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Californians have the opportunity to make history and standup for our right to know what we are eating. Since the introduction of GMOs, Americans have allowed unelected officials in the USDA and FDA to decide that we don’t need to know what we are really eating. As a result, nearly 90% of the food in grocery stores today contains unlabeled food that has been genetically altered. The way polls are currently looking, Californians may lead the way in setting a precedent that changes all that.

For the past 40 years, conventional farmers have been using chemical herbicides to kill weeds in their fields. It was touted as being easier on the farmer and the environment than the more traditional methods of tilling. Today, scientists are facing the grim reality that this chemical shortcut has now created a problem much larger than ever foreseen.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted emergency approval for the use of the neonicotinoid pesticide dinotefuran to control brown marmorated stink bugs in seven eastern states. Dinotefuran is a member of the neonicotinoid family of systemic pesticides that is known to be highly toxic to bees and associated with Colony Collapse Disorder.

According to an Associated Press story, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic, though the agency is stressing that the amount is too tiny to be dangerous to people who eat it.

Most Americans remain blissfully unaware (or don’t care) they are eating genetically-modified (GM) organisms every day. Passivity and blind faith in the USDA, FDA and EPA have largely contributed to this attitude. Perhaps that will change now that a GMO Study reveals an insecticide produced in GM corn actually gets absorbed into the human body. 

According to the U.S. government, the BP oil spill is old news and the Gulf of Mexico is fine. The FDA announced back in August 2010 that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico was safe to eat, and it was seemingly business as usual. Now, a pnj.com article reports that scientists and fishermen are finding an alarming number of fish from this area “with skin lesions, fin rot, spots, liver blood clots and other health problems.”

Last Wednesday, the FDA released details on the agency’s first new rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FDA now has the authority to detain food products for 30 days simply because it has “reason to believe” they pose a threat to food safety. Signed into law by President Obama this past January, the FSMA gave the FDA new authority to oversee facilities that grow and sell the nation’s produce, including the power to issue mandatory food recalls. As we have seen the FDA’s overzealous raids on raw dairy farms even prior to the enactment of the FSMA, this raises concerns for increased abuse of power.

If you are not actively avoiding genetically-modified foods (GMOs), you are eating them every day. GMOs are in roughly 80 percent of packaged foods sold in the U.S. and Canada, according the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Studies indicate serious health risks are associated with GMO consumption, including infertility, accelerated aging, organ damage and birth defects. Want to know more? 

Think your BPA-free plastic water bottle is safe? A study in Environmental Health Perspectives shows that most of today’s plastics are still leaching hormone-like chemicals.

Just a few years ago, BPA was all over the news because it was revealed that the chemical mimics estrogen. Many plastic food containers contained BPA in the formulation, and studies showed this chemical leached into the contents over time. Companies rushed to replace their plastic formulations with new chemicals, many them with lesser-known effects.

It is still unknown the effects of these small amounts of estrogen-like chemicals on the human body, as most tests have been done on mice and lab rats. The study does not look into this, but focuses on revealing their presence in the products we purchase.