Tell FDA NO to Genetically Modified Apples

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8279

Tell the USDA: No GE Apples!
A Canadian company is asking the USDA to approve a genetically engineered (GE) apple that will not brown when sliced.

We know that sliced apples turn brown when they’re exposed to oxygen, but they don't lose any flavor or nutritional value, and not even the apple industry wants this genetically engineered product.

Sign the Petition Telling the USDA to reject the GE Apple!

Re: Docket No. APHIS-2012-0025

I am writing to urge you not to approve Okanagan Specialty Fruit’s petition for deregulation of its genetically engineered, non-browning “Arctic” apple (Docket No. APHIS-2012-0025).

The genetic engineering of such a commonly grown fruit could cause contamination of nearby organic or conventional apple orchards. Unlabeled GE apples could also find their way into non-GE fruit slices, juice, baby foods or apple sauce at the processing level, products predominantly consumed by children and babies who are at increased risk for any adverse health effects.

The U.S. Apple Association, Northwest Horticultural Council (which represents Washington apple growers, who grow over 60% of the apples in the U.S.), British Columbia Fruit Growers Association and other grower groups have already voiced their disapproval of these GE apples due to the negative impact they could have on farmers growing organic and non-GE apples, and the apple industry as a whole.

This product is completely unnecessary and poses several risks to apple growers, the food industry and consumers. USDA should NOT approve this GE apple variety.

 

Why are the GE apples a bad thing? Are there any possible health risks or is this petition simply the result of growers that have an inferior product trying to use the FDA to protect them from a superior one?

 

Why not make a voluntary association that labels apples GE-free. Each company would submit their apples to this association and allow for random sampling to protect purity.

Apples that meet the requirement would get the seal just as some appliances have the UL seal. That way people could choose on their own without the Leviathan stepping in. Always a crisis that can't be contained without legislation.

 

Form follows Function

"This apple is delicious"
- 'But it turns brown'

"This apple tastes like cardboard"
- 'But isn't it pretty?'

 

This is exactly how we got the tasteless tomatoes we have now. Bred, not engineered though. I have no problem with GMO foods, in general.

 

Exactly. Grow your own tomatoes - taste NOTHING like in the grocery, but probably
don't look quite so pretty. Same with your own apples.

As I recall, the "Red Delicious" apple was the first GE fruit product to be patented...
and made for the most AWFUL of apples that looks just beautiful on store shelves!

Jedi

 

There are foods that I simply had no idea how they should taste until my wife started cooking 100% organic. Organic doesn't always mean tasty. You can have crappy organic food just like anything else. But good foods that are grown naturally often have a very different flavor than what the average person might think. A simple potato, I used to think was nothing but a flavor delivery mechanism, something to load with cheese, sour cream, bacon, salt. But we just bake plain potatoes these days and they're sweet and delicious with nothing but a dash of sea salt.

The problem with GMO foods varies from item to item. But one of the biggest problems in general is that they are indeed patented, and seed spreads on the wind. Big agro is suing smaller adjacent farms for using their patented crops when it simply blew in on the wind, and they're winning, fining or even putting family farmers out business for simply farming downwind. You start growing their crops on purpose, and you have to buy your patented seed every year. Tests on rats and mice have shown a thickening of the lining of the stomach. It's probably the tip of the iceberg. Back in the '70's when we got our first microwave, we gave no thought to what it would do to the food, not for over 20 years. If my great grandmother wouldn't have cooked with it or eaten it, I shouldn't either. If we don't fight this crap now, up front, eventually we won't have a choice.

 

There is, of course, no risk.

The "organic" industry is wholly supported by the medically and biochemically ignorant.

 

Actually, I buy some organic because I'm lazy. Don't have to worry about washing off possible pesticides. But the whole idea the the modified apples are a risk is pretty overstated. I would think heritage growers would be the most worried (those trying to preserve a pure unadulterated strain from past times) but then again they have to worry about every other apple that has been developed from cross pollination.

 

Sorry for you, "organic" has pesticides too:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/organic-food-health-produce-food_n_1853995.html

 

Another point. In our local stores, organic often equals local, which often equals very fresh. I do agree that lots of the organic stuff I eat seems to taste better, but I suspect there is a confounding variable in that it may be fresher, have been handled better, etc. Because, thinking about it, even the farmer's market local stuff that we purchase that isn't organic tastes better.

 

Did you actually read this? I like knowing that I'd find significantly less pesticides in my children's urine. I like knowing I don't have antibiotics in our meat. And we love buying from local farmers we've come to know and trust. I saw an episode of Bull**** once, Penn & Teller, where they tore apart organic food shoppers, set up taste tests to create laughable results and found some weirdos that lived in a teepee to make it seem like organic food shoppers are stupid, or nuts, or both. Always fun. We'll keep doing our best to limit our exposure and feel good about it.

 

Some Organic things you might want to work into you dinner recipes:

Arsenic, Cyanide, Nightshade, Uranium, Lithium and lead. ALL of these are 100% NATURAL,
from Gaia, our Mother Earth, untouched by the evils of Mankind other than the pure
harvest of them, fresh to your table. There are THOUSANDS of others you can sample as well!

Just because something is "organic" does NOT by definition make it "wholesome goodness"

It's all marketing folks.

Jedi

 

Are you saying that because the world is full of non-food items you could die from eating, that this makes eating chemicals a non-issue? I don't understand.

 

No. I'm saying that the word "organic" and "natural" are red herrings of marketing. ALL
FOOD and EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH is made from "chemicals" - yet another red herring.

Just because something is "organic" or "natural" does not by definition make it BETTER FOR YOU TO EAT.


Jedi

 

That doesn't make sense. I'm sure Uro will jump on the bandwagon momentarily, but really, it doesn't. Organic and all natural aren't panaceas, but it's the only label we have in the grocery store to give any indication whatever that they've been sprayed less or fed better than the rest of the chemically laced food items. And the fact that everything I touch, like the laptop I'm typing on, was made from chemicals also does not in any way lead to the conclusion that I shouldn't care to limit my family's intake of chemicals. Non sequitur.

 

You're missing my point! I TOTALLY understand what you're saying. But there are a LOT
of marketing campaigns out there tossing about the words "Organic" and "All Natural" as
if just USING THOSE WORDS makes it better! In the 80s, they said "Wholesome Goodness"!

I just mean that just because someone says a product is "all natural" or "organic" does
not inherently make it BETTER for you. The USDA has strict guidelines for the use of the
term "organically grown" - but there are zillions of products that bypass that wording and
just say "organic"

And Lays Potato chips have "ZERO grams trans fat!" - bold letters at the top of every bag.
Just wiggle words to make it sound HEALTHY. They are FAR from "healthy" for you!

Ever eat a Red Delicious apple? Genetically engineered! Patented no less! But how
would you argue that it's somehow "bad for you" because it's "genetically engineered"?
They've been selling them for 50 years - pasty, flavorless perfect looking apples that
have zero known health issues - they just taste like CRAP. But now, the wiggle word
with a NEGATIVE connotation, "genetically engineered" is used to put down certain foods
that have zero negative HEALTH effects, but affect the flavor and quality enormously.

Marketing is about 80% of this discussion, IMO. When I want what is meant by
"Organically grown" produce, I grow it in my own garden.

I just get tired of those words getting tossed around in such a way that all you have
to do is put "Organic" or "All Natural" and somehow it's BETTER for you. It's just not
necessarily so.

Jedi

 

It is a shame that we have to navigate through the bull**** the way we do to try to feed ourselves as best we can. I keep meaning to take a trip to Lancaster to visit the farm we own a share in to see if I'm being told the truth by them as well. Seems like it, but who knows. There's a farmers market here north of Leesburg, and the owner of the farms, multiple, is there on weekends. Seems like an honest, salt of the earth fellow and smart, too. He looks me in the eye and swears he keeps his spraying to a minimum. I can believe that sooner than packaging to be sure, but you never really know unless like you said, you grew it yourself. But then, in what? Organic potting soil from Home Depot? How do you know? Sucks. Sucks not knowing the truth. And even certified organic farms I'm sure are only checked periodically. I fully expect fraud is rampant. But what I have to buy from the grocer, I do my best to pick carefully, read every ingredient, and if there's a certified organic choice, I take it. And it doesn't mean a hill of organic beans to me that Uro is somewhere chuckling over it

 

The top 2 inept and intellectually lazy statements I have ever read on this site. Thanks.

 

Coming from a doctor it also has an hint of bullying to it as well. Uro's cavalier and condescending attitude when broaching any related topic, and the ganging up it can often instigate, has consistently been my least favorite aspect to fchat life. Otherwise very happy for Dean's input, but being made fun of for daring to question the quality and necessity of some vaccines or the quality of the food supply isn't particularly appreciated. All it really does is make me further question the medical establishment.

 

Well stated.

Quite frankly, I don't trust that UT is a doctor for myriad reasons.

The recent "study" that has been pushed by the MSM stating that there is no difference between organic and conventional:

Can be immediately debunked

Proves itself incorrect within itself

It's been exposed that there are decades long deep connections between one of the study authors and Phillip Morris for which that person provided junk science studies showing the "safety" of cigarettes

Not to mention the connection between Standford (the publishing university) and Cargill, a major GMO producer and one who is fighting very hard again prop 37, the GMO labeling initiative. What convenient timing...

Nope, no conflict of interest at all.

Sadly, this is what the overarching medical community relies on for it's "science", and their way to make them feel big, while making we, the non medical peons, feel weak without their eminence. For a doctor to say there is "no risk" means that they have absolutely zero understanding of the way the body processes ingested substances.

I'll keep eating organic and avoiding GMO, fast food, et al, thank you. Haven't been to the doctor in over 6 years, and I feel awesome.

Oh, and I don't stick my kids with needles either, the horrors! Better have CPS come get me.

 

GMO is such a slippery slope. It's probably a losing battle, and in time we'll probably not be able to avoid some GMO in our diets. The average uninformed already are regularly dosed from products as commonplace as corn syrup. The longer we can put off the flood of GMO products and the better start I can give my children, that's where my signature and dollar votes go.

 

He is. Just leave that aspect of this debate out of this. Thank You.

 

The proof would be?

If all he ever does is badger and belittle anyone with a different view, even when that view is based on fact, I will throw the BS flag all over it. He sure as hell isn't a doctor I would ever go to, not that I get sick anyway.

 

While I don't completely agree with the tone of his post here (thought, factually, it may stand up under scrutiny), I can testify that he is a doctor, and in fact provided some private advice to me regarding my father that was invaluable. Advice that could not have come from anyone other the a physician practicing in his particular specialty. He has been privately helpful to me on other fronts, as well.

Perhaps he was not having the best day, and/or perhaps he is just tired of all of the unsupported window dressing that tends to accompany "organic" items.