China melamine-tainted milk products has brought up serious concerns on food quality and unethical business mindset of companies that prioritize only on maximizing profits by all means, including risking millions of lives.
However, I'm not here to talk about China tainted milk products as I think you could read more about it from newspaper. I wanted to share with you a far more serious food pollution which has deeper implication and far-stretched impacts on us, and most importantly our future generation: GENETIC ENGINEERED FOOD
To read more details, please click on the link below:
http://www.themostnatural.com.my/changeclimate/images/EarthMatter/Info/GMO.jpg
GE is very common today in our daily food consumption. Examples:
- Insulin producted from GE bacteria
- Fruits and vegetables - to make it more resistant, bigger and visually attractive
- Food products (rice, corns, etc) to be resistant to bacteria
- Genes from fish have been inserted into tomatoes to prolong shelve life
All this is to minimize foodwaste from perishable commodities and increase profitability of the food manufacturers. However, GE or GM (Genetic Modified) food is very dangerous as scientists are still yet to know the invisible negative side effect of DNA mutation and it is irreversible. Even the Asian's staple food, rice, is GE to resist pesticides and herbicides. There is no long term safety testing on these GE food that uses materials from organisms that have never been part of the human food supply to change the fundamental nature of the food we eat.
Fundamental Weaknesses of GE Food:
1. Imprecise Technology - GE may disrupt the functioning of other genes essential to the life of that organism
2. Do not have full knowledge of the impacts and consequences
3. Decreased nutritional value of crop by its misleading counterfeit freshness
4. Knowing their GE crops can tolerate the pesticides and herbicides, farmers will use them more liberally.
5. Once GE organisms are releases into the environment, it's impossible to contain or recall them.
So the only solution left is: EAT ORGANIC FOOD and BE A VEGETARIAN!!
I will start eating organic food when I had my own family.
