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Posted on 2009-05-17 at 6:39 p.m..
We used to be a nation of farmers. Most anybody knew how to grow food. We knew how to tend animals, how to grow plants, how to harvest, how to store, and how to seed our crops.
Now, the common person knows little to nothing about growing food. Most of us don't even know where the food we eat comes from.
Because so many of our ancestors grew crops, there was a large variety of "Land Races" or rather, there was a large variety in the genetics from one crop to the next within the same species. Be it corn, carrots or potatoes, we only now use 10% of the variety we used to have world wide.
Most of the variety that is left are in small countries that are not selling or producing on a large scale. This can and has caused major problems.
When you have a large mono-crop, when that strand of plant is weakened, diseased or plagued by a certain bug, then the entire crop gets it. In the past, you could just go to your neighbor for a different strand of seeds, but now, these gigantic crops must look out of the country to find different strains to replant.
Because so many of us are unfamiliar with the process, we're not aware of how little the common farmer is paid. We're not aware of what's done to our food, how far it's shipped, and even if our food has been genetically altered or not.
In Europe, or Japan for example, it'll say right on the package ingredients, "genetically modified." In both of those countries the people voted against genetically modified foods. Here in America the foods have not been tested, and have not been voted on by the Congress or by the people. Because it's not on the labels, it's not even traceable.
For more on this topic, watch this fascinating documentary that explains the entire process of genetically modifying plants:
