November 25, 2008 Literary Arts

More than meets the eye

Elizabeth Johnston serves up advice on how to eat intelligently

by Bonnie Zehavi

GRAPHIC Ginger Coons

No Small Potatoes: A Journey
Elizabeth Johnston
Sound Proof Press
May 2008
156 pp
$25.00

A potato is a potato is a potato… or is it? Author Elizabeth Johnston, who teaches business communication at Concordia University, didn’t think so.

Her curiosity took her around the world in the name of this unassuming, starchy tuber, the result of which is her new book, No Small Potatoes: A Journey.

No Small Potatoes starts off innocently enough, with Johnston recalling the experience of eating her grandmother’s homemade perogies. Indeed, this book is full of interesting, and at times lighthearted, factoids and anecdotes about—well, you guessed it—potatoes.

The lightheartedness is ultimately a side dish to a serious serving of stark information on what we eat and how the integrity of our collective diet is quietly changing in a world of corporatized farming, patented food and genetically modified fare.

The information unearthed by Johnston is in fact so unsettling, that if you aren’t already in the habit of scrutinizing the labels of what you eat and checking where your produce was grown, you will after reading this book.

“Potatoes are not the only vegetables that are in danger from genetic manipulation,” says Elizabeth Johnston. Food made with corn, soy, canola, or cottonseed oil is likely to contain GMOs. Jeffrey Smith, writer of Genetic Roulette, talks about how genetically modified genes have entered into the genes of intestinal bacteria and caused these bacteria to produce pesticides in the bodies of their hosts.

“This test was done with rats, but the implications for human beings are there,” says Johnston, “especially for children and the aged, who are more vulnerable to diseases.”

We may assume that Canada has watch-guards to protect our interests, but Johnston clarifies this misconception.

“While this news about the ability of genetically-modified DNA to bond with other genes is alarming in of itself, consumers who want to avoid this will have a challenging time of it because in Canada, we have no mandatory labelling laws. This means that we can’t know for sure what we’re eating, and if we don’t know that, doctors won’t be able to trace back potential problems to GM foods.”

The less-than-savoury truth—one that the recent listeriosis outbreak highlighted—is that we are all vulnerable. None of us are immune to the implications of an agricultural infrastructure that is increasingly controlled by corporations, some of whom are literally forcing growers to produce genetically altered foods in what many would call actions of “bio-piracy.”

Johnston had a few suggestions for discerning individuals on a tight budget looking for alternatives to questionable foodstuffs.

“La Maison Vert is a food co-op in NDG which has a variety of information on the subject as well as how to get involved with organic food baskets,” says Johnston.

But if an individual wants to know what they can do to be informed, says Johnston, “they have to broaden their horizons, get out of their comfort zone and find these things out. The onus is on each one of us to make sure that the food we put into our mouths is safe. No one else will do that for us.”

“The more we are vocal about what we want in our stores,” says Johnston, “the more likely organic food will become the norm instead of the exception.”