Kickstarter, the GMO Film Project, and a Short Rant About Food

Today I learned about 2 things that caught my attention:

First, Kickstarter: a new way to fund & follow creativity. Genius. Basically, it's a site that helps fund different creative projects. Click on the "Learn more!" link on the top of the home page. It gives a pretty simple description of how it works.

Second, the GMO Film Project. After Haiti was devastated by earthquakes, America sent all kinds of help, including 475 tons of hybrid genetically modified seeds to starving farmers. But instead of planting these seeds, the farmers burned them in protest. What do they know that we don't? Here's a little summary of what the film hopes to document:

Today in the United States, by the simple act of feeding ourselves, we unwittingly participate in the largest experiment ever conducted on human beings. Massive agro-chemical companies like Monsanto (Agent Orange) and Dow (Napalm) are feeding us genetically-modified food, GMOs, that have never been fully tested and aren't labeled. This small handful of corporations is tightening their grip on the world's food supply—buying, modifying, and patenting seeds to ensure total control over everything we eat.

As Eric & I continue to grow up & actually pay attention to what's going on in the world around us, we become increasingly angry/aware of the stuff that our food is made of. Call me a paranoid hippie if you want (although if you do, I doubt that you've ever met any real hippies), but I think there's a reason people are getting these crazy diseases and dying so young. If you knew how to prevent that, wouldn't you want to?

For most of my life, I've trusted whoever is in charge of putting food out there for us to buy to make sure that it's safe. But the more research I do, the more I learn that it's not. Corporations can make a lot of money if they make their products with things like Red #3 & Acesulfame-K. And silly us, we believe that if it's on the grocery store shelf, or on the menu at Applebee's, then it's passed some kind of test and won't do us any harm. I can't think of anyone who would knowingly drink poison, yet in a way we are doing that every day.

I'll get off of my little soap box now (isn't that all a blog is?), but I urge you to take a look at what you're eating. After all, you're relying on it to keep you alive.