Controversy over Nina Planck’s “Real Food for Mother and Baby” book review

Here’s an excerpt from a recent discussion of the matter on the blog of Kelly the Kitchen Kop:

Picture from Nina's website: http://realbabyfood.info

“…My jaw hit the floor when I read the thumbs down book review on Nina Planck’s Real Food for Mother & Baby in the recent Wise Traditions journal (Fall 2009).  Nina Planck is one of “ours”, and she’s on the front lines fighting for REAL FOOD!  She writes clearly and makes a traditional diet attainable for anyone.  I just didn’t get it.  My opinion is that it should have been given a thumbs UP, with clarifications about the issues mentioned in the review…”

And from Nina Planck’s reply (published on the same blog):

Is there intelligent life in rural Canada?

Saturday’s Globe and Mail reviewed two new books by Canadian authors on the contemporary rural scene and what it portends for our collective future. Here be excerpts:

“How you gonna keep ’em down on the farm?

Two new books on the Canadian rural frontier

Two new books champion the fate of rural Canada and defend the simpler life that it offers

Reviewed here: Trauma Farm, by Brian Brett; The War in the Country, by Thomas F. Pawlick

When I moved to the country a few years ago, friends and family told me that I was deluded. There was nothing in rural Canada but hicks in plaid shirts and baseball caps, they said. No culture. No shopping. And certainly no cappuccinos.

I had spent years writing articles, books and TV documentaries on the subjects of food, agricultural production and a life in tune with nature. But I had apparently failed to convince those close to me. I was therefore delighted to see two new books that I felt would shore up my arguments for the beauty and the essential value of rural life in modern Canada. Both books, after all, dared to use words like “farm” and “rural” in their titles – usually the kiss of death in our urbanized world.

GMOs — can what you’re not allowed to know about your food still hurt you?

Here’s an excerpt from a story in The Walrus magazine titled “Do you know what you’re eating?”on the subject of labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients:

Photograph by Christopher Stevenson from "The Walrus"

“On May 5, 2008, Conservative MP Rob Merrifield, who represents the Alberta riding of Yellowhead, west of Edmonton, stood up in the House of Commons and told fellow politicians, “My fear is that if we put a label on genetically modified foods, you have an electorate that doesn’t quite understand what that means.”

Merrifield, who also happens to be a farmer growing GM crops, was participating in a debate on Private Member’s Bill c-517, calling for labelling of genetically modified foods. Tabled by Bloc Québécois MP Gilles A. Perron, it was similar to several other bills brought before the House since 1999 by ndp, Liberal, and other Bloc MPs, proposing that any food with one or more genetically modified ingredients be sold in Canada only if so labelled.