Ignorance is NOT bliss...not when you find out the hard unavoidable way that you could have done something had you only had the right information and made the effort to make a difference before your health or life became jeapordized. And to do that, you have to go outside your comfort zone and actually open your eyes to the realities in life. Accept that you are NOT a know-it-all when it comes to things you "think" you know everything about. Accept that everyone else are NOT "just fools that feed off the mainstream media idiots".
There is a huge world outside of the small coastal towns off the Pacific Northwest. We should NEVER be so arrogant to believe we are "armchair experts", sitting in our homes saying everyone else are the fools. No, those who spew ignorance are making themselves the fools for all the world to see. I fear for them if they ever leave that small town and venture out into the wide unknown. It will be a rude, uncomfortable awakening when they realize that they really have zero understanding of what life is REALLY like in the world, that what they thought they knew is actually all a huge misconception warped by small-town mentality, or that for once their friends are not the best source of pertinent information.
The world opened up for me the moment I left a small town and saw the world. Yes, I left the USA and went elsewhere in the world - and a HUGE world it is, with far more to it than any one person can ever imagine. Different cultures, ways of thinking and lifestyles are widespread and very diverse.
It's amazing the things you see, learn and experience when you leave that cocoon of small-town living and mentality.
My world opened up for me even more when I came back to the USA and worked hard towards a college degree. Having that degree handed to me was one of the best, most rewarding moments of my life.
The breakdown of our governmental regulatory commissions are very real. Organic standards that have been, until now, safe and trustworthy are being systematically torn apart by special interests with ties to major agro-chemical industries. FDA has been shown to be much less than trustworthy, and they have since shirked their duties in making sure our food is safe to eat.
GMO dangers are very real. There have been no studies that say GMOs are safe for human consumption or use. NONE. No matter what chem companies and regulatory commissions will tell you. And that is because they are NOT safe. They want to tell us that "in time we will see that there was nothing to worry about". That same sentence was said about smoking. And look where we are now.
But there have been many independent studies done showing GMOs are far from safe, and show alarming signs towards diseases and disorders that we have seen rise significantly since the introduction of GMOs into the food supply.
Agent Orange and the devastation that it caused both in the Vietnam War and still today is very real. We can thank Monsanto and Dow, among others, for those atrocities perpetrated on our soldiers and the Vietnamese people (and both their offspring! But that's a whole other topic...).
Chemicals like Red Dye #40, HFCS, and more ARE health hazards. Red 40 has been shown to contribute to higher levels of anxiety and hyperactivity in susceptible children. These things are NOT natural products, therefore the body does not assimilate it the same as it would if it ingested, say, cherry juice - or something similar - used as a color enhancer. Cherry juice or another fruit product used to color foods IS a natural product - Red 40 is absolutely NOT, and neither is HFCS - - again, GMO-laden products to poison the population more and more, little by little.
Grow your own food, using certified organic seeds and/or starts! COOK!!!! Ditch the processed foods and go back to COOKING for yourself.
In other countries, their citizens literally look at us Americans as mindless fools, overindulgent sloths, and more unflattering terms...(and those are terms exactly as they were said).
It's time this country wakes up, gets their collective heads out of the sand, and take some kind of initiative to take back our health, and our freedom to CHOOSE!
Support labeling GMO! At least then you'll know what your eating and can choose whether or not you want to eat real food or genetically modified food-like organisms.
And NO - labeling foods is NOT going to raise costs, put people out of jobs, raise taxes, make you surrender your first born, etc...NONE OF THAT WILL HAPPEN. Stop listening to the special interests that are only out for THEIR INTERESTS. They simply do not want foods labeled because they KNOW that then the purchasing power of the consumer will be more powerful, and people might actually *gasp!* become more educated about what goes into their foods! Oh, the horror!!! God help Monsanto when everyone becomes the dreaded "informed consumer"...whatever will Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturer's Association do then?!
When we have entire countries denying import of our foods because of GMO issues - perhaps it's time we start taking more notice to the world around us and the issues we keep trying to ignore at home. Wake up, America.