I recently returned from the annual Guelph Organic Conference and I’ve returned all riled up about a lot of stuff. One of which is food packaging labels and claims. There’s obviously a lot to be said about this topic so I’m not going to try and provide an in depth background. (Marion Nestle‘s been busy with that in her book What to Eat.) But what I am going to do is gripe about my latest kitchen concern.

Yesterday I was snacking away at some deliciously addictive (read: salty) corn tortilla chips that someone had brought to a recent dinner party at my house. While munching, I read the ingredients list (a favourite past-time) which listed the following:

Organically grown corn, pure expeller pressed canola oil, sea salt, trace of lime (calcium hydroxide)

Now as you can see by the photo, this particular bag of Neal Brothers’ chips is covered by the word “organic.” “Neal Brothers Organics,” “Tortillas made with organic corn,” “made with organic corn” and a few more “organic corns” floating around the background for good measure. I get the sense the Neal brothers are trying to tell us something…

One of the reasons I really support organic agriculture is because it doesn’t allow the use of genetic modification. That we humans are being treated as lab rats in an uncontrolled experiment doesn’t bode well with me. Plus, a number of recent non-human animal studies have indicated some serious effects of GMOs on health. (I’m going to dig up some studies and link them in here soon).

At the Guelph Organic Conference, I learned that there are three crops in Canada that are allowed to be genetically modified: corn, canola and soybeans. (Globally, GM sugar beet, cotton, papaya and squash are grown and can be imported to Canada.) Of the corn, canola and soybean grown in North America, most of it is genetically modified. And since labelling isn’t required, we can generally assume that if it’s not labelled as “certified organic” then it’s GMO. So, if you’ll revisit the ingredients list above, “canola oil” is the second ingredient of my evening snack, which is no doubt GMO, despite the repeated use of the word organic throughout the packaging. Although it’s not false advertising, it certainly is misleading!

Serves me right for eating something out of a bag.