Email follow up

It makes me sad that there is no way to tell if GMO is in our food. I actually get really upset when I think about it, because it's not fair that the school doesn't have a way to make sure what we are consuming is healthy. I do like that the woman that responded was honest and quick to answer that made things easier. 

Email

So I emailed mark Bordeau and he had some one get back to me I will attach the screenshot of the email to this post. 

Surveys

Also I am getting Data for surveys all sorted out it just has been taking a long time 

Food chains

I watched a movie over break about the Labor to produce food, specifically tomatoes in Florida, and it made me so sick to my stomach. These people are mostly mexican immigrants and live below the poverty line. During tomato season they sometimes cram 15 people in a trailer because their rent is so high. They work extreme hours in almost 100 degree weather and get paid almost nothing. Basically what the problem is, is that the supermarkets now control prices not the sellers so however much they pay the seller has to get used for transportation and all their costs so whatever is left goes to the workers. The workers did the math saying that If they sold the tomatoes for an extra 2 cents more it would raise their wages by a lot! That blew my mind because that's s lot of tomatoes. 

Sticking it to the man

I think I have decided that I wanna go in a different direction for my project and it is investigating the food our school feeds us. I'm not sure if this is a good idea yet, trying to go against the district might be a  Terrible idea but I don't know I think it will prevent me from graduating so I'm gonna go for it. 

Good news!

DRISCOLLS FRUIT PRODUCTS ARENT GMO!!!!!! I am obviously very excited because they are the largest supplier of berries in the world and knowing they're non gmo helps restore some faith in food companies. 

Strawbizzles

Last week I was eating Discrolls brand strawberries. Driscrolls produces all kinds of fruit like blueberries and raspberries. While I was eating them I wondered if they were GMO and what kind of pesticides they spray on the produce. On the box they make it really easy to contact them. I went to their website and I sent them an email asking those questions and thanking them for making it so easy to contact them. I hope I will get a response soon. 

Survey Said

 Actually surveys aren't done being filled out yet...I have handed out a good amount and two of my friends have been helping me hand them out as well because they have different study halls with other people. I would say that over half of them are filled out. Going over them has been really interesting because of the shocking amounts of people who do not care about eating organically. What also has shocked me is the answer to the last question. the last question asks if food companies are putting other "stuff" in our food do we have the right to know. Most people answer "yes we should know" or "its illegal for food companies to leave things off the labels". I am going to look into this more because I am sure that there are some laws to tell us what is in our food but I am also sure that the large companies have found a way to avoid these laws. I am also thinking that GMO wasn't even real when this law was made. 

Fries

So this whole school week I have been out with the stomach bug so not much progress has been made with my projet unfortunately. Last weeks survey didn't happen because there were substitutes in the library at the end of the week and today is Thursday and I will not have time to do it tomorrow. 
My mom sent me an article from thealternativedaily.com that was about how McDonalds makes their fries. The article is called "The 14 ingredients in McDonalds fries revealed (Note the Natural Beef Flavor)" I am not going to lie to you, I love Mcdonalds fries and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying because lets face it they're delicious. We also all know that they aren't healthy for us. Why aren't they healthy? "They're fatty" Oh no no no that is the least of your worries after reading this article. I am only going to touch on a few of these 14 ingredients, the first two being canola and soybean oil. both of which are most likely GMO and canola oil can double and an insecticide. Dextrose which is a form of sugar is sprinkled on the fries. Although sugar isn't totally unhealthy,why is it being put on my fries? Finally they add Dimethylpolysiloxane AKA silly putty. It isn't like unadulterated silly putty but it is an anti foaming agent added in silly putty and fries. It can also be found in sealants and lubricants. This allows there to be small amounts of formaldehyde to be present in the fries. AWESOME!!!!
This is why I'm doing this as my project, because this information is seldom known and I want everyone to know what is being put in what they are consuming. On a side note I have a "GMO notebook" where I will be taking notes and recording where I get all my information from. 

Week 1!

This week I decided to give out a survey about GMO to 100 kids at school, just to get an idea of peoples knowledge on the topic. It has about 5 questions because I looked up how to conduct a reliable survey and one tip was to keep it short and sweet so people don't get bored and cheap out on answers. I haven't given them out yet (I think I will on Thursday) but I am kind of nervous that people still won't take it seriously and just put unthoughtful generic answers. I guess I'm just gonna hand them out and see what the results are and determine if the information is useable or not. I could ask people if they will honestly answer it and if they say no I won't give it to them. Maybe I will increase the number of people I ask so there will be a bigger chance of good information. Thus far that is all I really have going... I have been researching more though. The non GMO project website has a lot of really interesting information and the more I read and learn the more I realize how money driven this country is. I am happy about what I chose as my project but at the same time it makes me sad to know all this information about our countries food production.

First Post Eva

Hi! I Have never blogged before so this is totally new to me. I am doing my 20% project on GMO and how food is made in big companies now a days...I am excited to get out of my comfort zone and share this experience on my cool blog:)