A Mother's Prospective

Lately, I have been reading a lot about GMO's. Most of it has been negative, but a few articles/blogs have been positive. To be honest, I am not an expert on GMO's. I did have the pleasure to tour the DuPont Pioneer research facility where I did learn GMO's are not something to be scared of. If every person who has a bad opinion about GMO's would take that tour, I think we would be able to move on from this particular debate once and for all. It is unfortunate that the people doing all of the negative talking and getting the most attention, seem to know little about agriculture and farming. I have never taken a poll, nor do I know of one out there, but it is my guess that the majority of people fighting against the use of GMO's and for more strict labeling of them, have never set foot on a farm. I can also bet that this statement taken directly from the website gmoanswers.com is not widely known among consumers:

There are currently eight crops commercially available from GMO seeds in the US: Corn (field and sweet), Soybeans, Cotton, Canola, Alfalfa, Sugar Beets, Papaya, Squash.
No commercially available crops in the US were created by nature alone. Humans, over our history, have altered all of our crops, often for taste or yield or disease resistance.

I hope that the agriculture community, myself included, can continue to be educated on this topic, and others, and be the positive voice that seems to be missing from mainstream media.

I have mentioned that I have my education in agriculture, am married to a farmer, and work on our farm, but first and foremost I am a mother. This is important to state because I have only the best interests of my family in mind. I do not want to place harmful foods on our dinner table any more than the next person. In my opinion, we (the consumers) need to start paying closer attention to the amount of junk food that our children are consuming. Recently, my kindergartner had a party at school, and I attended. I was shocked at what was being served. Cookies, cupcakes, cookie cake, chips, and Kool Aid. Not only that, but the children (ages 5-6) were told to pick out all that they wanted. Thankfully my child knows his limits and only chose one of the aforementioned goodies. I am not advocating that special treats be taken from children and that schools should not have parties, but lets at least put a cap on the amount that is offered to them. I would have gladly provided a fruit tray had I been aware of the offerings. This is why diabetes has jumped up, this is the reason for the unhealthy weight gain epidemic. Not because of GMO's. Nobody wants to take responsibility for causing our own problems. It is easier to attack a relatively unknown, scare the wits out of consumers, and at the same time protect the junk food industry. I laugh just thinking about the absurdity of organic this and natural that, yet the same advocates for organic and natural do not bat an eyelash at a box of cookies/cakes/sugary drinks/sugary cereal/... the list could go on and on. Now, not to give the wrong impression, my home is not free of junk food. Trust me, it's here. We do, however, limit the amount consumed and provide ample substitutions in the form of fruits and vegetables. That seems obvious to me, not attacking a system that provides food for the world and is helping to produce more food for the ever growing population.

Again, I am not an expert, but I am a mother. I care about what nourishes my children. And I can say with certainty, GMO's are not going to be what harms them. The sugary goodies that are so freely passed around to them will.

These are my opinions, and not necessarily the views of anyone else. Please feel free to comment or ask questions. Learning from each other is an important and necessary tool.

God Bless!