The Modern Day Food Industry

The modern food industry rears its animals,preventive measure or to treat illness but some
grows its crops, manufactures and markets itsare given as growth promoters. The bacteria that
foods with the impetus to cut costs, produce andlive in these animals quickly become resistant to
sell more products.To make profit they disregardantibiotics. The antibiotics used for animals are
animal welfare, promote unhealthy eating andsimilar to those used to combat human health
advice, contaminate the land and livestock withproblems and it is becoming more evident that
pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics and go againstthere is a cross-over effect with the bacteria that
laws of Mother Nature with genetic engineeringcause illness in humans. Human bacteria are
and irradiated foods. Whilst the companiesbecoming more resistant to the antibiotics that
involved within the food industry are making fatwe use, thus reducing affective treatments.The
profits, the majority of western societies are alsogenetic modification (GM) of food involves the
getting fatter and unhealthier. Rich westernartificial insertion of a foreign gene into the genetic
country such as the Unites States and Britain arematerial of an organism to create a food
spending billions on curing degenerated diseasessubstance which is more economical to product.
such as cancer, in fact the cure rate has notThere are presently two types of GM crops, one
gone down and maybe a percentage of theto be resistant to herbicides in order to kill weeds
money should be spent in research on whyand the other has been engineered to produce
people are getting sick in the first place. Suchtoxins to kill pests. In 1996 the first GM crop was
research would no doubt bring up questions aboutgrown in the US, now three quarters of the
the food we eat and modern day food industryworlds GM crops are grown in North America.
practices.Animal welfare is the price to pay bySoya and maize are the main GM crops grown in
intensive methods of production that modern daythe US and oilseed rape is grown in Canada.
food industry uses to increases rates ofAdvocates of GM crops claim that GM crops can
production. Every day 100,000 broiler chickens dieprovide a solution to world hunger with higher
prematurely in UK farms due to the methodsyields and are better for the environment
that they use to increase productivity. In the UKbecause of their need for less herbicides and
70 per cent of the 29 million egg-laying birds arepesticides but in reality every benefit claimed by
housed in battery cages, 35 million British TurkeysGM crops has not happened but many problems
are fattened in cramped sheds that contain up tohave occurred. The facts are that GM crops do
25,000 birds which results in many ailmentsnot increase yields and do not reduce the use of
caused by overcrowding and 500,000 sows areherbicides. GM and organic crops can not co-exist,
kept indoors in cramped conditions throughoutin Saskatchewan Canada GM contamination wiped
their lives which causes them to suffer fromout the whole organic rape seed sector. In the US
muscle weakness and lameness. Modern day dairymany people reported allergic reaction to GM
cows are bred to produce as much milk asStarlink maize which then had to be recalled with
possible and when either infertility or ill health setthe estimated cost of $1 billion.Pesticides are
in (partly due by their welfare conditions) they arechemical substances that are used in modern
no longer of use and are culled. This is normallyfarming to kill or control pests. Although there are
only after 5 years.For nearly 50 years nowsome naturally occurring pesticide used in modern
antibiotics have been used in farming as growthfarming the majority are made from synthetic
promoters and it is now coming to light thechemicals. The usage of pesticides increased after
negative affects that it has on human health. Inthe Second World War to increase food
the UK most intensively reared animals are givenproduction. In the UK it is estimated that over 4.5
antibiotics on a daily basis. This is mainly as abillion litres of pesticides are used in farming.