Girl

Kate Lambert grew up in northern Illinois, not on a farm but active in FFA and showing livestock.

She married the man of her dreams, who happened to be a farmer in Missouri. She gets through the tough times and celebrates the good times by writing.

Kate works for a cooperative agriculture lender in Missouri, being active in the industry as an ag professional.

She participates in the management of the family farm, where they raise corn, soybeans, cattle and sheep. She loves running and spending time with her two boys, who are ALL boy. Her and her husband Matt enjoy all things food and bourbon.

She is passionate about agriculture and finding ways to connect the story of modern farming to Americans who know very little about it.

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