Get U Noticed writes on consumer issues for community papers in Ballito. Here is our
latest column
There is absolutely no doubt that the debate as to whether or not eating Organically is preferable to eating Genetically Modified food will rage on for years to come. It comes down to the preference of each individual. Are you happy eating something that has been manipulated by man – to increase yield, help with protection against virus’s and disease – and ultimately bring the price of food down? Or something that has been grown organically – the upside of eating Organically grown food is that it contains no chemicals and hasn’t been fiddled with by man to help with increase in yield and disease resistance. The downside is that the Organic crop is fertilized with animal manure and there is the danger (with some foods) of contacting sicknesses like salmonella poisoning.
The global preference in first world countries, is for Organic foods. They are a lot more expensive to produce, so naturally the cost to the consumer is high. However, there is a huge demand for them, so they do well, and there are shops and restaurants, in places like Australia, that sell and serve purely organic food.
To find out how well the Organic trend was working locally, we spoke to Dawn De Beer who owns the popular little Home Grown Organic shop in the Litchi Orchard and who has been supplying the public with Organically grown food, mostly from small scale farmers, for the last three years. “The market is definitely growing! We have so many people asking well founded questions about what they are buying, how it’s been grown etc. The bottom line is that if you eat well you live well. The best thing is to grown your own vegetable garden – with organically grown veges. Grow and eat what’s in season – more reasonably priced and fresh!”
The debate as to whether or not the consumption of GM food causes cancer also rages on. Research has been inconclusive. However it is a well documented fact that in the last 30 years, when genetic engineering first reared its controversial man made head, the increase in cancer sky rocketed. The World Council of Health are not prepared to commit one way or another. “Different GM organisms include different genes inserted in different ways. This means that individual GM foods and their safety should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and it is not possible to make general statements on the safety of GM foods” They say.
A final word from Integrated Health Specialist, Dr Hennie Palm who believes that eating naturally produced food – from organically grown vegetables to free range eggs – is the way to go. “Food is more than fuel. We know that what we put into our bodies communicates with our cells and our DNA. Food is much closer to software programs that we insert into our bodies. It instructs cells and our DNA. Every meal you ingest is either contributing to health or to dis-ease. Genetically modified foods have coded messages from bacteria or even other species in-bedded in the DNA. Our bodies, cells and DNA simply do not know how to respond to this foreign program that has been inserted.”
Palm will be speaking on the subject of Nutrition and what we should and shouldn’t be putting into our bodies, at an Ilembe Chamber Business Women’s function on March 11 at Canelands Hotel in Salt Rock. The talk starts at 8.30. If you would like to hear him speak, contact Claire Philips on 087 354 6343 or e.mail claire@ilembechamber.co.za