Blog5_TFOF

The future of Food kept me surprisingly captivated. Since the video covered a lot of information I am going to share my thoughts on certain topics I found most interesting. The video reminded me of how important it is to understand issues with genetic modification and to learn more about the processes. With all this genetic modification going on, the concerns with companies claiming ownership of genes then stating that they own wherever the gene goes definitely is reason to be apprehensive about the future. Corporations have so much power in America it is quite frightening when you really break it down and observe how much control they have because they are driven by profit. Some things that caught my attention were that 80% of beef is processed by four companies’ seeds and that whatever generates the most profit will be in our supermarket if these multination corporations continue to take over the food industry. It was concerning when the video reported that the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for safety of food, but since GMOs are considered substantially equivalent to regular food, it falls into GRAS, meaning the government doesn’t require testing or labeling. Personally if the FDA is convinced that GMOs and fresh food are substantially equivalent then I don’t understand the trouble behind labeling GMOs for consumers. I don’t necessarily have any qualms or fears about eating genetically modified foods but I understand that no one can know for certain there will not be any side effects in the future. Therefore there are surely going to be people who fear eating any type of food that has been genetically modified and I think as consumers who are buying and eating the food, we have a right to know what we are putting into our bodies. I thought a good point raised in the video was when someone mentioned that “without labeling, there’s no real traceability and if there are health effects, it is difficult to collect data of GMO problems, and corporations can’t be held responsible.” If you get a bad reaction from a food that has been genetically modified but you don’t know it has been genetically modified, how is anyone ever going to find out if the genetic modification is correlated with the bad-reaction? I thought it was unfair that USA has sold millions of GMOs to other countries like Mexico. GMOs being exported didn’t seem right especially when there are places where GMO labeling is required. It was upsetting to see the problems it presented for so many Mexicans with the genetically modified corn. Another upsetting part of the video was Percy’s story. The fact that he had to destroy over 1000 pounds of his own seeds because of contamination was devastating to hear. Monsanto was a huge corporation trying to sue thousands of farmers because they have patented this seed that has contaminated places without the farmers’ choice and without any possible way for farmers to control the contamination. They are stripping farmers of their history, pride, love, and work to generate profit.

 Wolfe, Anna. "Labeling The Clones."  Gourmet news 73.3 (2008): 7