Robson Ranch HOA Living Well Seminar attendees listening to the presentation by Dr. Julie Gardner
Joyce Ambre
On Oct. 30, the Robson Ranch HOA Living Well Committee and the Kiwanis Club sponsored a food labeling seminar called Path to the Plate. Dr. Julie Gardner, from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and a well-known specialist and co-coordinator with the Path to the Plate Initiative, gave an excellent talk on helping us better understand food packaging and marketing claims. She explained the difference between NON-GMO or GMO-free; terms used by the food industry to advertise that a food is free from genetically modified organisms, as well as the meaning when foods are labeled natural (products that have nothing artificial or synthetic added to them). Dr. Gardner informed us that local means that it is produced and processed within a particular area, commonly to be less than 400 miles from its origin, or within the state in which it is produced. She went on to explain egg and chicken terms and that a lot of our decisions of purchasing these products have more to do with taste and the special diets the animals are given. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension will sponsor future seminars on such topics as nutrition, meat labeling, and more.