Connection

Over the last 100 years our food industry has changed dramatically and we have now come to the point where we are so blinded to what is actually going on with our food. Whether its knowing whats in our food, how its made or where it even comes from it’s certainly scary seeing how much we’ve lost our ways regarding ethical farming practices.
The traditional ways of growing food barely exists anymore and the big corporations like Tyson, Swift Foods, Cargill and National Beef now own 80% of the market. Now that we have such a high demand in food due to the current population we have decided to take the easy way out by placing factory farms throughout the country and push our friendly local farmers to the side. By supporting these big, greedy corporate business’s it has allowed people to make money much faster but the quality of the product itself is a fraction of what it used to be. People are no longer caring about the nutritional content of food or what it tastes like, the ways animals are raised or even what its like forming a relationship with nature in itself. Food now days has more chemicals than before and the nutritional content keeps declining more and more each year. Chemicals like ammonia help kill off E.coli found in meat products and are sold to 70% of the country. The big farming industry is always trying to find new ways of efficiency but with efficiency comes problems. Purchasing items that all look the same regardless of what they taste like is causing us to waste and toss out a unfortunate amount of food and human dignity.
Even though I personally would like to see GMO’s labeled on my food or have all ingredients including chemicals noted on the items i’m purchasing, i’m not 100% certain this will benefit us in the long run. It would be different if the industry wasn’t so far gone but if we were to have Monsanto label ALL of their products around the world starting tomorrow won't this just bring on more scarcity?
Aren’t we already tired of being constantly fed scary and fearful information? Since most families don't have the time or money to eat healthy this has caused an increase in diabetes, toxicity and pharmaceutical bills. Once more of the population is aware of whats in their food the demand of organic foods will only go up higher along with prices. Monsanto is a chemical company that began selling its round up ready soybeans in 1996, only 2 % of soybeans in the U.S contained their patented gene. 12 years later this billion dollar industry is now throughout 90% of the country. If we label everything, the rich will just take over all the good organic chemical free foods and the poor will be left to eat the scraps. Which is whats happening right now. But if we slowly and continually as nutritionists and students inspire all of those around us one person at a time we will start to notice a shift in conscious consumerism. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, so show your neighbours/clients how read labels. Make friends with your farmers, plant a garden and if you say grace ask for food that keeps us and the planet healthy. The simple idea of food labeling I believe will be too much of a shock to the system and will do more harm than good.

• You can change the world with every bite.