Relative Something

All right friends and loved ones, there is something bothering me that needs to be shared. I tend not to fret over the multitude of conspiracies that threaten our security at every turn these days, but that doesn’t mean I’m not susceptible to interpreting the possibilities as viable. I do realize that we face challenges, such as global climate change, extremists who terrorize, money worshiping executives willing to use Ponzi schemes, and scariest of all lately, the Mayan calendar ending in the year 2012. But, my greatest concern of late hits me right where I feel the most tangible, immediate impact: my stomach.

My recent concerns over food started when I was given an opportunity to view the 2007 documentary, King Corn. It raised my awareness of how prevalent high fructose corn syrup had become in the wide variety of processed food generally available in my diet. That initial trigger event was then augmented last weekend by my viewing of the 2004 documentary, The Future of Food. This movie reveals the drive by corporations to acquire patents for genetically engineered plants (and eventually, animals, too) and how genetically modified foods are entering the global food chain, not always with notification on package labeling. The next threat to my former blissful ignorance is one I haven’t even seen yet, 2008’s Food, Inc. I’ve heard enough about this movie that I am concerned that watching it may leave me unable to maintain my intentional naiveté and I will be left unable to find anything I’m willing to eat.

One thing that struck me from the facts and statistics that are presented in the movie “The Future of Food,” is how relatively recent much of the genetic changes have occurred. According to the movie, successfully splicing genes began in the 1990’s. That’s since my children were born! The foods we eat now are different than what was being sold just 20 years ago. I’ve often wondered why food allergies are so much more prevalent in children today than when I was a kid. The fact that the types of food grown on farms a couple decades ago is different than what is grown now is just one of the obvious differences faced by kids today.

It would appear that there is some short-sighted decision making going on that eludes thorough testing and dodges explicit labeling in favor of swift profits and sizable margins. Could there be anyone left in the world who finds such a possibility surprising?

In what I admit is an extremely superficial analysis of the situation, as I see it, the corporations with interests in the seed market or weed-killer/fertilizer industry (quite possibly both owned by the same parent company) are making decisions in the interest of profit that put at risk the health of our global food supply. Won’t this just come back to impact them just as much as everyone else? The corporations and executives may amass gigantic amounts of financial wealth, but then they won’t have much in the way of food worth eating on which it could be spent.