Knowledge Base > Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)
Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)
This event was on
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Eric Wynkoop in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to co… Read More.
Question:
I thought soy and corn were not good for you.?
Answer:
And that's my answer to your first question. And then the second part is regarding soy and corn and relative to our health. You know, I'll say that Foods in their natural state are good for us. All foods have the potential to be good for us. It's when we start to alter those Foods in one fashion or another or consume those Foods out of balance IE not enough of them or too much of them that they inflict damage on our body. Sometimes quickly sometimes more slowly, but be sure that that will happen over time. Okay, so there's nothing wrong with soybeans. There's nothing wrong with corn there have been In this world that have been consuming those Foods as a staple products for not just decades or centuries but a long long time and you know without ill effects so long again is you're consuming clean product natural product and you you're eating a balanced meal and overall balanced diet. Okay, I think that we start to run into concerns and this is me talking and there's probably some other evidence out there to back this up and it's a difficult topic sometimes to talk about because the sort of the guarded nature of the industry here, but we talked about I think genetically modified foods when you highlight soy and corn and you ask the question, I thought they were good for us now. You know my issue primarily with GM foods like corn and soy which in the case of the United States agricultural system, you know GE corn and and GE soybeans comprises the by far the majority of those Industries a well over 90% of those two categories of food products, you know, my issue really is a cultural and economic issue where the the companies and the former Monsanto that was really behind a lot of the the GE staple grain and food products. I'm sort of skewed the market and people farmers in not only North America where people are often in a advantageous situation, but also in other countries where farmers are less advantaged members of their societies and and much more much less Advantage than farmers are in in this country. They were put in a situation where once they started using the GE product the genetically engineered product. It was under contract and those seeds aren't they'll produce food, but you're not allowed to keep the seeds for the next growing season. Okay, whereas and that's by contract okay with the company from from which the farmer purchased the seeds and so the farmer is then in a position where they have to go buy seeds every year which cost a lot of money and also runs contrary to the tradition of farming where a portion of seas are set aside to be sown the following year and so a an element of sustainability is lost and instead the economic relationship is emphasize. Also, those seeds are engineered or designed to be coupled with fertilizers with those chemical inputs that are produced by the same company that sold you the seeds and so once again, the farmer is bound by contract to use, you know, these this set or this sweet of items in order to farm in subsequent years, and it creates a pretty difficult relationship for the farmer and one which is a lot less profitable. That's really just the tip of the iceberg. There are other concerns that are associated with this bigger picture. But again, it's a difficult one, you know to wrestle with, you know, because of the way intellectual property rights or handled in this country and the way the court systems have favored big business over the individual farmer and And so on and so forth but to get back to the heart of your question Linda, there's nothing inherently wrong with soy and corn. All right. Thank you.