By Micah Clark | Observer Contributor
In today’s food market, agricultural products often contain unhealthy ingredients and it can be hard to avoid these items, Professor Thomas J. Montagno explained, and he has advice on how to make better choices.
“Monsanto manufactures some of the deadliest chemicals and pesticides of the world,” said Dr. Montagno, Chair of Natural Resources at the Mount and professor for about thirteen years. “If you don’t buy your food organic, chances are it’s from Monsanto,” he added.
Monsanto is, indeed, the largest producer of seeds in the world, and, along with a few other mega corporations like Monsanto, they produce seeds and other products that the average person consumes, said Dr. Montagno.
However, Monsanto also produces chemicals that are sprayed on food to protect against insects and weeds. One such product, glyphosate, aka ‘roundup’ and ‘cleanup,’ is used on plants and has been declared by the world health organization as probably carcinogenic, meaning it can cause cancer. This is compounded by the fact that food is not tested for levels of pesticides and herbicides, and thus food is not labeled if such chemicals were used on them.
So, that makes it hard to avoid those chemicals without doing your own research or eating food specifically labeled organic.
Monsanto also produces the controversial genetically modified food, and these GMO’s are very prolific in non-organic foods. GMO food is not labeled either, so if you wish to avoid those you also need to shop organic or do research on what you are buying. Non-organic soy, corn, and canola are very likely to be genetically modified, so look out for these on the label if you wish to avoid these items, explained Dr.Montagno.
Dr. Montagno also has advice on how to eat food free of these chemicals, “read the labels, shop organic.” Food markets usually have organic sections and buying food locally from farmer’s markets is another good idea. Growing some of your own food is also a possibility, and the Mount has plots of land for students to rent and grow gardens if they wish. The NOFA, the North-East Organic Farming Association, has lots of available information for people wishing to grow their own food organically.
Dr. Montagno also provided a list of resources available for those looking for more information, including the book Foodopoly’ by Wenonah Hauter. The websites ‘food and water watch’ and the ‘Union of concerned scientists’ are also good sources of information. Mount Wachusett’s library is also a viable source of books and videos for information for students.
Professor Montagno suggested the following websites for more information:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture
http://responsibletechnology.org/
Comments are closed.