The average American consumes over ten pounds of chemical food additives per year. The ways food products are made now are frightening. Do you really know what you are eating? The American way of eating has changed over the last 50 years. Envision an entire family sitting down at the dinner table eating a home cooked meal with etiquette and appreciation for the meal. Conversely, that is for the most part extremely different in today’s age. Generally, families rarely have family dinners or meals together anymore. The advancement of technology in society has led to major changes in making of food.
The creation of “fast food”, for instance is why fattier foods are cheaper than high priced “organic foods”. Farming today has been strictly governed by the U. S. -based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation “Monsanto”. They produced roughly 90% of the engineer or Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) seeds that grow across America (Montone). Genetically Modified farming in the United States produces food that is unhealthy in a way that is environmentally harmful and abusive of both animals and consumers. Farming is a major marquee resource in the United States.
In today’s society, farming has been progressed in technology. “The genetic engineering of plants and animals is looming as one of the greatest and most intractable environmental challenges of the 21st Century (Knudsen)”. Today nearly all non-organic and/or factory farming has been through an assembly process. The faster the farmer can grow it, the easiest it is to make his/her money. Farmers use the latest technology to cultivate plants and animals. Already, this technology has occupied our grocery stores and in our kitchen pantries by essentially changing some of our most important staple food crops.
Genetic engineered food is everywhere. It is in a lot of ingredient-based foods. Sometimes people do not know what they are really eating or where it comes from. Mostly all food that is not organic is genetically engineered food. Genetically modified organism (GMO) is altered in a way that does not occur naturally (Genetically). A major concern in the GM farming is the pesticides in food. GM crops are resistant to pesticides because they are genetically modified with the chemical “Round Up”. This helps GM plants resist many bacteria and insects.
GMO products such as corn makes up 85% of all engineered corn produced in the United States and a certain portion however is consumed by livestock (Genetically). A lecture specified by Mr. Montone explains generally back in the early twentieth century how cows and chickens ran free in the country side. Today in this day and age this does not happen anymore. Farms are more in a factory setting. They raise and feed livestock in closed dark barns which received no natural light. Both cattle and chickens eat corn and that’s all they will ever eat until they are slaughtered.
Corn has high fiber which fattens up the livestock. Also most of the livestock is injected with growth hormone which makes the process of developing faster. Most livestock has to live in their feces, which makes the environment repulsive and unsanitary. The meat people eat is produced in gruesome conditions. Many diseases are carried on through livestock such as e coli. Since chickens and cows were not meant to eat corn naturally, their digestive systems cannot digest the corn properly. Corn builds up in their system which produces diseases such as e coli.
Sometimes the Food Drug and Administration cannot always detect these problems. They eventually could end up on a family’s dinner plate if safety cautions are not made. GMO are produced by the company “Monsanto”. Who claims “better seed for a brighter future. ” They explain that they help sell seeds, traits developed through biotechnology, and crop protection chemicals. Isn’t developing new technology supposed to be a good thing? Well Monsanto states that its product will produce more; such as doubling crop yields, conserved more by using 1/3 fewer resources such as land, water, and energy by per unit produced.
Finally they proclaim of improving people’s lives, by increased crop yield and new farmers who raise themselves from poverty to prosperity. What people don’t really know is that Monsanto and GM farming are well connected. Monsanto’s GMOs are regulated by three federal agencies. Knudsen points out that: The U. S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) implements rules for engineered organisms that pose risks to plant health, oversees field testing of biotechnology-derived plants, and grants petitions for nonregulated status efore commercial growth and sale of any GM crop. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulatory authority for GM crops with pesticidal properties and regulates recombinant microorganisms under the Toxic Substances Control Act. FDA regulates biotechnology food products, using the same regulatory requirements that are used to safeguard all foods in the marketplace-safety and nutritional characteristics rather than production methods. Are these agencies that control GM farming, making sure all safety standards are being met when it comes to buying food at the grocery store?
The answer is simply no: The American people are ignorant about where their food comes from. They trust the government at hand. Well if it’s in the grocery store, it must be safe? When more people find out what is really goes on, will they want to buy that product again? If that’s the case, people will finally realize what GM foods are and they might have second opinion on buying them again. Today GMO foods are currently available at any super market in the United States. There are no labels stating that a typical product is a GMO item, but mostly organic groceries are label for the consumer.
Monsanto claims that its product is not harmful to animals or the consumer. Knudsen remarks that the production and environmental factors of GM plants and animals pose threats as a possibility and diversity of natural environments or their inhabitants. Numerous ecosystems have been observed that the agriculture of GM crops has strongly impacted environmental resources which could result in a decline in biodiversity. Another environmental impact of GMOs is the unintentional poisoning of beneficial insects by plants conveying pesticide properties, such as the insecticidal Bt proteins.
The growth hormone in cows that produce milk, often eat GM corn. The growth hormone of the cow’s milk can pass along into the gallon of milk in the grocery store. The effects and studies show that young girls who drank hormonal milk often increased their rate of puberty which developed breasts quicker than girls who did not drink it (Montone). What will happen to humans as they continue to eat and ignore GM food? There have not been any reports of cancers or diseases resulting of consuming Monsanto’s GMO products. The question is: how about in the next twenty years?
It’s a person’s instinctive choice to choose between GM or organic products Genetically modified farming in the long run is going to have many negative effects. It’s going to hurt both the livestock and consumer. Why eat something that is not natural? Organic food may seem like an expensive choice, but in the future, it just might save a lot of people from many costly effects. GMOs have been known to have safe records without any problems. The government wants the people to think everything is safe and ok. The general public needs to become more aware of this matter and change the way they eat food.
Word Cited
“Genetically Engineered Crops” Center For Food Safety. Web. 6 Oct. 2011. Gilles-Eric Seralini. “How Subchronic and Chronic Health Effects can be Neglected for GMOs, Pesticides or Chemicals. ” PubMed Central. Google Scholar. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. Knudsen, Guy R. “Impacts of Agricultural GMOs on Wildlands: A New Frontier of BiotechLitigation. ” Natural Resources & Environment 26. 1 (2011): 13,13-17. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 6 Oct. 2011. Montone, Tony. “What is in our food? ” Environmental Science. Victor Senior High. 1, May 2011.
