The objective of this part of the 21 day World Hunger series has been to shed light on the dangers or potential health risks of genetically modified foods in our food supply. Under the guise of mass production to feed the world's hungry, Big Agra has artificially and genetically altered staple crops like corn and soybeans. And while this seems to be a noble cause, the introduction of genetically modified organisms or GMOs into our food supply may have far-reaching negative consequences. Given the mounting research indicating that more testing and studying needs to be done before we unleash these foods into the global food chain, we need to start asking some very important questions.
1) Is it really fair to subject starving or undernourished people to possibly more health risks by feeding them GMOs?
2) Big Agra GMO crops decimate the soil and environment through the use of pesticides and should Big Agra companies like Monsanto be allowed to rape and pillage both the earth and its people?
3) Should Big Agra be given the green light to continue to corner the market on GM seeds?
First and foremost, I am very honored and humbled to be taking part in this worthy project of raising awareness and generating solutions to end world hunger. For 21 Days 5 Conducive Chronicle writers will be eating a diet similar to the almost 1 million of the world's hungry and presenting research on the topic. And a very special thanks goes out to Kenda Swartz Pepper, whose idea this was, and to the talented and motivated writers with whom I am collaborating.
I was inspired to join this project because the more I read and learn about the world's food supply, food politics and how food is produced and distributed, the more I am convinced that everyone should know where our food comes from and what's in it. It is a very complex system and should not be taken at face value from what we see and buy at our supermarket or grocery store shelves. As we go about our daily lives, many (if not most) of us are unaware of the choices made by large corporations that affect what and how we eat. And essentially many of us are sleepwalking as we fill up our grocery carts.
As promised, I will be re-posting portions of the "21 Days for World Hunger" series from Conducive Chronicle. I strongly encourage you to read, share and absorb all that it will has to offer.
925 million people. 21 days. 5 writers. Joining forces and uniting voices to help those living with hunger. Together we embark on a journey to learn, share, explore, write and make whatever effort we can to help reduce the global catastrophic crisis of world hunger.
Welcome to day one of twenty-one days for world hunger. We hope that you too, in your own way, will join us on this journey.
When I was a kid, my parents harped on me to eat everything on my plate, because children in Ethiopia were starving. I must confess that even though I felt for all those kids, I didn’t really make the connection. While I rarely had a problem finishing my plate, on liver and lima beans night I didn’t have much compassion for those starving kids. That dinner was invariably and surreptitiously fed to the dog. While I may have gone to bed with the slightest tinge of hunger on those particular nights, I always knew there would be a meal the next morning. Now in 2010 I am a different person and the world is a different place. Now it is well known there are children all over the world – even in our communities – who are living with hunger. Now the notion of wasting food feels nearly criminal to me. Now I see how the food choices I make impact not only my own health and well-being but also the health and well-being of hungry children.
Those of you who have been following my blog know that I am quite passionate about a few things--especially when it comes to our health, well-being and taking steps to do better, feel better, be healthier, etc. I recently came across this video and I think that most of the latest books about food and how we eat are really making the point that "Food Matters." What we eat matters. It matters to animals, to the air we breathe, to the soil our food is grown in, and ultimately to our own health and the survival of our species. Throw in a bunch of cliches or sayings like "You are what you eat," or "Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," and you get the point. Take 3 minutes and check out this trailer. I hope it gets you thinking.
There needs to be a great turning in our society-- a turning away from drugs and "magic pills" that artificially "fix" our health woes. We need to be turning toward the root cause-- how we got to this point of sickness and disease in the first place, and start taking steps to reverse it. We need to stop just accepting the poisons and toxins that come in brightly colored boxes on our supermarket shelves and start taking action to get better!
For more information, you can find many resources here.
On that note, I will be exploring this topic further--perhaps in a new blog (still deciding on that). And to reiterate one of my most favorite sayings:
“Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”-- Margaret Mead
