YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

Understanding the food fight 

By Gene Hall

The new year is a time for resolutions. If responsible eating is one of yours, I have a suggestion. Pay attention to the tornado of misinformation swirling around the politics of food.

A lot of folks in agriculture are marketing a natural product well within the spirit of that word. Others slap it on labels fully aware there is no real standard and that the natural world is not exactly free of harm.

How about going gluten free? Well, unless you have celiac disease, or a genetic sensitivity to gluten, it’s not something to worry about. But a lucrative industry has sprung up around gluten avoidance. Organic food is safe while not being risk free, in the same way that any other food product is safe. And we are still waiting for the first evidence that GMOs cause the slightest bit of harm.

Why then did the Hunt’s company recently claim no GMOs in their tomato products? Not all that hard to do actually. There has not been a GMO tomato on the market in more than 20 years.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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