I have always thought the anti-GMO movement to be a first world problem. Where else in the world would we not only argue about how much food we have and the different ways to produce it, but also to fight to destroy a technology that helps us have these choices? I thought I had seen it all: a petition to get GMOs out of baby formula, a campaign from an organic yogurt company to #FightPesticides (even though organic farming uses pesticides as I continue to say like a broken record), but I was clearly mistaken because now they are trying to get GMOs out of feminine hygiene products—tampons and menstrual pads.
Conventional cotton, the most heavily sprayed crop in existence, is used in the tampons that women use each and every month. #AlwaysTell
— Naturally Savvy (@naturallysavvy) February 12, 2014
The actual petition is to get the brands Always and Tampax to fully disclose the ingredients in their products as they contain chemicals and “pesticides” as stated in the petition. Of course I also can’t help but see how this could potentially have an effect on agriculture production methods. Once again we have the moms of America indirectly telling farmers what’s safe and what’s not and what the best practice is and what’s not. It didn’t take much searching to find the FDA’s response to some of these claims about toxins here:
[Tampon] Manufacturers have provided FDA with test results of studies conducted at independent laboratories, using the most sensitive test methods available. Dioxin monitoring is a highly technical assay performed at only a few independent expert laboratories in the U.S. The detectable limit of this assay is currently approximately 0.1 to 1 parts per trillion of dioxin. Using these tests, dioxin levels in the rayon raw materials for tampons are reported to be at or below the detectable limit of the state-of-the-art dioxin assay, i.e., approximately 0.1 to 1 parts per trillion. FDA’s risk assessment indicates that this exposure is many times less than normally present in the body from other environmental sources, so small that any risk of adverse health effects is considered negligible. A part per trillion is about the same as one teaspoon in a lake fifteen feet deep and a mile square.
— U.S. Food & Drug Administration
As I stated, the actual petition is for transparency in their labeling, but it had to be taken one step further when an anti-GMO activist points out that cotton is used in feminine products and there is GMO cotton used in manufacturing tampons. I love how @mem_somerville responds, because it’s just simply ludicrous.
The War on Tampons begins. RT @bookieboo: Over 94% of cotton crops are #GMO, thus conventional tampons & pads contain GMOs. #AlwaysTell
— mem_somerville (@mem_somerville) February 12, 2014
Image used with permission and created by @mem_somerville
There are already eco-friendly products on the market for feminine hygiene like reusable cloth pads and reusable cups. For the life of me, I don’t know why these women must go on yet another crusade attacking companies when there are alternate choices. It makes me feel so defeated for society that this petition for labeling tampons has >13 400 signatures since it was started and the petition condemning the destruction of Golden Rice test fields, an actual humanitarian cause, only has >6600 signatures since last August. I urge and challenge these women to fight for a cause worthwhile to all of humanity! There’s starving children, people who can’t afford medical care, and poverty all over the world (and even in your local communities); just to name a few. Here are just a few examples of organizations that you can put your efforts towards:
There are so many more. We have choices—so use them. Fighting about chemicals, toxins, and GMOs in tampons is just “silly business”, as I would say to my 4 year old.
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Edited by Nurse Loves Farmer – removed all Natural News links
Do you know how to test anything for glyphosate?? If you truly believe it’s safe, drink some RoundUp or any of the 311 other chemicals approved this year for crops.. C’mon, they are harmless.. Especially when the killer strain is already in the seed… Common Sense is blinded by the $$$ or by toxins in the brain. Which is it, or is it BOTH?
Hey,You are actually right Olha…..the public due to the FDA being owned my Monsanto…that 97% of what is on our shelves in BANNED in other countries…it is lack of knowledge and being lied to by the corporations…..It's up to us now to do the homework and not give business to these "feed lot markets" and going back to the farmer's market and locally grown food…so don't listen to ignorance..God Bless!!!Joe Smith…..
Did you even read this post? This has nothing to do with Monsanto, please keep comments relevant. This is tampons—not food.
Oh wow. Finally found someone who shares my view on the ridiculousness of the 'anti' crowd. First World problems, for sure. AND rich mom problems. I remember my mom telling me how she was SO excited when they invented pads! 🙂
Love the humor, btw. 🙂
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COMPLETE rich mom problems! The privileged "have nothing better to do" moms, in my humble opinion!
Oh. My Gosh. Sarah, you nailed it once again. Love your posts. In a nutshell, yes, this is ludicrous. But, entertaining to say the least. And as an added bonus to your humorous post, the comments alone following are cracking me up 🙂 You guys are hilarious… I think a comedian needs to scoop this material up and run with it!
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Thanks, Kelly…and thanks for sharing! It is so hilarious, you would think I made it up…alas, I have not!
Well written! Glad you are getting the real information out there!
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Thanks, Amber!
Wow. Just wow. It's a plug that soaks up old blood. Does it really matter if it has GMO or not???? And I completely agree with you on all of this! If there is an alternative for them, then use it! Why do we have to argue and fight everything? So ridiculous!
The first thing I thought of when reading this is 'OMG can you imagine if there were GMOs in baby diapers?' The world might just enter WWIII.
These women are not happy unless they are fighting for their activist causes. I'm so sick of their fighting!
Moms Across America, fresh from there low carbon corn study are now really sticking their noses in where it doesn't belong ! As you are well aware, the GM cotton actually offers less pesticide residue than conventional since the BT strains require so much less spraying. And, no toxic rotenone !
I'm very aware of this, try to point it out to them and they deflect, as per usual!
ok…this is ridiculous…do people have this much time on their hands?!
My thoughts EXACTLY. Thanks for reading, Ruthy!
So much hypocrisy. Obviously, the anti-GM cotton crusaders are not interested in using those less-modern feminine protection options. Wow, where's the rural, days-of-yore nostalgia in that? Instead, they want to target perfectly safe products and impose some ridiculous rules around their production – which would only serve to drive up costs (the things are already damnably expensive). I wonder if Always etal will 'cave' into these demands a la General Mills and Cheerios?
I'm still envisioning those "GMO-free Tampons" running freely on the range… no strings attached. They look so happy. #sarcasm
Someone with great graphic skills REALLY needs to make a herd of cartoon tampons running free on the range 😉
I think this is a "rich mom" problem and there are so many other issues that their efforts could be put towards. I just hope Always and Tampax don't cave to their fear-mongering either.
Hey Sarah, I am a farmer from Sask and I think you and me would be friends if we ever met! I am in utter disbelief at what some of these activist women are putting their time and energy towards. 20,869 people will die of hunger around the world today, a good portion of them don't even have access to medication and certainly not tampons! How can people care so little that they can't look beyond the scope of their own lives? Women in parts of the world are begging for crops that produce more food and vaccinations as they watch their families die around them. How have we gotten to the place in North America where we are so privileged that we are spending our free time fighting against the very things that save lives or fighting against things that don't matter at all? It seems we have a continent full of spoiled brats!
Well hopefully we'll meet at a conference or farm show one day!! I call this a "rich mom problem", really. It really is all about perspective and I'm petty convinced that they're lacking all of it.
Ha! Yeah, there's a lot of hilarious things about the anti-GMO claims, but this was a new level of insanity. And I was shocked at how the men were reacting too! You can't usually get them to say much about tampons, but they were laughing out loud as well. One of them wants to start a company with me marketing our own line of "free-range, GMO-free, open-source, gluten-free, paleo tampons".
But as a more general concept, this idea of anti-marketing–making crap up about your competitors, rather than just offering the reasons your product is different, is becoming really repulsive. The Bookieboo misinformation campaigns (like their attack on Chobani, and now this) are incredibly irresponsible.
I loved following your tweets and I would totally support your absurd line of tampons! 😉
This is *the* thing I cannot stand about the "anti" side of things, and dare I even say organic—this attack mode marketing. Believe in your product enough so that it sells itself. Yes, I'm absolutely fed up with 'her' campaigns. She literally is a 'shill', paid by Chobani to spread this nonsense, yet I'm the one that constantly is bullied online for what I write about.
Oh my word! Now I have seen everything!
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Oh I'm sure they'll find something more ridiculous! Just give it time!