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ANDREA ANTHONY photo

Protesters gather outside the Vancouver Art Gallery after a march against Monsanto, an agriculural company based out of the U.S.

March against Monsanto

Hundreds flock to downtown Vancouver to voice GMO concerns

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The cor- porations who have the patents on GMO processes have too much power

JANET LEPATOUREL Langara College department of nutrition and food-service man- agement

By ANDREA ANTHONY

ay no to GMO! One of the chants that echoed throughout down- town Vancouver on Saturday, Oct. 12.

Around 450 people gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to protest against Monsanto, an American-based agricultural company that produces genetically engineered seeds, and has come under fire from a significant number of groups during its history.

“Ideally we would like to see geneti- cally modified foods labelled,” said Lili Dion, organizer of Vancouver’s march. “It’s not required whatsoever to have GMO foods labelled, and yet you have to include pure water on the ingredient label. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are created by combining ge- netic traits from different plant and animal species to create a desired

product.

When GMO tests have been done on lab rats, they exhibited decreased size, increased size of tumours and disfig- ured sexual organs, said Dion. “Within three generations there’s full sterility, cancer, digestive problems .. . if it’s happening to the lab rats .. . it’s hap- pening to us to a certain extent.”

Heather Quick, an attendee of the march, said the diseases associated with GMOs are becoming too preva- lent. “We need our health back. We need to fight for our rights,” said Quick.

In some cases, genetically modified foods have enhanced nutritional attri- butes, said Janet LePatourel, instruc- tor in Langara’s department of nutri- tion and food-service management.

Golden rice, for example, was bred to be higher in B-carotene, a source of vi- tamin A.

“Consumers should have the right to know what is in their food; lack of label-

ling is a significant concern. The corpo- rations who have the patents on GMO processes have too much power,” said LePatourel.

Labelling is OK, said Quick, but it still allows companies to use GMOs.

“We need to ban it completely ... so that we can get back to organic and start eating healthy food,” said Quick.

If people want to avoid genetically modified foods, the easiest thing they can do is read labels, said Dion. “Any- thing that has corn, soy or canola is more often than not genetically modi- fied.”

Former NDP MLA Harold Steves, current Richmond city councillor and vice-chair of planning and agriculture in Metro Vancouver, was one speaker at the march.

“We're here today to send a message to Monsanto. We don’t want your GMO seeds. We want our food labelled. We want to know what’s GMO.”

The turkey dump: fact or fiction?

Holiday reportedly an opportunity to leave lover

By TAMMY ENGLISH

Ihe turkey dump. T No, it’s not the unfortunate gas-

trointestinal consequence of a heavy Thanksgiving dinner, but rather the phenomenon of college students heading home for the first major holi- day of the academic year, and using the opportunity to break up with the sweet- heart they left behind.

Tim Charters, department chair of Langara counselling services, says their office doesn’t see an increase in traffic at Thanksgiving, but they “defi- nitely start to notice an increased de- mand for personal counselling as the semester starts to heat up with regard to midterms and assignments.”

Whether the turkey dump is myth or reality, dealing with a breakup at a time when school is getting intense “can make it difficult to deal with other things [in life],” said Charters. “So it’s important...to connect with social sup- port, connect with family or friends and if necessary talk with a counsellor if they’re feeling it’s very difficult to cope.”

One of the benefits to talking with a counsellor is getting an objective per- spective from someone who isn’t cloud- ed by an emotional connection. “Family and friends can be well-meaning,” Charters said, but “sometimes they dis- pense advice that may or may not be helpful.”

Whichever side of a breakup you’re on, expect it to take longer than you think to recover. Grieving takes time, so it’s important to “acknowledge that, allow yourself the space to heal, and do things that are healthy - connecting with friends or family and trying to treat [yourself] well,” said Charters. “It does hurt. There’s no magic pill that’s going to make [you] feel better right away.”

COPING

with relationship stress

1 Connect with friends, family - don't isolate yourself 2 Shift your focus - what's going well for you? 3 Treat yourself well - exercise, eat well, get your sleep

4 Monitor alcohol/drug use - for obvious reasons

Philosophers’ Jam talks ‘dangerous ideas’

Philosophy department representatives seek to bring new minds together, educating them through a seminar and discussion

By NICK EAGLAND

travel to the easternmost boundaries

of the Langara campus. There you will find a strip of offices housing three wise men who want to jam philosophic with you.

They are John Russell, Dale Beyer- stein and Alex Boston of the philoso- phy department, and they hope you'll come to the second Philosophers’ Jam of fall 2013.

“They’re a chance for people to do philosophy for one night without hav- ing to sign up for a whole course,” said Beyerstein, the department chair.

“We're really glad to have an oppor- tunity for people who don’t normally do philosophy to have a chance to come out and do that with us.”

The topic of the jam is utopia. It will

I: you seek philosophical wisdom,

be led by Russell, instructor and for- mer department chair, who will speak about Platonic and communist ideas of utopia, among others.

“Utopias are dangerous ideas,” Rus- sell said. “My talk is going to be about whether what you might imagine as a utopia is really where you would want to live. If we’re going to try to impose a vision of an ideal way of life on individ- uals, that is itself profoundly problem- atic from a moral perspective.”

Boston, the instructor who moder- ates the jams, said Russell will speak for about 20 minutes before engaging attendees in a discussion for an hour or so.

He said the jams bring out a mix of Langara students and faculty, as well as visitors to the college.

“It’s an outreach program to get some controversial and philosophical

topics out there, so that not just phi- losophy students but anyone can hope- fully come hear and discuss the is- sues.”

Russell said the department has held jams in the past on topics such as gun control, euthanasia and privacy, and students can learn a lot from at- tending them.

“It’s an opportunity for them to en- gage in debate and discussion about interesting intellectual issues and problems.”

Beyerstein said it’s a chance for peo- ple to get together and argue in a re- spectful way.

“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s never come to blows .. . but sometimes people get quite passionate about their beliefs.”

The jam commences tonight at 7 p.m. in the A building, and admission is free.

NICK EAGLAND photo John Russell, philosophy instructor and utopia skeptic.