Food and Chemicals...Good? or Bad?

The "Story of Stuff" explained how our capitalistic ways promote our economy being a materials economy however the video sugested that it is not the entire story. The extraction of the earth's natural resources has been at an accelerating rate since 1950 due to our consumption ways. Earth is already depleted of one third of its natural resources with forty percent of its water undrinkable due to the toxins submitted. A few facts about the USA that is very disturbing in my opinion is that we make up only five percent of the total population, however we contribute thirty percent of the world's waste. Tell me that is economically efficient in terms of the capitalistic ways. The video said how if everyone were like the US that we would need three to five planets to keep up with our disgusting waste habits.

To relate this with Pollan's reading, we can see how since the law of 1850 that allowed food products just to meet a certain standard in order to go to the market allowed for these waste years to be brought upon us. I will not discuss my views on the subject, but will discuss the pros and cons about the chemicals we now use on our crops. To get started on the pros of the chemicals the farmers use today I will bring upon how they resist bugs and other diseases brought upon by nature. In years before these chemicals were available farmers had to pray to God their crops were not damaged by worms, drought, and weeds. All of these factors could destroy a farmers crop very easily, especially the bugs and diseases which is what these chemicals mainly target in these modern times. The cons of these chemicals are very detromental. To start off eighty percent of the earth's natural forests are depleted not due to farming or chemicals but they definately have helped. These chemicals that are used to rid crops of bugs and diseases are also very harmful to humans in which we digest so much every year. In this subject area there are many more pros than cons, however the cons are very weighted due to the fact we consume the chemicals that are put on the crops no matter how carefully the food is cleaned before it hits our kitchen.

It is very hard to say how our world should fix this problem because we have a very overpopulated world and since the law of 1850 that the government passed all farmers really care about is how much they can yield. In other words it is quantity over quality whereas before 1850 the farmers motto was quality over quantity. It is very amazing how greedy people can come over the opportunity for cash.