The soy problem for North Americans

A really annoying thing about soy products and things that contain soy in North America is that something like 85 or 90% come from Monsantos Round Up Ready genetically modified soybean. Many people who eat soy mostly do it as a healthy alternative to other products and these are the same people that are perhaps wary of GM foods. Even worse is the fact that if you live in North America, you don't even know because North Americans don't get to know the nature of the foods they eat (we don't want to infringe on the rights of a corporation). Odds are though if it is not specifically stated as not GM then the soy dog you are eating is from Monsanto. This is the soy problem for North Americans.

I am actually in favor of some genetic engineering. It depends on the purpose and overall effect of the change. The BT corn and BT cotton variations actually reduce the use of pesticides because they give the plants a natural resistance to insects (and boy does cotton need it! More than half the pesticide use in the U.S. is on cotton). However, the soy modification does just the opposite: it allows the use of the herbicide Round-Up on soybeans, which would normally be susceptible to it and therefore prevent its use the control weeds in a soy field. A lot of the items carried in health stores come from small companies and often specify if the ingredients are non-GMO; some even have a larger, noticable label that says it.

Also, the regulations for labeling something "organic" include that genetically modified organisms can not be labeled organic, so this is another way to recognize beans that are not Round-Up Ready.