We at Follow Your Heart/Earth Island believe you have a right to know what’s in your food. We avoid GMOs in all our products and we’ve sponsored the Just Label It campaign to spread the message to a broader audience. Over 90% of Americans support the mandatory labeling of GMOs, yet the FDA still has not acted on this.
For those that aren’t familiar, GMOs are Genetically Modified Foods (alternatively Genetically Modified Organisms), which are defined as organisms whose DNA has been unnaturally altered to build a resistance to insects, viruses, or to be herbicide tolerant.
What this means is that GMO crops are specifically engineered to allow for more pesticides and herbicides to be used on foods. This has a large impact on insects essential to pollination, i.e. bees and butterflies. Recent studies have shown a direct correlation between pesticide use and the rapidly diminishing honeybee population all across the globe. In addition to this, more GMOs means fewer weed flowers, which are also necessary to pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Birds, which are also important to over environmental homeostasis, are also negatively impacted by the use of pesticides on crops.
Another environmental issue surrounding GMOs is how they affect the soil they are planted in. The toxins from these crops will seep down into the soil, stripping it of nutrients and essential soil bacteria, which are crucial to growing healthy plants without the use of chemical fertilizers. This leads to dependence on GMO seeds, harmful chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Aside from this, the water runoff from irrigation will retain harmful chemicals and spread them into water sources and disperse them into the air.
We take a firm stance on the subject and ensure that we source ingredients that are non-GMO and either Non-GMO Project verified or in the process of becoming so. Sustainability and environmental health are very important to us and we’d like to participate in and support as many programs with the same goals. While many larger companies are working hard to prevent you from knowing what is in your food, we are part of a network working to push Congress and the FDA to add a simple, inexpensive label to your food when GMOs are used.
Visit www.justlabelit.org for more resources, and to find out how to get involved.
