TAKE ACTION AGAINST GE FOODS

There will be a meeting in Canada in the coming week concerning food labeling as a global issue. Of course, when it comes to food labeling, one of the topics up for discussion is genetically engineered foods. There will be delegates from the United States sharing their opinion that labeling - unfortunately, that opinion is that genetically engineered foods should not be labeled. If you are one of the very many people that feel that this particular opinion does not reflect your own, then please take a moment to sign the petition put together by the Alliance for Natural Health that will be sent directly to the committee.

Ask the CCFL to Revise Its Draft Position on the Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods!

Friday's Food Finds

All week I am all over the Internet blogging about food, commenting about food, reading about food and finding tons and tons of stuff! I simply can NOT dedicate a single post to each individual find, so here's what I am going to do: I am going to give you a CliffNotes version of some foodie finds that I think you might all be interested in, so you have stuff to read and tinker with over the weekend! Here it goes:

Food Web Sites and Tools

• Google Recipes Well, it was only a matter of time, I guess before the search giant would dip its toe into the recipe search engine field! It is very simple to use. You can either go directly to the landing page for the recipe search engine (using the link above), or type in a recipe you are looking for right into the search bar at www.google.com and then click the "Recipes" option that comes up on the left-hand side once you conduct your search. When you have clicked that option, you have enabled their recipe search feature which opens up a number of options below it including ingredient selections as well as tie constraints. Definitely worth checking out.

Food Reads

• Food: Six Things To Feel Good About It's a good news read! Mark Bittman takes a moment to rundown six places where we've been moving in the right direction in our food fights. If you missed this when it ran in the NY Times, then you must check it out today! 
•  What genetically engineered alfalfa means to you This is a truly important article for everyone who is currently not a farmer to read. We get the gist that GE alfalfa is bad, that it threatens organic, real food, but how. A quick intro to the dangers of GE alfalfa and what we can do to safeguard our food against it.

Good Food (Recipes)

• Black Bean Soup (Panera Bread) This was my first Google recipe find. It took me back to my favorite recipe search engine (Food.com), but it took me less than a minute to find a black bean soup recipe that I had the time and ingredients to make. This was DELICIOUS. I can't wait until my next big shop so I can make a huge batch of this soup to freeze!
• Italian Sausage With Fennel, Peppers and Onions I found this one with Supercook.com since I knew I wanted to do something with the sausage and the fennel I had, but had not come up with this simple brilliance on my own. This recipe was AMAZING! The sausage came out perfectly, the fennel (I love fennel) added such a fabulous flavor to the whole dish, OH! and I only had bell peppers, so I can only imagine what extra fabulousness awaits you if you have the fancy frying peppers that are in the recipe! (My mouth is watering just remembering this recipe...)

Food FIGHTS 

• Sowing the Seeds for a Fair Farm Bill  The Food & Water Watch group and its volunteers have arranged gatherings all over the country (and even some international!) to raise awareness about the upcoming Farm Bill and actions we can all take to ensure that it is fair.
• Just Eat Organic! Watch the video, share it, let's get it viral and, above all, CONSIDER IT. If we purchase Organic products, then, economically, it would be foolish for the "powers that be" to threaten organic foods with the deregulation of genetically engineered seeds and animals.

Do you have a food website, tool, food read, recipe or food fight you think I should check out and share with the readers of Searching for Sustenance? If so e-mail me at BlogWithNV@gmail.com!

Avoiding GMOs - There's a Guide!!

I don't know how I missed this before in all of my web-trolling about food, but, today, while researching phytoremediation research (the study of plants fighting toxins and bad things in the air, the soil and, basically anywhere in the environment - yes, yes - I am home SICK AGAIN!) I, somehow, fell upon The Center for Food Safety which is simply amazing! On the home page of the site is

• the latest news in the food safety fight, as well as 
• a link for you to join the "True Food Network" in order to stay connected with their doings - I, of course, signed up!

Along the top of the page are a number of tabs (all of which I have not yet explored), one of which I simply could not ignore: "Non-GMO's Shoppers' Guide". Here is a snippet of their description of the guide:

After a long wait, we are pleased to announce the arrival of our updated, portable pocket shoppers’ guide to help you find and avoid GE ingredients wherever you shop. Our guide gives you valuable information on common GE ingredients, brands to look for, and look out for, and common sense tips to keep you in the know.

[UPDATE (3/30/2011): There's an APP for that now! The guide has bee made into a mobile phone application for iPhone and Android phnes as well.]

The guide is well-organized and has a "Non-GMO" and a "May Contain GMO" listing for each category. It also has, at the end of the guide, a list of "Invisible GM Ingredients" - those ingredients that may have been created using some GM product. All-in-all, I think this is a handy reference for anyone that is concerned about genetically modified food (as I am!!!), but should, as it all should be, be taken with a grain of salt. The sad, true fact is that the GMOs are out there growing and, as all of us who saw (or read) Jurassic Park know, "Life finds a way." I say this in response to the sobering "special note" found at the end of the guide:

SPECIAL NOTE: This guide was compiled based on company statements, not genetic testing. Any product labeled as Non- GMO indicates that it’s manufacturing process is designed to avoid GMOs, but consumers should be aware that GM contamination is possible due to natural pollen movement, weather events, seed contamination, or human error. Hence there is no guarantee such products are 100% free of GMOs.

...and so I am left wondering: are there or will there ever be any products free of GMOs? Terrifying thought.