Tuesday, June 09, 2015

The End of Plenty

NPR's "Fresh Air" show of June 8 was truly captivating, especially the first segment concerning the book "The End of Plenty" by Joel Bourne. Here is the link to the show in case you missed it.

Mr. Bourne makes some very insightful points about our food production models. I was particularly interested in the fact that GE/GMO crops have not been found to produce significantly higher yields than unmodified versions. If this is true and we add to it the fact that there is evidence of human DNA alteration from GMO products, one has to stop and wonder what benefit (other than huge profits for companies like Monsanto) this altered products bring us. Here are some references:

Another disturbing aspect of the report is the prospect that regardless of our advances, we will not be able to produce enough food to feed all of humanity 50 years from now. That is a scary thought if you just stop and think about it. Part of the problem is that we are taking an enormous amount of our crops and using them to feed our cars instead of feeding people. In the process of trying to maximize profits, we are overusing pesticides and fertilizers disregarding the damage to the soil, rivers, lakes, oceans, and all the eco-systems connected to them.

Coincidentally, yesterday I also came across this video from Conservation International:


The most powerful point: if we keep this up, we may not destroy the planet, but we may destroy our species.

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