Day 28 - "The Future of Food"

With this month on Nutrition ending, I wanted to finish my movie watching with talking about where food is headed in the future. So the movie for today is "The Future of Food".

Food, as well as the manufacturing of food, has gone through many evolutions throughout the years; from growing food differently in the hopes of making it cheaper and more available for consumers, and leading up to today's genetically engineered foods and rise in the benefits of the producers.

In the 20th century, food manufacturing underwent a major change. New technologies, such as gases used as pesticides and DDT promised higher yields, cheaper prices, and more availability of food products. It was these technologies that fueled the birth of the Green Revolution, or a way to systemize agriculture so we could create more food for people. During this time, farm fields went from hosting a wide variety of crops, to just a few crops, and finally to being planted with just the one crop: either corn, wheat, cotton, or soybeans. Even these four main crops were narrowed down to just a few varieties of the species. This narrowing of the species happened with many other crops too, like potatoes, but problems arose from having too few choices. In Ireland, since there was only one type of potato being grown, when the potatoes became diseased, many people died from lack of being able to switch to another variety. In America today, only four varieties of potatoes are grown. In fact, 90% of the varieties of food once grown are now extinct.

When scientists discovered they could splice genes in plants together in order to make them resistant  to pesticides and herbicides, to make them grow closer to each other, and to grow bigger, the Green Revolution turned into the Gene Revolution. When one scientist discovered a gene that could resist products like Monsanto's weed killer RoundUp and bugs, he went to get his discovery patented. For the first time in history, humans gained the dangerous power to  paten life. Now this issue of patenting life has been taken to an extreme; where plants, animals, and even genes can be patented. For companies that owned these patens for genes, they own whatever these genes go into: seeds or animals. Interestingly, the issue of patenting life has never been voted upon in the United States by its citizens or by its congress. In the meantime, companies like Monsanto are benefiting from the ability to paten their genetically altered seeds, which encompasses over 11,000 seeds.

Since the ability to paten seeds became a reality, many farmers have suffered the negative effects. In one Canada field, a farmer by the name of Percy, whose family had been seed developers and savers for generations, found some plants on his field that were tolerant to Monsanto's RoundUp pesticide. Monsanto got word of this and claimed that the plants were actually Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds and tried to sue him. Monsanto claimed that Percy had infringed on their paten, even after dropping the lawsuit against him. Monsanto forced him to destroy all of his seeds that he had been saving for years, all because the Monsanto seeds had contaminated all of it. How could a multi-billion dollar company do this to a small farmer? Shouldn't farmers be able to save their own seeds for later use? To be able to buy from their neighbors without worrying about infringing on a paten?

In the year 2000, another farmer, Rodney Nelson, received a letter from Monsanto accusing him of infringing on their paten. The claimed to have sampled all of Nelson's fields (which Nelson later explains was physically impossible in the time limit they had) and found Monsanto seeds. Nelson was forced to pay a large fee but is not allowed to discuss the settlement.

In addition to Percy and Nelson, Monsanto has sent over 9,000 letters to farmers, most of which had opted to just pay a fee, and agreeing to never discuss their settlement. When Percy fought Monsanto for his seeds, the Judge ruled that it did not matter how Monsanto seeds got into his yard, that he had violated Monsanto's paten. The judge also ruled that any farmer that has a regular conventional plant that gets cross pollinated with a Monsanto seed, regardless of whether it was put there by choice or not, becomes the property of Monsanto. In addition to this, the judge ruled that the fact that Percy did not use Monsanto products on his plants to be immaterial. Now, it is the farmer that is planting the seeds responsibility to "fence" their seeds in their own fields and to fence out the genetic ones.

When companies like Monsanto genetically alter our seeds and plants, they used what is called cell-invasion technology where they have bacteria and viruses invade cells with genes attached to give the plants specific functions. In order to have plants that no longer respond to the pesticide RoundUp, Monsanto figured out a way to recombine E. Coli infused with the gene with the spliced cell of the plant. In addition to giving seeds and plants the ability to resist different pesticides and herbicides, scientists have also attached an antibiotic gene to the cells of the plant. They can then test to see if this antibiotic is being expressed in the foods to tell if the plant is a genetically altered one. However, they did not account for the possible ways that these different genes could work together and influence each other in many unpredictable ways.

In 2001, people finally began to find out that the foods they were consuming were genetically engineered, especially once individuals began suffering from allergic reactions. While government agencies like the USDA and the FDA were responsible for testing products and determining the safety of them, the U.S. did not have a single requirement for testing. The claimed that genetically altered foods were equal to other foods. When one woman pushed for genetically altered foods (GMOs) to be labeled, her campaign was demolished by a much larger and more costly campaign by the GMO companies. Many others have demanded for the labeling of genetically altered foods, Calling it the Food Right to Know Act, but still after 10 years we are waiting for an answer. If GMOs go unlabeled, there is no way to trace them. So, if someone were to have an allergic reaction, they would not be able to trace it to genetically engineering. Companies do not want to have GMO foods labeled  not only for fear of people not buying it, but also because we will be able to trace diseases and allergies back to the specific gene, and then to the specific company. That would make the companies liable for the problems they are causing. On trade representative suggested that we watch today's children for the next ten years to see what happens. It's been over ten years, and clearly the diets of children have taken dramatic effects, while our government still has taken no actions.

Another threat of genetically engineered foods are the potential for super weeds. These weeds are resistant to herbicides, forcing us to have to spray stronger solutions and more of them onto our plants in order to kill of the weeds. So these foods may be even more contaminated with these chemicals than ever before, and they are reaching our supermarkets. Hoc could this possibly be approved. Dan Quayle, who served as vice president under George H. Bush, recommended that there should be no regulations or testing on GMOs. This outraged FDA researchers because of all the potential problems untested GMOs on supermarket shelves could have. But even with the strong disproval from the FDA, Quayle brought in Michael Taylor, the Deputy Commissioner for Policy in the FDA (and previous senior counselor of Monsanto) who overrode their refusal. So America became the first to put genetically altered foods on their grocery store shelves, with no labels and no required testing.

By the year 2003, the U.S. had sold millions of pounds of GMO products, like corn, to other countries. However, resistance to GMOs continued to grow all around the world, especially from farmers. Since the cost of fertilizer, seeds, oil, machines, processors, transporters, restaurants, and more have depleted the income a farmer makes off their product, the government has had to offer farmers subsidies in order to make their work worth while. So the skills that the farmer relied on so much in the past, their traditional skills, have transformed into the skills of how to market themselves and know who to get what they need out of the government.

When some states, like North Dakota, tried to weed out the growing of genetically altered crops in their state, Monsanto and other Genetic Engineering Companies threatened lawsuits and removal of state funding. When universities began asking questions about the safety and nutritional value of GMOs, the companies combated by providing funding for research studies that the GMO companies could benefit from and to prohibit studying of the negative effects of the GMOs, even forcing the suspension of professors who dared to study these negative effects. In addition to forcing certain kinds of studies, gene companies also forced schools to pay for the use of the genes they were experimenting on, such as the cells known for causing Breast Cancer and tested on for potential cures. If the company found anyone researching it without paying for the gene, they would sue the group.

Increasingly, we have less and less control over what is on our shelves. Today, most of the seeds we consume are controlled by four companies, 80% of the beef we consume is processed by four companies, and it is projected that in the next ten years that only six companies will control the retail in the world (Wal-Mart being the only American company). In a world where people are starving everyday, it is noteworthy to know that this has nothing to do with food availability. Most of these starving people were at one time farmers themselves. Now, after receiving loans from the large first world countries, these farmers must spend their money on exported food to pay off their loans and can no longer afford to grown their own food. In 1994, America began to campaign for international patenting. This would allow America to gain more financially because if another country, even a third world country, has their products, then America would get the money for it. To progress economically even more, the gene companies have developed what they call "Terminator" Technology, or suicide genes. When these seeds have produced their crops, the new seeds automatically kill themselves. Therefore it is impossible to save the seeds. What if, though, these plants were to cross pollinate with our normal crops?

With all the dangers of GMOs, what would it take to change our fate? One solution is sustainable agriculture. By recycling resources within the system to keep it more pure and using solar energy to fuel our systems, we can go back to growing many different kinds of diverse, sustainable, and healthy  plants. Since most of today's supermarket foods have traveled over 1500 miles and need chemicals to keep them in peak condition, it would be better for us to get our foods within our own communities. Through Community Supported Agriculture, we can obtain a variety pack of products from local farms, encouraging the growth of many kinds of foods and even heirloom plants in our home communities. Eating organic foods, instead of genetically altered, may not always look good from an economic standpoint, but it always looks good from a health standpoint. We need to counter this genetic revolution by starting one to grow fresh produce at our local farms. Since 1995, the number of farmer's markets has more than tippled! While this change in our industry has made some large steps forward, the consumer is still the king, but consumer cannot act without the knowledge about the food industry. We need to really get the word out about what is happening within our food chains and within our governments in order to cause a bigger change, and to make a difference in our and our future generation's lives.

Today's Workout: Today is the last day of my workout break! Hallelujah! I'm so ready to get back into the swing of things. But for all the rest of you out there, since today is Friday… it is our break day. Hope you all enjoy taking the day off and relaxing!

Today's Food Tip: Today I want to share one of my favorite recipes with you: Homemade Apricot Pistachio Granola Bars. These bars are very yummy, filling, and best of all: healthy! Here's how to make them.

1. Line an 8x8x2 inch pan with tin foil. Then spray some cooking spray onto the foil. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of quick oats, 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Stir these ingredients together until it becomes clumpy and totally mixed. Then, pour 3/4 of this mixture onto the bottom of the pan and pat down to make the bottom crust. Set aside the remaining 1/4 of mixture.
3. In a small sauce pan, pour one can of sweetened condensed milk. Heat over low until warmed all the way through and thinner.
4. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup of shelled pistachios, 1 cup of chopped up dried apricots, 1 cup of chopped up dates, and 1 cup of shredded coconut. Pour the warmed condensed milk into the mixture. Mix until everything is well coated. Then pour this mixture overtop of the crust in the pan. Spread around evenly.
5. Use the remaining flour mixture to sprinkle overtop of the bars.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. When done, take out of the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Then lift the foil out of the pan and peel down the sides of the bars. Cut into 16 bars, store them in the refrigerator, and ENJOY!

Today's Relaxation Activity: If you have a pet, I suggest taking a couple minutes of your day today to play with it! Especially if you have a dog! After a few rounds of tug-o-war, you'll find yourself smiling and relaxed from the fun!