What is GE? What is it Used For The Dangers! Organic Foods GE and You About This Site Contact Why You Should Buy and Support Organic Foods What You Should Know Before Going Shopping Organic Gardening			Support Organic Foods The Spread of GE In 1995, no genetically modified crops were grown for commercial sale. Three years later, in 1998, 73 million acres of genetically modified crops were grown worldwide, more than 50 million acres of them in the US. To help this kind of change occur with minimum resistance from consumers, the FDA decided that genetically modified foods do not need to be labeled. This way consumers are not able to make informed choices when buying. You cannot refuse to buy GE foods if you cannot identify them. It is now estimated that some 30,000 US grocery store items already contain genetically modified organisms. Monsanto has announced that by the year 2000, 100% of US soybeans (60 million acres) will be genetically modified. This actually means something like 99.9%. Even if Monsanto reaches it's "100%" goal, there will continue to be a acreage (small as it may be) devoted to organically grown, soybeans. However, if Monsanto has its way, even these organically grown soybeans will become difficult to identify. "Organic" Foods Last year when the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed national standards to define what "organically grown" means. Monsanto and USDA proposed to allow genetically modified crops to be labeled "organic." After USDA received 300,000 letters of opposition from an angry public, USDA and Monsanto both withdrew the proposal. But three years from now, Monsanto will be back, urging the government to allow the "organic" label on genetically modified crops. If USDA goes along with Monsanto's plan, then the "organic" label will become meaningless and consumers will have to trust their grocers to supply soybeans that have not been genetically modified. But few grocers will have any way to know. This is why it is important that we (the consumers) help in every way possible to make labeling of GE foods mandatory and stop GE foods from being labeled "organic". If we demand more organic foods, more will be grown, and hopefully less land will be planted with GE crops.  Please send all feedback to ge_is_evil@hotmail.com © 1999 ThinkQuest Team 25365.