Avery Hohenstein, staff writer
Saturday, May 23rd, approximately 38 countries and 428 cities around the world have gathered together to combine the effort of a “March Against Monsanto”. After the failure of the California Proposition 37 (requiring all Genetically Modified foods to be labeled),
Tami Canal initiated the protesting against Monsanto.
Monsanto is one of the biggest leading agricultural technology companies, and there is endless controversy concerning the use of their more modern technology that involves genetically modifying the food that they put out for consumers to buy.
As Monsanto grows in size, it is still not the biggest market out there; however, it is definitely close. Coca-Cola has the lead right now with a market valuation of $180 billion; McDonald’s, $95 billion; Starbucks, $77 billion; and Monsanto, with a valuation of $57 billion.
Depending on the success of this protest, they at least want to work towards getting all the food labeled correctly. The director of the local march, Abigail Overhulser, said, “That’s our immediate goal - to get things labeled,” then including that “our long term goal is to get these products off our market.”
As they work towards this, there are still many obstacles and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) supporters going against their efforts. The GMO supporters have started fighting back, saying that there is absolutely no scientific evidence supporting that genetically modified food has any health risks.
However, thanks to The Swedish Environmental Research Institute, we’ve seen how the food that we eat on a day-to-day basis can actually be a bit more dangerous than we realize. In a new experiment conducted by the Research Institute, a willing Swedish family of five had all of the food in their cupboards taken and replaced with organic and naturally grown food.
Before the experiment was conducted, the Institute took urine samples from all five family members and tested for any abnormalities. Surprisingly, the results came back with a number of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators.
For the following two weeks, the family had daily urine samples to monitor any changes, and by the end of those two weeks, the number of pesticides had dropped dramatically to almost none. The pesticides in their bodies had been primarily wiped out in just two weeks with the use of all organic foods.
For example, most of us know that McDonald’s surely isn’t the best choice for a healthy meal. Recently, there was an eye-opening article explaining what really goes on behind the scenes during the process of receiving their potatoes. McDonald’s definitely wants to keep up a good reputation for the outsiders, so they insist on getting the most clean looking potatoes.
Except the downfall is that these potatoes are Russet Burbank Potatoes; cheaply produced, and easily blemished. Since this is the case, the potatoes are then sprayed with a pesticide called methamidophos to rid the skin of all blemishes. Makes perfect sense, right?
Michael Pollan, an American author, activist, journalist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, has conducted a short video explaining the unnerving process of the production of McDonald’s food, plus other things to look out for in fast food industries.
This process in particular though, is “toxic to the extent that Idaho farmers who cultivate these potatoes do not go on the fields for five days after the spraying”. The potatoes are then placed into an area the size of a full length football field to "rid" the potatoes of the poisons. But considering potatoes are a root, they act as a sponge to these chemicals, so not all pesticides will be gone.
Even though hundreds of thousands gathered to protest against Monsanto, the struggle of ridding the company as a whole is still at a stand-still. Hopefully, for the health of the world, we can at least continue to move toward getting all the food labeled correctly - and fast.
Saturday, May 23rd, approximately 38 countries and 428 cities around the world have gathered together to combine the effort of a “March Against Monsanto”. After the failure of the California Proposition 37 (requiring all Genetically Modified foods to be labeled),
Tami Canal initiated the protesting against Monsanto.
Monsanto is one of the biggest leading agricultural technology companies, and there is endless controversy concerning the use of their more modern technology that involves genetically modifying the food that they put out for consumers to buy.
As Monsanto grows in size, it is still not the biggest market out there; however, it is definitely close. Coca-Cola has the lead right now with a market valuation of $180 billion; McDonald’s, $95 billion; Starbucks, $77 billion; and Monsanto, with a valuation of $57 billion.
Depending on the success of this protest, they at least want to work towards getting all the food labeled correctly. The director of the local march, Abigail Overhulser, said, “That’s our immediate goal - to get things labeled,” then including that “our long term goal is to get these products off our market.”
As they work towards this, there are still many obstacles and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) supporters going against their efforts. The GMO supporters have started fighting back, saying that there is absolutely no scientific evidence supporting that genetically modified food has any health risks.
However, thanks to The Swedish Environmental Research Institute, we’ve seen how the food that we eat on a day-to-day basis can actually be a bit more dangerous than we realize. In a new experiment conducted by the Research Institute, a willing Swedish family of five had all of the food in their cupboards taken and replaced with organic and naturally grown food.
Before the experiment was conducted, the Institute took urine samples from all five family members and tested for any abnormalities. Surprisingly, the results came back with a number of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators.
For the following two weeks, the family had daily urine samples to monitor any changes, and by the end of those two weeks, the number of pesticides had dropped dramatically to almost none. The pesticides in their bodies had been primarily wiped out in just two weeks with the use of all organic foods.
For example, most of us know that McDonald’s surely isn’t the best choice for a healthy meal. Recently, there was an eye-opening article explaining what really goes on behind the scenes during the process of receiving their potatoes. McDonald’s definitely wants to keep up a good reputation for the outsiders, so they insist on getting the most clean looking potatoes.
Except the downfall is that these potatoes are Russet Burbank Potatoes; cheaply produced, and easily blemished. Since this is the case, the potatoes are then sprayed with a pesticide called methamidophos to rid the skin of all blemishes. Makes perfect sense, right?
Michael Pollan, an American author, activist, journalist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, has conducted a short video explaining the unnerving process of the production of McDonald’s food, plus other things to look out for in fast food industries.
This process in particular though, is “toxic to the extent that Idaho farmers who cultivate these potatoes do not go on the fields for five days after the spraying”. The potatoes are then placed into an area the size of a full length football field to "rid" the potatoes of the poisons. But considering potatoes are a root, they act as a sponge to these chemicals, so not all pesticides will be gone.
Even though hundreds of thousands gathered to protest against Monsanto, the struggle of ridding the company as a whole is still at a stand-still. Hopefully, for the health of the world, we can at least continue to move toward getting all the food labeled correctly - and fast.