One only has to look around at the number of obese people struggling to walk normally to question the integrity of the industrialized food system. There is something wrong when the citizens of some of the wealthier global societies are dying from poor nutrition.

Food corporations have developed sophisticated marketing strategies that pressure parents into buying foods that are unhealthy for their children. The allure of brightly colored packaging attracts children so effectively that their parents simply give in to their cries to buy the product. Government subsidies make up part of the industrialized food system. They will financially support farming that has essentially become a large corporation that utilizes such farming practices as monocropping, genetically modified seeds and the spraying of insecticides. Society is paying a very high price for these non eco-friendly farming practices.

Monocropping means that there is very little rotation if any of crops. The soil eventually becomes depleted of valuable minerals that humans and animals need to maintain a healthy immune system.
These agribusinesses practice other non-eco-friendly farming strategies that are coming under more scrutiny by concerned consumers. Insecticides penetrate into the water table and eventually these toxins find their way into the intestinal tract of humans and animals. The toxic chemicals in the gut seep into the capillaries and compromise the human immune system. Humans, especially the elderly develop auto immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis where the body’s white blood cells will attack the joints in their wrists, hips and ankles.

Genetically modified foods have had their DNA altered to make the food more visually attractive to the consumer as well as to better resist herbicides.These foods have been consumed by humans for seventeen years and data is starting to emerge indicating increased risk of developing allergies. GMO foods also harm to other organisms as in the case of the Monarch butterfly caterpillar dying from the pollen of genetically modified corn pollen.

Many new food movements have been created to encourage organic farming and buying local produce. Concerned citizens want to take control of what they eat to ensure a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their children.