The mass food production in our society
People say the most important essence of our lives are clothing, house and food. Among these components that we value the most, food has always been the most significant value even before the civilization. Our ancestors have fought for better location for themselves to gain geological advantages of food production. From many historical contexts one can discover all the great civilizations took places near by the river and rich soil to cultivate crops. They grew what people in the present days would call it ‘organic foods’. Yes, organic food is harder to grow because of pests or weather conditions. Our society has already moved on from that processes. Now we have pesticides to remove insect harming crops and scientists recently developed Genetically Modified Organisms also known as GMOs. GMOs sustain better in harsh climates, their sizes are a lot greater than organic foods. It is true that usage of pesticides and GMOs have allowed the world mass food production in our society. Although, we have enough food to feed billions of populations throughout the world. But, what does it do to our health? Pesticides contain numerous harmful chemicals and insects build up tolerance and we will end up inventing a lot stronger pesticides in the future. Crops aren’t the only the problem when it comes to GMOs. Many of domestic animals are genetically modified to produce larger portion of meats. Think about all those bacon strips and steaming steaks.
In conclusion, GMOs and pesticides are harmful and alarming to producers and consumers. They cause animals pain and harm humans when consumed. Many animals live short and painful lives, while humans now must suffer with long term diseases or damage to their bodies. Although some argue that Genetically modified produce is benefiting producers and consumers, I still argue that genetically modified organisms harm animals and
Many historians believe that the most significant “food revolution” was the Neolithic Revolution. This “food revolution” dramatically changed the way food was produced. This change had a major political, social, and economic impact on societies and regions. Due to this, many new advances were produced. This helped civilization to become more sophisticated, more civilized, and more organized.
Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.
We live in a Gilded age of produce. Within the past couple of years, GMOS replaced our original, natural diet with these “genetically altered” foods. GMO, or genetically modified organism, is defined as “a plant, animal, microorganism, or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified using recombinant DNA methods (also called gene splicing), gene modification, or transgenic technology” (Non-GMO Project). What may be perceived as healthy salad at first glance, may just be a bowl of genetically modified “food”. These are underlying problems not recognized by most of the public. The use of GMOs creates endless risks and pose a threat to the environment, genetic diversity, and future.
As Gliessman, an agricultural researcher, says in Agroecology, “conventional agriculture is built around two related goals: the maximization of production and the maximization of profit. In pursuit of these goals, a host of practices have been developed without regard for their unintended, long-term consequences” (3). The industrial food industry has created a process to produce as many crops as possible in the quickest amount of time to put onto the market. The several ways utilized to achieve these goals are those that are harmful to the consumer. Two main threats are genetic modification, and chemicals. These issues are a spark of concern in addressing the health of consumers. Food industries often try to tantalize their audience with the promise of untouched, pristine produce when in reality these foods are heavily tainted by pesticides or are genetically modifieds. “One will find this obliviousness represented in virgin purity in the advertisements of the food industry, in which food wears as much makeup as the actors. If one’s whole knowledge of food from these advertisements, one would not know that the various edibles were ever living creatures, or that they all come from the soil… “ (Berry 147). People are informed little about the pesticides that we often ingest from products like these and little do people know the negative effects of GMOs.
It has been shown that some GM crops can be less nutritious and possibly toxic in comparison to natural food. Because of this, many large countries such as Japan have put bans on GMO containing foods. GM foods are not labeled in the US and other countries so consumers are not monitored for health conditions that may result from long term use. Some reports have also linked GMO to possible cancers. In addition to the health effects, GMO crop technology can affect smaller farmers and our environment. GM crops are too expensive for the smaller farmers to grow, forcing the smaller farms into debt or off their land. This hurts the economy, as farms are disappearing while large GMO food companies are taking over. In addition, the initial drop in herbicide use on GM crops that was reported has now been followed up with a large increase in use due to the resistance that has developed, and farmers have had to use more and more powerful chemicals on crops. These chemicals are toxic to people, livestock and may possibly contaminate the
In todays society, people are more concerned about what they put into their body. They eat healthy and maintain a stable diet, but unknown to a number of these people is their food may have been tampered with in the form of Genetically Modified Organisms or, for short, GMO's. Genetically Modified Organisms are plants or animals whose DNA has been altered to favor a certain characteristic or trait which is already in the DNA. This includes enhancing the DNA in plants to make them bigger, invincible to pests, or invincible towards weeds. Although, the reason why GMO's are a controversial topic is because of lack of knowledge. Genetically Modified Organisms are risky and potentially to dangerous to be handling because of the unknown side effects
Humanity’s advancements over the course of history have been due to major technological milestones. Of these milestones, arguably the most important has been the advent of agriculture. Agriculture has allowed humans to store food in surplus which frees them from slaving in fields and allows focus on more scholarly and artistic pursuits. As time has progressed, agriculture itself reach important advances, from selective breeding to artificial fertilizer. However, one of the most recent advances in modern times has been met with suspicion and distrust. Genetically modified organisms, commonly referred to as GMOs, have begun to be used in commercial agricultural and their widespread use in food for humans and livestock is on the rise. Many
the rise in advanced technology, Genetically Modified Foods were engineered and created. Not only were they new in the sense that it provided an easier source of growing, but it also brought ,with it, a new controversy across the world. Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) are created by moving a gene from one animal to another. An example of this would be moving the gene of an Icefish to a tomato to give the tomato a longer shelf life. GMOs were intended to help increase food production and help foods last longer however, GMOs have become very controversial because of their potential health and environmental effects. GMOs could have detrimental effects on the population and on the Earth.
Imagine... a virus... It slowly takes control over your body, whittling away at your immune system, poisoning you from the inside. You pass the virus to your children. It can't be stopped! How do you get the virus? It's in 70% of our food! Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are plants that have their DNA structure modified to be immune to pesticides. The farmers can spray whatever pesticides and whatever amount they want on these plants and they will not be harmed. The result of this is your food drenched in pesticides and various chemicals that can cause cancer and countless other ailments. Genetically modified organisms are
The human population is growing rapidly. With the growth in the human population, the demand for food is also growing at an unprecedented rate. Arguably, farms are unable to naturally provide the world’s population the food needed by natural means. This may seem like a big issue, but humans came up with an ingenious solution: genetically modified organisms, commonly known as GMO’s. Genetically modified food has been able to offset the worlds growing demand for food, and all our food problems seem to be solved. Or have they? I will use information from: Wendell Berry’s, The Pleasures of Eating, Jon Entine and JoAnna Wendel’s, 2000+ reasons Why GMO’s Are Safe to Eat, Robin Mather’s, The Threats from Genetically Modified Foods, along with references from Food Inc., to explain how genetically modified food is being used in a way that negatively affects the livestock, our health, the ecosystem, and the potential threats genetically modified crops have on our future.
Page’s article starts by describing an ideal world, where in which people could always choose if they wanted to consume genetically modified food products or not. He then argues that this is not a perfect and ideal world, where billions of people are starving because there is not enough food. He also says that this number will continue to grow as the earth’s population continues to grow and farming becomes more expensive. He then claims that farming is contributing to global warming and the world needs a more efficient production of food.
Where does our food come from? Kathy Dummer in her article called How safe is our food? says that “The worldwide increase of food availability is due to technological advances in food production, pesticides, and genetically altered seeds, with 44 percent of the grains produced in the U.S. being genetically modified (GM). “ Most and if not all the food that America eats has grain in it. Which means that some of the food that we are consuming is genetically modified. They aren’t grow naturally they are produced by a factory then goes to a farm to grow. The farmers have to spray these pesticides on the seeds so that the bugs don’t eat away at the plants. But the bugs are starting to get stronger against the pesticides so they are adding more chemicals
In the past few years, society has been made more aware of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Because of this, GMOs are being replaced in diets with more natural and organic options. GMOs have been researched and found to cause adverse effects on human health because of the gene splicing, or genetic alterations that are done to create them through genetic engineering. Before this issue became an issue, many people were eating processed and even healthy foods without understanding what chemicals and toxins they were actually putting into their bodies. GMOs are infused into food without awareness because one never really understands what all those unpronounceable words, label GMOs, really are. Due to recent research, it has been found that genetically modified organisms are harmful and can lead to increased risks of disease and cancer.
According to the World Health Organization (2014. 1), "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms) in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. The technology is often called 'modern biotechnology ' or 'gene technology ', sometimes also 'recombinant DNA technology ' or 'genetic engineering '. Foods produced from or using GM organisms are often referred to as GM foods.” Many organic crops farming farmers are against cultivating of GM crops because of the threat to farm land and environment however, biotechnology companies and GM crops growing famer desire to have profit and consumer look for low price. Thus, the debate over the environmental impact of genetically modified GM crops is growing. Although GM crops negatively affects on some organism in environment, they reduce the use of pesticides and increase crop yield.