You know that Monsanto will use every trick in the book to deceive you for their own benefit. One of their newest tricks is to use the Christmas holiday season when everyone is preoccupied with their family and celebration, so they could get the FDA to approve cloned milk and meats for sale in your neighborhood grocery store has happened as predicted.

They correctly realized that there would be little opposition to this during the hectic holiday season.

Unfortunately, if you eat beef from conventional sources, there's a possibility you've already eaten this type of food, thanks to some ranchers who looked the other way when the FDA imposed a voluntary moratorium on cloned beef five years ago.

Some ranchers admit cloned cattle have made it into the food chain and, quite possibly, your dinner table.

The FDA is letting untested, laboratory-grown foods be crammed down your throat, whether you want them or not.

Although a majority of Americans still believe they've never eaten a genetically modified food -- at least 70 percent of the processed foods you'll find in a grocery store are made with them -- they really do care about where their foods come from. One of the big issues here is labeling; why aren't cloned foods and GM foods required to be labeled as such?

The only reason is to protect big business; they worry that if you knew the origins of your food, you wouldn't buy it -- and with good reason.

That's why finding local sources for your food remains your safest and best bet for protecting your health.

I recently reviewed this topic with Jeffrey Smith who is probably the leading expert in the US on GM foods and he had the following to say about GM labeling.

"GM labeling is voluntary, I believe this is meaningless. I haven't checked with the USDA yet, but I don't give it any credence. So here is my answer:
 
The only commercialized GM food crops are soy, corn, cottonseed, canola, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini and crookneck squash. There is also Quest brand tobacco and alfalfa used for animal feed.
 
When shopping for produce, you wouldn't buy cottonseed or canola oil, and probably not soybeans either. Only a small amount of sweet corn, zucchini and yellow squash have been genetically engineered, but since there is no labeling requirements in the US, you won't be able to tell in the supermarket.

You can always ask the produce manager to verify if these three are non-GMO, but he or she will likely have to check with the supplier, and that may take a few days.
 
As for papaya, more than half the fruit in Hawaii has been modified, and the GM varieties even get mixed up with the organic and non-GM varieties. To be safe, therefore, you may want to only buy papaya grown elsewhere, since Hawaii is the only place currently using GM papaya seeds.
 
Years ago, GM tomatoes and potatoes were taken off the market, and due to contamination from an experimental field trial, there is a tiny amount of GM rice contamination in the US rice supply.
 
There are some enzymes and additives created from GM bacteria, fungi and yeast, which are harder to avoid since they are not listed on the labels. One exception of  GM ingredient that is listed is Aspartame, the sweetener that many believe is linked with several serious diseases.
 
Also, there are dairy products from cows treated with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. Look for labels that say no hormones are used.
 
And in all cases, organic standards do not allow the use of GM inputs."

Vital Votes reader Tom from Grandview, Ohio, says: