February 26, 2016
Welcome to Foodie Friday. This is the GMO-free edition!
Want to make your kitchen GMO-free? This week’s round-up is loaded with news, tips, and recipes that can help!
This feature is chock-full of all things food related: news, preservation, and delicious real food recipes. As always, I really hope you’ll share your links and ideas in the comments below. As well, we’ll have a question of the week on each Foodie Friday post.
Cookbooks
The Organic Canner: Full disclosure – this is my book. I’ve been canning for quite a few years and I began to make changes to some of the basic recipes I found out there. Why? Because I wanted my preserved food to be as pure as possible, without the questionable ingredients that many of the standard recipes included. In this book, you’ll find my method for making jam without pectin (which is often GMO), making meals in jars, and preserving basically everything from your backyard garden.
A Primer on Pickling: Learn How to Pickle Food in a Single Afternoon: Here’s another awesome home preservation book. You don’t need lots of fancy equipment to preserve food by pickling, and the product makes a quick, delicious snack. (This book is currently free from Amazon.)
“Learn how incredibly easy it is to make your own pickled food in a single afternoon! There is no pressure canning involved or overly specialized equipment needed to pickle food. This primer was made with the absolute newbie in mind and is written with step by step instructions in a clear and straightforward language.”
Foodie Friday News
My family avoids the consumption of GMO food. With a site name like “The Organic Prepper,” it probably comes as no surprise that I strive to avoid the inclusion of GMOs in the food that my family consumes, and after several years of effort, we’re pretty much GMO-free. While the pro-GMO sector likes to deride and scoff at us for not being able to science, the fact is, there actually are studies that prove harm from GMOs. But because they aren’t sponsored by huge companies like Monsanto, the results aren’t skewed and are hidden or even refuted altogether. None is more famous than the rat study done by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, which showed horrific tumors caused by GMO food. What no one talked about was this: the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal got a new editor named Richard Goodman, who retracted the study a few months after he got the job. Guess where Goodman worked from 1997-2004? BINGO. Monsanto. Read the details of the sketchy retraction here, and use this for ammo anytime someone tells you that Seralini’s rat study was debunked.
Is it the GMOs or the Round-up causing harm? Keep in mind some of the issues with GMO crops could actually be the dousing of toxic Round-up that the foods are sprayed with. Despite irrefutable evidence of toxicity and death from glyphosate, our own Environmental Protection Agency (what a joke) upped the allowable level of spray to be used on food crops. However, the World Health Organization has classified glyphosate as a probable cause of cancer. So even if you find the modification of the plant’s DNA to be acceptable, are you also cool with the spraying of poison on the food? This isn’t limited to only genetically modified food – some conventionally grown wheat is absolutely drenched in glyphosate.
Unfortunately, GMOs probably won’t be labeled anytime soon. There’s currently a bill on the table of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee that would override any mandatory GMO labeling bills enacted by individual states. The bad news is, that bill is probably going to pass because of the attitude of epic condescension: they don’t want to confuse consumers and make them think GMOs are bad. You know, the same consumers who are begging for these labels. While I do think that there should be transparency in food labeling, I’m not Don Quixote, flailing at windmills. Here are some practical ways to avoid GMOs (even if you’re on a budget) – and none of them include on depending upon a government agency that has sold its soul to Big Biotech.
Gerber Formula says they’re non-GMO, but…. Gerber is now paying lip service to parents who want GMO-free choices for their babies. Unfortunately, it may all be a hype. Gerber refuses to answer questions about specific ingredients, and the products are purely self-labeled, and not certified by an outside agency.
Quick rundown. To avoid GMOs in your own kitchen, you want to grow your own, buy locally from farmers you know and trust, avoid foods that are processed, preserve your own food, and cook from scratch. (Here are some tips on how to acquire good quality food on a budget.) Below, find some of this week’s best links for preserving and cooking.
Food Preservation
Have you tried fermenting food yet? I’ll be honest – so far, I’ve been a bit leery of fermenting food. But I took a really cool course and I’m ready to take the plunge. Not only does fermenting preserve your food, but it also provides you with healthy probiotics that help heal your insides and support your immune system. Corinna’s adorable accent and humor make this course engaging and pleasant. Each section contains written information, as well as a video. (I got a lot out of the videos.) Check it out HERE.
Plastic, be gone. As I get rid of the toxic things in my home, I’ve been appalled at the amount of plastic that I use, even though I thought I was doing pretty well with that. One of the major crime scenes? The inside of my freezer. This article shows you how to preserve food in the freezer without using plastic.
What to Eat This Week
Products
Want some high-quality jerky for snacks, bug-out bags, or emergency food? This Epic Bison Jerky is…well, epic. It’s pricey still, but try it while it’s on sale. It’s the best quality jerky around, made with real food instead of a bunch of meat-like additives.
Do you have recipes you no longer use because they call for cream of mushroom soup? I cast away quite a few recipes when I switched over to an organic, less-processed diet. However, the comfort food casseroles of my childhood can be mine again. Pacific Northwest’s Cream of Mushroom soup is on sale on Amazon today. Grab it in quantity to add to your food storage stockpile.
Foodie Friday Sound-off: Have you gone GMO-free?
This week’s Foodie Friday question: How do you feel about genetically modified food? Do you avoid it and try to live a GMO-free life or do you think it’s ok?
Are you doing some scratch cooking or food preserving this week?
Dish with me in the comments below!