I went through a phase, around second grade, when all I would take for lunch was peanut butter and jelly (creamy, and mint jelly, please. The green kind. Yes, I did get made fun of). My little sister is seven years younger than me, and by the time she was in second grade she and her classmates weren't allowed to bring PB&J for lunch because there were other students with severe peanut allergies.
The story isn't uncommon, as AllergyKids President Robyn O'Brien points out in this Healthy Child, Healthy World blog post.
Today, at least 1 out of every 17 children under the age of three has a food allergy with at least 5 million American children suffering from this condition (though these statistics are from 2002, over five years old).
O'Brien posits that the rise in child allergies may be connected to a decade-old form of genetic engineering which allows for neurotoxins to be engineered into the foods we, and our children, eat. The effects of consuming these neurotoxins have not been subject to long-term study. What studies are being done on childhood food allergies are funded by the processed food industry.
Not only that, but
In the United States, our regulatory agencies do not require these genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled.So, unlike other developed countries, we have not been informed that almost 70% of our corn, 90% of our soy and 75% of our processed food now contain neurotoxins, novel proteins and allergens.
O'Brien's post is a compelling call to action to stop what she calls "one of the largest human trials in history." Go have a read, and when you're done there, go snack on something organic -- because in this country, that's the only way you can be sure your food isn't genetically modified.