Amidst all the controversy of organic vs. genetically modified (GM) and natural vs. unnatural, my mind is beginning to feel like a pretzel. The pros and cons of each are compelling. Who wouldn’t want to eat organically grown, non GM food? Unfortunately ‘organic’ comes with a hefty price tag.
The pros of eating organic are clear. I don’t know anyone who would choose to ingest pesticides and consume ‘manufactured food’ if they gave it serious thought. On the surface it sounds like a no-brainer, but realistically, it’s complicated.
Feeding the world is a pricey yet necessary endeavor. But how do you feed the world with organic food? The answer is you can’t; at least not now. From the way things are looking, we may have trouble feeding ourselves. We’re paying the same price for GM food today that we were paying for organic last year. And although there is no hard evidence that biotech foods are harmful, we don’t really know the long-term effects.
The higher cost of ‘green’ is prohibitive for many Americans, no less than third world countries. However, Friends of the Earth asked the African countries of Ghana and Sierra Leone in 2006 to recall the genetically modified rice our government sent. Though an estimated 14 million Africans, 2.3 of them children, were starving, the food was refused. Friends of the Earth, but not ‘Friends of Humans’, I guess. For starving people eating ‘dirt pies’ and facing death within the month, GM rice would definitely be the wise choice. Everything must be weighed relatively.
We have created for ourselves an artificial world with all the comfort and convenience we desire and are paying for it on many levels, including with cash and with our health. If you are wealthy, you can afford to eat organically, build yourself a ‘green’ house, drive a green vehicle, dress in organic fabric and purchase a clear conscience in the form of carbon offsets for any ‘carbon footprint comforts’ you find you can’t live without. But honestly, how many people in the world can afford to live that way? I’m in a quandary over economic survival vs. conscience that I share openly with my children. I won’t tell them they can live however they want, just buy organic and carbon offsets; I don’t believe that is necessarily living responsibly.
How can both the rich and the poor of the world live environmentally responsibly and healthily? This is the real answer the world needs.
Give someone a fish they eat for a day, teach them to fish, they eat for a lifetime.
Ask Mom, She Knows 