Friday, January 13, 2012
Who decides in government?
Monsanto has a virtual monopoly in genetically modified crops. In recent years, several countries and even the pope has banned or voiced major concern over the use of such crops. Over the recent holiday, the Obama administration gave approval to Monsanto to produce a new genetically modified corn. Over 45,000 public comments were made in opposition to the approval; 2 in favor. Should the approval have been given to the company? Here is the link.
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I don't think people realize how big corn really is in our country. There is a great book called Omnivore's Dilemma, and a documentary called Food, Inc., that touch on this issue. Not only are all of our cows fed with corn (not supposed to be), same goes with the pork and the chicken we eat. What about non-meat products? The book has a stat in it that says something around 80% of our food has some sort of corn or corn byproduct in it…most likely a GMO Monsanto strain.
ReplyDeleteThe American food system, much like the American economy, has all the eggs in one basket. Our dependence on corn is as gross as our dependence on foreign oil. And Monsanto, the Wall Street of food, is as crude and profit driven as the worst of them. I find it very difficult to support anything Monsanto does.
I think that the issue lies within the consumers inability to distinguish between GMOs and non GMOs. Currently, no state requires genetically modified food producers to label their products as such. The average consumer may be averse to buying GM food but unable to accurately distinguish between the two. Currently California is trying to develop legislation that mandates GM food producers to label their products accordingly. Should this bill pass, perhaps other states will follow suit. If consumers are as fervently opposed to GM foods as indicated by the number of comments in the above article, demand for these products will decrease. The real question is whether or not consumer's ideological opposition to GM foods will outweigh the costs associated with purchasing non GM foods.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think approval would be given to the company when the genetically modified food is so largely opposed. One of the last sentences, " You may think those helping to pass the GMO bills truly believe that genetically engineering the food supply is beneficial to public health, but the scary truth is that many of said individuals couldn’t care less about humankind or the future of the planet." is very concerning. With so many people against the food, and statements like that you have to wonder how it is going to be released and the US and what will happen once it is.
ReplyDeleteI think Ryan has a great point. From my understandings, it shouldn't matter as much about whether the corn hits the market or not, because if all the buyers have all the information about their products, through their actions the market would fix itself and lower the demand if that is what the public so desires. But once again that is where economic theory falls short because it is based in a world of perfect information, that is never an actuality. So would providing labels make economic theory into a reality, or are there other factors that should be taken into account as many have already pointed out?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how Monsanto has gained such a monopoly on the food market and I also found it interesting how Bill Gates has such strong ties to the company. But after further thought I beleive that his support is targeted more toward the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases. The quote that Cate references is important for this discussion because the people in charge of passing this bill may care more about the monetary benefits that will be gained from this product.
ReplyDeleteNotice how all the comments are assessing costs and benefits of some sort. One of the market failures here is that we dont' know what the true costs and benefits are. But is this a market failure that should be addressed by governmental intervention?
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