Capitalism: The Soil Where Food Grows
Foods we consume can be looked upon as somewhat vastly different than the foods consumed by our predecessors. Technology and scientific innovation progresses at a staggering and nearly exponentially greater rate from each year to the next, and its reach leaves little industry untouched. Most mass-produced foods we eat today contain some level of preservatives, alterations or other biological modifications. In a sense, it is almost as if we should redefine the simple name of what we eat. Is a carrot still a carrot? What gives the food we eat a name?
The debate on genetically modified foods is one that continues to carry stronger and stronger throughout the years. Some crops are modified to prevent insects from eating them, other foods are altered bio-mechanically to provide additional resources or to grow larger. Even so far as farm animals are given treatments that dramatically increase their body size, yielding more meat.
To preface the argument food or against genetically modified foods: there is simply no easy solution. The overall scenario of genetically modified foods has many different parameters. These parameters include ethical, religious, legal and environmental ramifications. It would be equally as irrational to say that genetically modified foods were more or less dangerous than they were beneficial. The perspective to the scenario should be taken on both micro and macro levels, and to perceive their effects in the most open-minded scenarios as possible. Much of the rhetoric against genetically modified foods focuses on a fraction of what they entail; while, perhaps, leaving out economic models that suggest fewer alternatives.
A great example that sets the playing field for genetically modified foods is the nutrition shortage in Southeast Asia. In this region, rice is the greatest staple food.