Research Paper Topic

Topic: Technology in agriculture
Tentative argument: Technology in agriculture (Ag) has created a situation where Americans have a major disconnect with their food while concurrently having negative effects on health and the environment.

Sources:

‘A Conversation with ‘Food, Inc.’ Director Robert Kenner’
By John Birdsall from Sf Weekly
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/06/a_conversation_with_food_inc_d.php

‘Environmental Impacts of Agriculture’
Adam Litterman, Tolu Onigbanjo and Teresa Soroka, Princeton University
http://www.princeton.edu/~chm333/2003/agriculture/index.html

‘Food, Inc.’
Film

Mothers for Natural Law
http://www.safe-food.org/-issue/dangers.html

I have been inspired to do this research essay after reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbra Kingsolver, but I wasn’t exactly sure the direction I wanted to take it in. It seemed like perfect timing when I saw previews for Food, Inc. on KQED. I watched the movie and knew I had to do my essay on this topic. It is shocking to see the way industrial technology is used in the food industry. It struck me as very unnatural and left me wanting to learn more.

I’ve learned that Ag was a technologic advancement from hunting and gathering. Ag changed the way people lived. It used to be that people moved to where the food supply was, but Ag made it possible for people to permanently live in one centralized location and form communities.

The industrial production of meat, vegetables, and grains is extremely unsustainable. Not to mention that the industry is monopolized by a few big companies who are mass producing cheap food with heavy reliance on petroleum-based chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers). The food can also be contaminated due to unsanitary practices of mass production farming.

Americans are no longer connected to the origin of their supply beyond the supermarkets. This is not surprising due to the fact that mass production companies do not advertise their farming techniques. In an interview with SF Weekly, director of Food Inc., Robert Kenner states that "All we want is transparency and a good conversation about these things."

Genetically engineered foods look safe, but in reality there is not enough evidence or a large enough time span to prove they are completely safe for consumption. Genetically modified crops can contaminate natural crops by cross pollination. If this increasingly happens to natural crops and even wild plants, then there will be severe decreases in genetically pure plants. Where will be when the world comes to realize that GMO foods are not an option, but so much genetic contamination has resulted in no other options?

The industry seems to want to continue to rely on technology to solve the problems that current technology is causing. Maybe the answer is in less reliance on technology and going back to basics.