With a mix of interest and occasional horror, I have observed our cultural conversations around food evolve over the past several years. I have watched as GMOs consumed the minds of millions, panicking us into believing we are poisoning ourselves with “frankenfoods,” despite GMOs being safe to eat. All the while, savvy marketers use “non-GMO” labels to sell products at a premium, even when none of their included ingredients exist anywhere in a state of genetic modification. I watched organic become all the rage, with health ‘experts’ proclaiming anything else a sin against your body and those of your children, despite organic being a more expensive option than most people in the world can afford, and conventionally grown food offering the same health benefits.
For several years now, GMOs and organic have consumed America’s attention. It isn’t our interest in these topics that is the problem. After all, we do put these foods into our bodies! The problem is that our collective attention is spent so obsessively on these issues that it comes at the expense of everything else. It’s the everything else that has me concerned. We’re fretting over papercuts while we’re hemorrhaging out of our leg.
In our food and agricultural dialogues, too often someone waves around a hot button issue with little impact on the long-run, while issues that really matter lay neglected on the roadside. This happens to sell products, get your ‘click,’ gain political clout or procure your signature or donation. Sometimes it happens because of ignorance.
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