Jeffrey Smith Comes to Nature’s Path

“The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the fork is mightiest of all.”
-Source unknown

Exciting news! This week, Jeffrey Smith, author and expert on genetically modified foods (GMO’s) is coming to give Nature’s Path’s employees a special presentation on the health risks of these products. I’m excited to learn more about this controversial topic and what can be done to ensure stricter labelling on GMO products.

Now, I’m not an expert on GMO’s; in fact until recently I was in the “who cares?” camp on this issue. I’d been briefly exposed to the subject at University, and had always thought that GMO’s were just agricultural progress, and reasoned that “hadn’t we been cross-breeding plants forever?”.

Recently though, I’ve changed my mind. Like so many people, I got my wake-up call when a close family member was diagnosed with cancer. As I’ve dug deeper into the research on preventative diets, again and again the literature warns against GMO’s. However, try and buy Non-GMO products at a restaurant or a grocery store. It’s practically impossible to make educated purchases, because neither the Canadian nor US governments, unlike the governments of the EU or South Korea, allow anti-GMO labelling. They argue that because they’ve deemed GMO’s as safe, there’s no reason to allow what they call “absence labelling”. This stance is ridiculous, as it assumes that the government gets to make the call on what I need to know in regards to my health. It also interferes with my right as a consumer to buy food that I believe is safe for myself and my family.

Things are changing for the better though, as consumers become more educated and vocal on GMO’s. Last week Whole Foods’ announced that it would be testing and labelling its private label products as GMO-free, in conjunction with the Non-GMO Project, of which Nature’s Path is a founding partner. However, there’s still more to be done to get our respective governments to change their position on labelling, which is what I’m hoping to learn more about in Jeffrey’s presentation.

If you’re interested in this issue, check back in a week to find out what insights I gained from this exciting session!

 Kylie McMullan is an Account Executive at Nature’s Path and a Panda Puffs’ addict.