Dear Friends:
    Valerie's posts on LACTNET about what is happening to food and human milk
via genetic engineering are thorough, very informative, and horrifying. I
haven't responded to them directly because I have been acting on them by only
buying organic food whenever possible, and emailing the FDA to support
standards for labeling of organic foods.
    Did you all know that in the USA, there was a plan to label foods organic
that had been irradiated, grown in sewage sludge, and genetically engineered?
Around 275,000 consumers protested and the FDA scrapped that idea and is now
doing another one. Whew!
    Industry wants to use the organic label because organic foods make money.
Not because they care about the earth or about health. GRRRR!
    I also put a bit about this into my childbirth classes. Infants ingest a
higher proportion of chemicals (additives and dyes and preservatives and
pesticide residues) because the proportion they get is greater in relation to
their body size and they ingest it over a longer period of their lives.
    Why is industry trying to reinvent food? Why is industry trying to
reinvent human milk? What is the point? We have it already, for free and
without impact on the environment.
    The latest commercial food horror in the USA is green catsup. Supposedly
designed by children. Going to make industry a lot of money. Catsup is a
billion dollar business. Has industry tested the dyes on children to see what
impact the dyes will have on cognition and behavior and growth? Of course
not!
    What are other people doing to deal with these issues?
    Warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI
craniosacral therapy practitioner; childbirth educator
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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