(Non-Tech opinion alert. If you're looking for a technical post - nothing to see here, move along...)

I just got done watching The Future of Food and thought I had to make a few comments. The movie is basically a look an admittedly one sided look at the consolidation of the food supply in the US and the fact that a handful of large companies are using every trick in the book to control the food supply and doing so with rather questionable methods and without any regard on the long term effects that genetic engineering and crowding out of local farmers has on food viability and sustainability.

All of this is nothing new, but once again it is just shocking to see the corruption that exists in the United States government and how far it reaches up the chain. The institutions in the government – the FDA (eh, the pharmaceutical lobby) and the Department of Agriculture who are supposed to be looking out for the public interest are almost entirely staffed by corporate flunkies who have turned the oversight process into little more than a farce to allow anything goes in the ultimate in Laissez Faire economics. Any system that uses ‘self-regulation’ for saftety and health standards is clearly not driven trhough public responsibility but a free for all license to do nothing but what the bottom line demands.

A lot of this is our own fault due to our own ignorance and apathy – we seem to continue to keep re-electing people into office who clearly do not have a conscience and who put their political or financial gain before that of the people they represent. And issues like this are clearly by-partisan issues so this is not something that can be painted into the limited two party black and white script…

If you really think about it, our current state of affairs where the control from the top is driven purely through corporate politics with corporations representing just about all the federal agencies, rather than the independent and scientifically oriented body you would expect.  Can you really trust your government any longer? So many lies and truly colored and biased views that make up the law of the land – all in favor of big corporations and their bottom line. And it's not even looking out for companies and business in general but only for those handful of mega corporations at the top of the heap. It’s so bad that corruption and lies are so common that we actually expect it from our politicians and we are surprised – no shocked - when politicians actually do the honorable thing! Shameful that…

Anyway I disgress, the sad part about all of this is how little there is known about the issues at hand and how viciously the big corporations that have a stake in continued lax standards are going after any break in the ranks. From going after scientists who ‘dare’ to speak out against the GMO technology or effects from companies using their patents to blackmail small farmers.

I’m in Hood River, Oregon at the moment and there are many small local farmers in this area, thankfully, so we have access to a local and non-big-corporate food supply here in a variety of places.  And yes there’s no doubt about it eating healthy and organic food is considerably more expensive than eating most of the cheap crap and de-nourished food you buy in the super-market. I tend to think that it's worth it because the food simply tastes better than non-organic food. But no doubt more expensive and it doesn't keep nearly as long as non-organic food - a clear giveaway for 'tinkered' food. I suppose that’s the price to pay for more healthy food and in a way provide a small subsidy to the local food producers if possible.

But even that’s getting difficult with the government muddling with the labeling of food and what can be called organic and what can’t. With big corporations trying to now also trying to cash in on the ‘organic’ market it gets even more scary to get alternatives. When the Organic food label was introduced a few years back in the late nineties the original specification - influenced by the USDA - had no resemblence to true organic food. Even GMO food was originally allowed and it took a large public outcry to get that decision rectified. But just the balls of this flunky agency to try to sell off a clearly incorrect label gives you a good idea just how much trust you can really have in the FDA and USDA 'labeling' system that is meant to ensure YOUR safety! Those fuckers!

Even today this is an iffy affair - I’m not so sure these days when you see an organic pear grown in Mexico or in Argentina… it’s certainly not the same as the organic apple you bought at the farmers market. The regulations now are more strict on what constitutes organic food, but who's checking?

I also know a few of the farmers out here and while certainly not all of them are ‘green’ farmers, most of these small farmers are barely scraping by getting cut out of the market by subsidized corporations and various scare tactics from big companies. There are many a story around these relatively small time businesses of corporate pressure tactics and simple buy out offers that are not always easy to pass up. The thing that is scary on that end is that the number of small time farmers is reducing very rapidly leaving more and more in the hands of big conglomerates that own everything from seed production, to growing, to delivery and remanufacturing into processed foods. All without any real oversight!

But I am always amazed by how few people bother to understand a little more about the food they put in their body and more importantly to wonder where that food comes from and how it was grown. Genetically engineered plants and fruit. Anti-biotically pumped seafood. Unsanitarily raised life stock - all under the 'safe and good to eat' label of the USDA.

That’s if the food is even grown at all – too many people live entirely on a diet of processed food which in this country conveniently doesn’t need to be labeled with everything that it’s composed of. Including the status of whether the food contains genetically engineered food (and chances are that if wheat or corn are in the processed food it likely is!). There may not be any conclusive proof that genetically engineered food is not safe yet, but that doesn’t mean that it’s safe either. Yeah DTD was once ‘supposed’ to be safe too…  

Take the time to think about this and if this concerns you at all, put your money where your mouth is and say no to big corporate food items. The only way that these companies understand is the bottom line and since government regulations are clearly not going to happen in light of the corruption the only vote we have is with our money… don’t support them any more than you have to.