I’ve been awful at keeping up on my commitment to blogging. Its difficult as I try to work full time to pay the bills, but I suppose there are many amateur bloggers out there who manage to keep up with all of the different things they are juggling. I will be the first to admit, it requires commitment and hard work.

From emails and comments I’ve received on the blog, it is clear that one of the topics that provokes the most response in people is GMOs. The vast majority I have come across are against GMOs, and with good reason. This massive experiment with our bodies and our ecosystems in happening under the radar, as transnational corporations (primarily Monsanto) surreptitiously contaminate our farm fields and our food supply with genetically altered products.

Clearly the media is doing about as terrible a job as can be imagined in covering this debate as it rages across North America and the world. Articles on the risks of GMOs may slip into newspapers and NPR broadcasts from time to time, but corporate television has done very little, in fact almost nothing, to make consumers aware of the perils we now face with GMO contamination.

I have heard some people suggest that we boycott GMOs altogether. This argument serves as a perfect example to expose the fallacy of the "intelligent" market: an intangible force that miraculously delivers freedom and democracy to the consumer’s doorstep. The corporate supply chain suppresses the freedom of choice. In the case of GMOs, this has been achieved by vehemently protesting mandatory labeling requirements, and by engaging in propaganda and information suppression to keep the facts out of the hands of consumers.

The fact is, we cannot boycott GMOs when they are mixed in with almost every element of our food supply. Today I purchased a bottle of canola oil. I try to buy organic whenever possible, and in the case of products that I know are genetically modified, like canola, I make an extra effort. But, my local grocery store doesn’t have organic canola oil, and thus far I have yet to see a bottle of organic canola. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t exist, but it isn’t realistic to believe that I can search town for a bottle of organic canola oil when I have 10 other important things that I need to take care of within the next eight hours or so.

And this is the conundrum all Americans are faced with. Some products are available organically (though even then contamination through cross pollination remains a possibility), while the vast majority are not. Furthermore, corn is so ubiquitous in the American diet, that one must become a literal food Nazi to avoid consuming it. Yes, I do have a garden, and quite a sizeable one at that; but even maintaining a garden isn’t enough. So now I am resigned to participate in this gross human experiment that we have all, wittingly or not, undertaken as we consume genetically modified foods. I am acutely aware of my participation, and I anticipate the future consequences of it with trepidation, and I look on as children consume foods that are of dubious quality…foods that could even be described as a biological monstrosity.