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A QUEST TO FULFILL HUNGER OF THE BODY AND MIND POST 2015

A QUEST TO FULFILL HUNGER OF THE BODY AND MIND POST 2015. Is Genetically Modified Food A Solution? August 28, 2014, 11:45 - 13:00 United Nations Trusteeship Council   sponsored by The Light Millennium as part of the 65th Annual UN-DPI/NGO Conference: 2015 AND BEYOND Our Action Agenda:

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A QUEST TO FULFILL HUNGER OF THE BODY AND MIND POST 2015

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  1. A QUEST TO FULFILL HUNGER OF THE BODY AND MIND POST 2015 Is Genetically Modified Food A Solution? August 28, 2014, 11:45 - 13:00 United Nations Trusteeship Council   sponsored by The Light Millennium as part of the 65th Annual UN-DPI/NGO Conference: 2015 AND BEYOND Our Action Agenda: The role of civil society in the post-2015 development agenda

  2. What The Fork Are You Eating? A Food System Gone Awry What We Can Do About It?

  3. My Thought Small Changes in Food Choice Can Make BIG Everyday Differences

  4. A Curious Student

  5. Hope’s Edge: Circa 2002

  6. A Food System Gone Awry “All around me experts were predicting famine, saying we’d reached the earth’s limits to feed ourselves. More chemicals! Bigger Farms! More Technology! were the mantras of the day. Yet, in the basement university library where I had gone to pursue my curiosity as to how we might feed this small planet, I discovered that what I was hearing—the experts call-to-arms—was, frankly, wrong. Not only was there enough to feed us all; there was more than enough. Worse than that, the strategies touted to bring us plenty—the chemicals, the large scale farms, the technology—might actually make the food crisis worse.” (Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé)

  7. Is There a Silver Bullet? Monsanto, the world’s leading biochemical giant, producer of pesticides and GMO seeds says: GMOs are a silver bullet

  8. What is Monsanto’s Reasoning? • Produce more food => Population growing • Produce better food => More nutritious food is needed • Create efficient production => Better use of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides

  9. But are GMOsReally The Answer? • 1/3 of the food wasted (300 million tons) is sufficient to feed the world’s 900,000,000 hungry (FAO UN) • Golden rice (genetically modified to produce Vitamin A) => Not so golden • More chemicals are being used and Monsanto and other biochemicals profit

  10. GMOs and Your Health • No evidence disputes or supports human safety • People are getting sicker • Evidence disputes animal safety • 2013, Dr. Don Huber, world renowned plant pathologist to Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture: Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn and soy—a new pathogen appears to be causing infertility and spontaneous abortions in epidemic proportions in cattle

  11. Marion Nestle: Are GMOs Safe? • “Science-Based” If GMOs safe => No rational reason to oppose them • “Societal Value-Based” Even if GMOs are safe => Plenty of other reasons to oppose them

  12. Reasons to Oppose GMOs • Agricultural & environmental control to biotech • Small farms lost • Biodiversity lost • Increased use of chemicals • Lack of true understanding of the long-term health effects for humans, animals and the environment

  13. A Societal Perspective: We Want the Right to Know • 2012 California Prop 37 Right to Know Ballot Measure failed • 2013 Connecticut/2014 Maine Right to Know • Law passed but cannot be enacted until 4 neighboring states pass the same law • 2014 Vermont Right to Know • June 2014 Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and allies filed a law suit to stop Vermont from requiring mandatory labeling of GMOs • New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Colorado and Oregon have initiatives 64 countries around the world require labeling of genetically engineered foods but not the United States

  14. Navigating GMOs in the U.S. • Avoid top GMO crops including: • Canola (90% U.S. crop) • Corn (88% U.S. crop) • Cotton (90% U.S. crop) • Papaya (most of Hawaiian crop) • Soy (94% U.S. crop) • Sugar beets (95% U.S. crop) • Understand that packaged foods today contain many GMO ingredients • Avoid the Arctic Apple and Aqua Bounty Salmon • PLU (price look-up number) beginning with 8 could indicate GMO (though not required) • USDA Organic and the Non-GMO Project seals help navigate GMOs • Stay updated on crops that are genetically modified through nongmoproject.org

  15. Take Action:Your Right To Know GMO • www.centerforfoodsafety.org • www.consumersunion.org • www.foodandwaterwatch.org • www.fooddemocracynow.org • www.justlabelit.org • www.organicconsumers.org • www.responsibletechnology.org • www.ucsusa.org

  16. Book Release: January 1, 2015 • www.stefaniesacks.com

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