Folks, things seem be getting "curiouser and curiouser."

First, the powers that be changed the definitions of things - stuff like milk and, more recently, chocolate. The definitions are expanded so that more things that you and I had never thought about can be called milk and chocolate.

Recently, the courts have ruled that there is no difference between tested meat and non-tested meat. Or that food with growth hormones and food without growth hormones are the same. And I guess food that is genetically modified is just as good for us as the old-fashioned stuff.

The big corporations are probably correct. All these changes are more than likely just as good for us as what we grew up eating; although "cheese food" doesn't taste as good as real cheese.

I personally think that the tomatoes that we buy in the store should be called "tomato food," like the cheese, because they sure don't taste like the ones my wife and I grow or the ones we buy at the farmers markets.

Today, however, I would like to share some thoughts with you on genetically modified organisms, GMO.

GMO are plants that have had a foreign gene added to their DNA. For example, there is a brand of corn that is patented as an insecticide. It has a new gene that kills a corn bore worm when it tries to eat the corn.

Another kind of corn seed has been genetically enhanced to produce a high amount of corn oil.

I can imagine lots and lots of good things that could be done by genetically changing plants.

For example, lima beans and spinach could be made to taste like candy so we wouldn't have to badger our children to eat their vegetables. The problem comes about because some people don't want to eat genetically engineered food even if it is good for them. And on top of that, some people want to know where their food comes from.

The acronym for the war between the people who have a need to know where their food comes from and the large corporations that process our food for us is COOL. COOL stands for Country of Origin Labeling.

Large food processing companies claim that they cannot tell you where your food comes from because it would be too expensive.

I guess they would have to make new labels every day, maybe multiple times a day, because the food could come from China one day and India the next, and then Chile or the Africa after that.

In other words, wherever they can find the cheapest stuff. So, as you can see, cost trumps the need to know.

GMO on the other hand are good for us or at least not too bad for us. Anyway this is what we are told. Some people however, insist upon eating the same old food that we have been eating for thousands of years. I've even heard that a few people claim that this new manmade stuff isn't real food.

There is a fancy term, "transformation event," that is used by the new plant business. What this means, as near as I can tell, is that when the plant is formed by a genetic manipulation, there is a transformation from what the plant was to what the plant is now.

If there is more than one change to the plant, it is called "gene stacking." There is a probability that to develop the perfect plant a company might need to manipulate dozens, maybe even hundreds, of genes.

Several things are happening. First, those pesky Europeans are insisting on taking their time checking out the modified food plants. At last count, there were 40 to 50 plants waiting for Europe's approval.

Second, there are countries like South Korea that would like not to use the food with the new genes, but recently they couldn't find any of the unmodified on the world market and were forced to use the new fancy stuff.

Third, because the rest of the world is so slow to get with the program, some of our farmers, and that includes here locally, are being offered a premium to raise the old-fashioned food. Imagine that, if you will. Farmers are getting a bonus for raising our food.

The question I have is that with the wind blowing pollen everywhere is there any way to halt cross pollination? It would seem to me that after some period of time, if the new genes in the plant where dominate, the new food would eventually take over. In any case, there would be no such thing as pure "unmanipulated" food.

We seem to have a lot of trouble controlling our government. But we can control the marketplace if we so choose. We can control what we eat just by paying attention.

If we want to eat genetically modified food, we are free to do so. If we want old-fashioned food, we can purchase that. If we want to know where our food comes from, we can buy food that is labeled as to its source; if we don't care, we can buy food from unknown places.