FEED MY FRANKENSTEIN
The industrial food market has grown rapidly over the past 100 years. Today our country produces a wide variety of factory-processed meats, sauces, vegetables and fluids. Cloning cattle is widely considered a moral way of prolonging quality beef stock and vegetables are regularly genetically married to create more insect resistant and durable strains.
Advances in genetic manipulation and selective breeding help control food stock by artificially encouraging evolution. By mixing the strongest traits of one creation with the strongest traits of another, we’ve been able to vastly alter the quality and volume of our food supply. Successful examples of selective breeding are pesticidal corn, the reintroduction of the American bison to the plains of the mid-west, and a bumper crop of “grapples” (genetically blended grapes and apples).
The downside is susceptibility to disease. Artificially engineered products are more vulnerable due to a lack of natural “mixing” and or strengthening of their immunity. In the mid 1930’s bananas crops were struck, and practically wiped out, by a fungus called “Panama Disease” (commonly spread by cargo transports from United Fruits, which later became the Chiquita brand). http://www.riverwired.com/blog/bananas-danger “Panama Disease” recently resurfaced and is damaging the banana crops today. When cloned, cattle and genetically modified fruits and vegetables are factored into this type of situation, if one strain is vulnerable, they all are. Why hasn’t the government informed of the risks associated with genetic manipulation and selective breeding and the effects they could have on the longevity of our nation’s food supply?
Update: The article below shows that food production by means of stem-cell manipulation is yet another way to reduce our dependency on animals to produce meat. http://www.slate.com/id/2189676>1=38001 What will this mean for the future of meat production? Are there larger ethical issues to consider when it comes to stem-cell manipulation and how it’s changing the food we produce and eat?
April 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I nearly lost my arm last year from chemical poisoning when I got a caught by a piece of metal at work that just had anti-rust stuff on it. If there was some kind of chemical in a new product, how would we know the danger is there before something goes wrong? You can look at all the news from this past Christmas about lead paint in children’s toys, and it sounds like this is going on all the time. http://www.emaxhealth.com/50/18749.html How are we supposed to know what’s in our water and food and stuff? Is there somewhere you can go to find this information out?