Walker Walker Callie E Due 20121126 ENGL 1320 016 Prof Raina Joines Research Based Action Essay Identical Technologies Diverged Ideologies America The EU and the Trans Atlantic Food Policy controversy America was attacked on September 11th 2001 A shock wave of terror unmatched by anything to date was felt in the core of every man woman and child around the globe The attacks of September 11th will forever be remembered in the hearts and minds of the American public the 3 000 victims their names etched in stone The tragedy of this event is clear but is this the biggest disaster we are facing What most don t realize is in 2011 there were 400 000 people in America that died from obesity related illnesses 23 according to the article Obesity as America s Number One Killer Medical News Today 5 This means that if 9 11 happened everyday for a year that would still only be one quarter of the victims that die from obesity in America annually There is a very large subculture that has spilled over to mainstream America This subculture surrounds the issue of our food supply our agricultural structure and the reform that needs to take place The United States currently has no regulation regarding the production processing selling or consuming of genetically modified foods Giants in the food industry fund the experimental DNA manipulation of products like corn apples wheat and broccoli and go completely unchecked by the regulatory agencies in the United States As the nutritional focus of the United States has shifted from malnourishment and inadequacy to caloric excess and obesity the quality of the American diet has also changed According to the CDC Walker Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than one third of adults in the U S are obese Obesity related conditions to include heart disease stroke type II diabetes and certain types of cancer were the leading causes of preventable death in 2010 and 2011 US Obesity Trends 82 A nation whose basic nutritional needs are met has an easier time focusing on educational social and environmental issues and are deemed highly evolved societies More than a century ago nutritional issues facing the US were due to lack of intake rickets scurvy and beriberi 334 were common ailments among the malnourished as listed by Elizabeth Frazao author of America s Eating Habits Changes and Consequences America has not worried about malnutrition or lack of calorie intake in many years but now she now faces an entirely different issue Frazao says eating in a developed country like the United States becomes a social business and family event an act of pleasure that goes far beyond the ingestion of the necessary nutrients to sustain life 2 Genetically modified foods remain a controversial topic in America today and it is a fight of many facets So many perspectives are present in this debate because it is so closely ties to our existence The environment is bearing the brunt of the abuses from GM crops Household names such as General Mills Nestle Pepsi co and Coca Cola have stomped out all competition and in doing so have usurped control of the regulatory process Consumers are not allowed to know what is in their food and farmers no longer allowed to choose what to plant all of this is now dictated to us by Big Agra With so many angles of approach and so many industries and people potentially impacted it is clear why there is controversy surrounding GMOs There is nothing more imperative in our lives today we cannot trust the one thing civilizations have thrived on for millions of years the food supply Food is the cornerstone of all developed nations and many have fallen from its mismanagement The demise of Rome revolts in China the fall of the Irish America is facing this ancient battle in a modern world The Omnivore s Dilemma A Natural History of Four Meals was published in 2006 by Michael Pollan What should we eat for dinner 1 is the catalyst for Pollan s discussion on food and the system that has developed around this once simple question This is a question we have contemplated since people Walker walked upright and The Omnivore s Dilemma dives into the thick of it Pollan discusses the maze that are the grocery stores of America and addresses what is actually found there Each type of food system industrial industrial organic organic and hunter gatherer is followed back to the source Pollan finds himself in quite a few different predicaments throughout this book and uses them to shed light on problems we are facing today The politics behind planting and harvesting on the Naylor Farm abuses committed on the feedlots of Kansas and his own ineptitude for gathering mushrooms in the forests of California force Pollan s quick realization that this may be a more complicated endeavour than he anticipated He looks to address our National Eating Disorder 1 by following a meal from the rays of sunshine or fossil fuels as he will later find out that helped the plant grow to the barbeque that brings his family together What starts out as a simple question proves to have much more breadth and depth than one would first imagine The most shocking issue surfaces early on in the The Omnivore s Dilemma it is the social moral and ethical ramifications of genetically modified organisms GMO Michael Pollan is a highly educated professor of environmental journalism at UC Berkeley but his overly nostalgic view of farming and predictability in The Omnivore s Dilemma is disappointing Everyone on this planet knows that a McDonalds cheeseburger does not offer the same nutritional value as a head of broccoli The corporate giant spends a lot of time trying to cover its environmental footprint but the sustainability has always been subject to public scrutiny Pollan hints that although well intentioned organic companies have sold their souls to the devil and conformed to the industrial norms The character depicted in Joe Salatin is the mold Pollan wants everyone in America to follow however he fails to realize not everyone is capable of ousting government regulation in such a way Salatin says The health of these animals is inextricably linked to our own by a web of relationships 81 and Pollan uses this as his platform for much of the rest of the book Pollan s elitist view of American food culture is rather impractical and the pang of guilt left for the reader when he sits down to his meal completely hunted gathered grown and prepared is poorly implemented Although Pollan has a quite elitist view