Why do food products come mislabeled? For the longest time, I’ve wanted to know why a bag of popcorn said Gluten Free, when popcorn is simply made of corn and could not contain gluten. When I was in high school, I had a friend who couldn’t eat gluten. We were in the same advisory group and our group would get together once a week. We would always bring a snack, but because he was in our group, there would always be some sort of gluten free snack in the bunch. There was the occasional pretzel, which was always marked gluten free, but there was also the potato chips. They were also marketed as gluten free. I didn’t know why, because if you made them correctly, there should only be potatoes, salt, and some sort of oil in the chip. Maybe it was a sort of branding to get the gluten free people to buy it, but I always found it odd. I find that with many corn-based food products, they typically will say gluten free on the packaging. I don’t know if it’s unnecessary in this case, because if you are allergic, you’d want to know. I am allergic to certain food colors and I always like to know if it is dye free. So when something says dye free, I know I’m okay.
Category Archives: Topics for Discussion
Non-GMO Labeling Extra Credit
Within the united states, GMOs, a genetically modified organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques for the benefit of the crops growth and the people, has become a controversial debate in the aspect of if a food should contain the GMO label which is beginning to effect the way food is being produced and purchased across the United States and the world. With the topic of GMOs, many consumers have developed little knowledge about the process in growing them and what they contain which has caused many to publish false information and consumers to become to believe that GMOs are bad. Essentially, with this developed belief, food companies have begun to take this as an advertising advantage and strategy to get consumers to purchase their product even though the product may not even contain genetics such as the product of Pink Himalayan Salt.
Pink Himalayan Salt, a product made of 98% of sodium chloride and contains other minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium that is mined from the rocks of the Punjab region of modern Pakistan, has no genes. However, because much of the public lacks education and knowledge of GMOs and the health of it, the public has come to believe that GMO free products are healthier, thus, causing many food companies to use this as an advantage to label products as GMO free so that the consumer will be more likely to purchase the product even though the salt contains no genes to be altered. Essentially, with labeling, a relationship of trust has been created between the producer and consumer because food labeling allows the consumer to know what’s in the product and purchase it based off of beliefs and individual desires which allows the consumer to know that the company is producing safe products based off of their beliefs; which can be an advantage to the food industry but it can also lead to focused markets and affect the products that are being labeled as GMO.
Dan Severson Livestock Industry Overview
This guest lecture was very interesting and informal. I’m glad we can have someone like Dan Severson who gets to explain to us about livestock. He is very knowledgeable about not only livestock but about the rest of the agricultural industry. My favorite part of his presentation was a brief part but it’s when he talked about the rising of bee keeping. I’ve only scraped the surfaces about beekeeping and hardly know anything at all. It is a topic that has always intrigued me, it especially does now with the drastically decreasing bee population throughout the world. Knowing that it is a increasing industry it makes me really happy to hear that it shows that people are starting to get the picture that bees are important to this world. Another thing which might make me sound a little dumb is that with show animals I always thought that they were judged on appearance not by the cut of beef or pork. But, it definitely makes sense that they are judged that way and it will change the way I view show animals now when I head up the the Farm show in Harrisburg.
For the Product review I picked All-Natural Biodegradable Kitty Litter. I don’t go to the grocery store to much unless I need things for a specific recipe I am making (which is not an efficient way to go to the store). This product is made by the company The Good Earth on the front of this Litter it says Non-Gmo. It is made of 100% American grown grass which is pretty cool I guess. I don’t think it would make a difference to the cat really if the grass was genetically modified or not. I mean I know my cat wouldn’t care for my cat we use a newspaper thing call yesterdays news its made out of newspaper pellets and its easy to clean and holds smell in pretty well. It also breaks down in water very easily.
Guest Speaker Dan Severson: Delawares Livestock Industry
“You are what you eat” (Dan Severson). Dan Severson, a New Castle County Agricultural Agent, discussed with the University of Delaware’s students about Delaware’s Livestock industry, the different types of livestock and the number and size of each type of livestock farm and their comparison to the size of farms across the United States. The livestock industry, unlike many industries, is an industry which includes the raising of animals such as cows, poultry, sheep, and goats for the processing of the animal products for consumers.
Within the state of Delaware, there are 2,500 farms, each contributing the U.S, economy which amounts to 8 million dollars from agricultural products, some of those products being from the livestock industries of beef and dairy cattle, poultry, sheep, and goats; with the poultry industry being the highest. In Delaware, there are 235 beef cattle farms and 14,000 beef cattle, 55 hog farms and 3,500 pigs, 89 farms with sheep and 1758 sheep, and 91 farms with goats and 1201 goats and an exceeding amount of poultry farms and chickens. Essentially, with these numbers in both in the number of farms and animal, Mr. Severson said that they will increase as they are calculated throughout the U.S. making this industry very large and very important in our economy locally and worldwide in the future and current day time. Additionally, from this presentation, many things about the livestock industry can be learned which can help myself and the other students develop a better understanding of the industry itself; and learn something that grabbed my interest which is that Delaware is larger in crop production then the production of livestock but continues to feed 1/3 of the U.S. population with crops and the main livestock producing industry which is poultry.
Dan Severson Guest Lecture
Last Monday, Dan Severson gave a guest lecture on the livestock industry in Delaware. The average annual consumption of beef, pork, lab, goat, and veal has been declining for decades, while the consumption of poultry has been steadily increasing. Food is more affordable in the U.S. than most other countries, with the average American devoting around 9.7% of their household expenditure to buying food.
Of beef cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, diary, and other livestock, beef cattle is the most common in Delaware. Beef cattle in Delaware comprise 14,000 cattle on 235 farms. The second most numerous livestock animals in Delaware are hogs, with 55 farms raising around 6,000 hogs. Approximately 3,000 sheep and goats are raised on 180 Delaware farms. Dairy has shrunk to a mere 21 farms with 4,500 dairy cows. Delaware’s dairy industry is on the decline, with many small family farms trending towards closure. Other livestock raised in Delaware includes bison, alpacas, llamas, rabbits, water buffalo, bees, deer, chicken, turkeys, and emus.
Dan also discussed modern marketing strategies and labeling, such as non GMO, gluten free, organic, antibiotic free, and all natural. Dan finds most of these labels unnecessary, as in the case of salt being labelled gluten free.
Mislabeled Orange Juice
Following Mr. Serverson’s instructions, I set off to find mislabeled items at my local grocery store. One product in particular that I found to be mislabeled was Sunny D Orange Juice. What makes this orange juice different from freshly squeezed orange juice is that it contains water, high fructose corn syrup, and it contained a mix of several different fruit juices. With that being said, it can be argued that Sunny D Orange Juice isn’t really “Orange Juice”, due to the simple fact of it not being made from real oranges. So whenever you decide to go grocery shopping, and are in the mood for some orange juice; take the time to look at the label. If it contains additives such as: potassium sulfate, corn sugar, or absorbic acid, stay clear of it and make sure you pick an orange juice that wasn’t made from concentrate. For example, Simoly Orange is a good choice because it’s 100% pure squeezed pasteurized orange juice.
Mark Lynas video
This was a really well thought out and intelligent speech done by Mark Lynas. In this speech, he talked about a lot of points but the thing that stood out the most to me was how explained that he was wrong. He began by talking about how he had previously tried to fight a lot of the progress being made because he believed things needed to be changed but after learning more about the issues he realized that he was wrong and then openly talked about how he was wrong and then went on to endorse the things he used to fight against within the industry. This is an extremely important thing to commend because it shows a lot of things that more people need to think about. One, while fighting for something he deeply believed in he still considered the possibility that maybe he was wrong or didn’t know all the facts. Two, when confronted with the new information he did not double down on his old beliefs but instead dug deeper and sought out the truth and the whole story. Three, he realized he was wrong and changed his ideas. The fact that he did these three things and on a huge stage is something everyone should take note of because this is how it’s supposed to be and if people did this more, we would have much fewer problems and much more progress.
Extra Credit – Gene Editing
One of the key points that really stood out to me in this document was the knowledge gap about gene editing. In one of my other classes, we were just learning about this and how the gap between people who think gene editing and scientist who think gene editing is safe is large than the gap between people who think climate change is fake and scientists who think it is real. This is a significant problem when it comes to progress because there is a lot more people who don’t know what there are talking about and are denouncing something while at the same time the people that are spending all their time working on it are saying it is good. This causes significant limitations to problems and can be fixed with the thing everyone has with them all the time. If people used their internet access to learn about issues before they spoke out against something, we could be moving along at a much better rate.
Extra Credit- Gene Editing Communication
Genetically modified food is one of the most efficient ways to feed the growing world population because it is able to reduce the risk of disease in crops, and farmers are able to produce more output with the same amount of acreage (this way the farmers make more money as well). However, after reading the article, it is apparent that many people are misinformed about the largely beneficial nature of this process.
People generally like to know where there food comes from, and more importantly, if that food is safe; “2 out of 3 consumers want to know about how food is produced and who’s producing it.” These same people sometimes don’t trust GMO strategies in crop production because it seems to them that the process is unnatural, and that the GMO’s could potentially be harmful.
The best way to educate people on the great aspects of GMO’s is with sound scientific data presented by respected scientific communities because that is what the public would put greater faith in. It is very important to educate and communicate these ideas so the population stands as one in the regard to the advancement of agriculture in a drastically changing and growing world.
Starting the conversation… genes in agriculture
The Center for Food Integrity released an issue on gene editing and how to engage in the conversation about gene editing to consumers. Throughout there were interesting statistics such as the opening statistic of 2 out of 3 consumers want to know more about how food is produced and who’s producing it and more than half of consumers want to know more about gene-editing technology. Out of half of those consumers, 1/3rd have a limited understanding of genes and food. For example, 32% of consumers think vegetables do not have DNA but 2/3rd of consumers think gene editing in humans is okay. This makes it the perfect place to enter the conversation about the world of genetics and agriculture. By being able to connect the population’s understanding of gene editing to agriculture makes the topic more understandable. The journal goes on to give more steps and tips about informing the public about gene editing in agriculture. For example, one should talk about evolution not the revolution of genes; this could also link to another talking point about yield improvements. Many consumers want more environmentally friendly agriculture, by linking gene use to agriculture this educates consumers on the environmental benefits of genetically modified organisms. The most important thing to remember when talking to consumers about genes in agriculture is values are 3-5 times more important than facts. Connect consumers to agriculture by explaining how agriculture is, in fact, meeting consumer values.
EC Gene Editing
Gene editing is one of today’s biggest industries in agriculture. People have been wanting to know exactly how the gene editing is used because of course, people want to know what they are putting in their bodies.
So what is gene editing? “A METHOD OF SELECTIVE BREEDING THAT MAKES PRECISE, INTENTIONAL AND BENEFICIAL CHANGES IN THE GENETIC MATERIAL OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS USED IN FOOD PRODUCTION, WHICH CAN IMPROVE HEALTH, NUTRITION AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP.”
One thing that I was surprised to read about was that feeding the world is on the bottom of the gene editing priority list. I thought that would have been more towards the top.
There are many ways to edit genes. Another important one is CRISPR. CRISPR is a more precise way to edit the genetic code. To sum up this blog post, this article was very fascinating in the ways that people genetically modify our food source and could be very beneficial to our world in the future.
Mr. Walter Edwin ‘Ed’ KEE on Iowa & California-: Agricultural Giants — Farms, Food, Energy, Water, & the Environment
On September 25, 2019 Mr. Ed KEE returned and spoke to us once again- this time, on the two number one U.S. states in agricultural production and value- Iowa and California. Mr. KEE also brought props from a nearby grocery store and books that he had written. The groceries would be used to illustrate the breath and scope of the products coming out of each state and the books would be awarded to the students who volunteered answers or thought-provoking questions. Mr. KEE brought a lot of his discussion topics back around to the Delaware overview he gave the class last time, to give context to the numbers related to both states outputs. Prof. ISSAACS also corroborated these facts with his own knowledge of agriculture throughout the talk.
The talk began with am overview of the state of Iowa. The state is flanked by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers with transportation and mills throughout, facilitating the high rate of production, but without the huge population centers nearby like Delaware has. Iowa also has 85% of it’s land in farms, compared to Delaware’s 41%, with 87, 500 farmers spread across 30.5 billion acres, 5 million of which are dedicated to fruit and vegetable production. Farm production generates 92% of the state’s farm income, mostly generated through corn, soy beans, pork, and beef. Iowa usually vies for 1st in soy production with Illinois, but in hog production Iowa reigns supreme, with 11 pork processors across the state, each plant going through 90, 000 hogs a day. Iowa is also the largest producer of table eggs- Delaware’s Puglisi Egg Farm, by comparison, only outputs 90, 000 dozen eggs per day, according to Prof. ISAACS.
Iowa owes its high production output in no small part to its climate and soil. Iowa has a mild growing season, with few 90°F days. The states soil is mainly loess- fine silt & clay particles- deposited via glacier over thousands of years,10-30 thousand yrs. ago. Those soils have a high cation exchange ranging from 10-15- much higher than Delaware’s soils that stay around 1 or 2. Mr. KEE said he’d never encountered a Delaware soil with an exchange rate of 3. Those same soils will only hold around 3-4 inches of water before draining. By contrast, the impressively healthy soils of Iowa run very deep. Mr. KEE cited 1880 records from a farmer who reported prairie grass as high as his head while standing up in his wagon- meaning the roots would run at least so deep. Mr. KEE was then able to confirm by his own first hand account, that Iowa soils do still indeed run quite deep- at least 9ft without hitting a hardpan. Because of this great soil and climate, Iowa land has a steep price- prime land can be $10, 000 or more, with most acreage ranging from $6, 000-$$7, 500. By comparison, Delaware prime acreage tends to be around $6, 000 per acre.
A large part of Iowa’s acreage is used to grow corn an soy beans. But while a large portion of those crops will become animal feed- 40% of the corn produced will go to hogs and cows- an equally large portion will become biofuel. Along with meat production in Iowa, tractors, animal genetics, and seed are major components, but ethanol is definitely a larger part of the agriculture industry.
After September 11, 2001 and the World Trade Center attack, Iowa corn began being used for 15% of the gas blends used today, in order to decrease the nations dependence on oil. These events lead to the passing of the 2006 Ethanol Law supporting its production and use. Mr. KEE and Prof. ISAACS elaborated that while ethanol is not quite as efficient as gasoline alone, it combusts well and stretches oil. It also has the tendency to gum up engines and eat fuel lines, which lead to the creation of additives to make the biofuel work more efficiently and reduce harmful emissions. Another biofuel, soy diesel, smells like popcorn and enhances lubrication, but while it canlower carbon footprints and has less btus per gallon than gasoline, it is only really available for alternative markets. Soy diesel is common in the MidWest, but must be shipped for use here in the East at a higher cost per gallon. Iowa alone is responsible for 25% of the nations exports in ethanol.
Iowa is also home to some pioneers in agriculture. An Iowa company Stine seed, created 40-50years ago, generates 63% of soybean genetics in North & South America. A man named Harry STINE, who became the richest man in Iowa at one time, created the company. Another successful man, Norman E. BORLAUG, father of the Green Revolution in the 1960s and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and World Feed Prize in the 1970s, became a plant pathologist and breeder who came up with high-yield crop variations. These innovators were able to help countries like India and Bangladesh become more self-sufficient as well. The nations government of the time as well as foreign governments over seas acknowledged these accomplishments. Mr. KEE showed us a PowerPoint slide of the Premier of Russia visiting an Illinois field in the ’50s of ’60s to learn more about agricultural production at a time when the Soviet Union needed to increase their food production for their citizens. This government support for its farmers is contrasted by a modern example brought up by classmate, where the current President- whose administration is responsible for aiding farmers as well as securing and reassuring international trade partners- has lessoned the amount of ethanol required in gasoline, which by extension, lessons the demand for corn used to produce it.
Mr. KEE then switched the discussion to the highest-ranking agricultural producer California, whose controversial agricultural legislations revolve mainly around water usage and water rights.
California agriculture is mainly conducted on a prehistoric lakebed and in fertile desert regions that are supplied water via aqueduct and irrigation. A key location among these zones in the Sierra Madras Valley, facing out towards the Pacific ocean it is surrounded by mountains on three sides. The snowfall in theses mountains is gathered each winter to re-fill the states reservoirs and supply the extensive irrigation system that consists mainly of two large aqueducts, one state funded and the other federally funded, that are 30ft. deep, 60ft. wide and run for 300 miles.
The usage of this water goes primarily to the farmers for their fields, after which it flows to Hollywood and Los Angeles for drinking water. In addition to this water, some farmers have water rights for the water under their property- some do not. Because of the Homestead Act and other laws, some farmers pay the rates they would have paid over 100 years ago, while their neighbors rates may be much more exorbitant- the difference between $10/gal and $200/gal. The drama surrounding farmers and their properties has been well-documented in books and movies like, ‘East of Eden’ and, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. With only 4-10in. of rain per year, the snow harvest is integral to the success of each years crop. Because of the arid climate, diseases and fungi find little success in California.
California grows many varied crops, including lettuce, tomatoes, and enough almonds to cover the state of Delaware! With so many crops to harvest, California has adopted a reliable way to ensure their product makes it to market. In the 1960s a Mexican man names Cesar CHAVEZ, a WW2 U.S. Navy veteran began the United Farm Workers Union– if a worker works over 10 hours, they must be paid time and a half. To avoid the extra expense, farmers will often simply hire more workers. The rules for paying workers vary from state to state, however. Another classmate asked if Delaware farmers were exempt from paying minimum wage. Mr. KEE explained that most workers will not bother to show up if the pay is less than minimum wage, so the market supersedes the written law- farmers can’t afford to be stingy! Farmers will also work with the government H2A program, which works with people from Haiti & Jamaica to guarantee seasonal labor for farmers. This labor guarantee helps generate a larger gross domestic product.
Another California product, tomatoes, have been broadly cultivated and marketed across the U.S..- 95% of tomato products in the U.S. come from the state. Mr. KEE displayed some of the spoils from the aforementioned shopping trip- along with a small package of Iowa bacon were several cans of tomato products, including stewed tomatoes. A machine harvesting process was created to harvest tomatoes regardless of the weather; with equipment that can travel over the relatively dry California soil to handle special varieties of tomatoes with thicker skin and more uniform shapes to handle the rigor of the mechanized process- this machine would be unreliable driving on the often muddy soils in Delaware. This invention coincided with the termination of the Bracero Program in 1964- the program allowed Mexican workers to come in to harvest crops during wartime.
Another mechanical harvesting process Mr. KEE encouraged us to look into was almond harvesting, which involves a machine violently shaking almonds from a tree and then raking and vacuuming them up from the ground.
Mr. KEE concluded his talk by mentioning the Port of Wilmington (Delaware)- purported the second largest port following Antwerp, where Chilean fruit and bananas are received. Mr. KEE lamented about having always wanted to take students to see to port, even though he is now retired, offering up the experience as something for Prof. ISAACS to consider.
Mr. KEE gave the two books to the most vocal students in the class and packed up what I assume was a weeks-worth of breakfast before saying goodbye.
Mark Lynas Video Review
Mark Lynas, an environmentalist, does a whole 180 on his opinion on GMO’s (genetically modified organisms). At the 2013 Oxford Farming Conference, Mark talks about how Anti-biotech’s complained about GMO’s, but yet they created them. They put the power into making them something. GMO’s cannot be processed without the consent of Anti-biotech’s permission. He talks about how the organic field is myth for helping improve the environment and peoples health. They say its healthy, but has been proved not to be many times. People spend lots of money for the name “organic,” when it is no better then other foods. Organic is also the lowest in production, and its worse for biodiversity. Many people question what is behind global warming. One guy assumes it cant be carbon dioxide. Green house gases are responsible for the warmer temperatures in the colder times of the year. This can be why certain winters are so atrocious. He answers many questions about GMO’s, nutrition, and global warmer.
Mark Lynas Video – Sean Michael
One of the biggest problems facing the world is our potentially growing world population and how we are going to feed it. With GM technology and research, we can feed the soon to be 10 billion people with the same amount of land we are currently using for 7 billion people. Two minutes into the video, Mark Lynas admitted that his anti GM movement was anti-science, and that his group denied scientific data in the process and focused on fear reactions. Lynas pointed out that GM cotton and maize both needed less pesticides and chemicals than the non-GM versions, which shows their benefit. Also, not all the money goes to the big corporations; billions of dollars of GM sales go towards small farmers, especially in developing countries. GM foods are much safer and precise than conventional breeding and takes out a large portion of the time it would take to create the hybrid naturally. Golden rice is a vitamin rich rice that is very easy to grow, and could help feed and give the essential nutrients to many starving people worldwide, but it can’t be distributed because it is labeled as a GM. In the beginning of any movement, change is not taken nicely, but once the facts get out to the public about GM, there will be a new perception, and we need to thank people like Mark Lynas for speaking out.
Mark Lynas Speech
Mark Lynas gave a captivating speech on how his point of view on GMOs has dramatically changed since 1995. Back in 1995, when Mark first heard about Monsanto’s, Mark immediately made his conclusion. He believed it was just another large American company putting something experimental into our food supply without warning. He thought GMOs were the most unnatural thing you could make and that something was bound to go wrong with humans gaining too much technological power. These claims spread rapidly and soon made GMOs banned from Europe, even though there was no science backing up these claims. After digging into the claims he made many years ago and the consequences of these claims, Mark began to explain why his claims were wrong. Mark began by stating what he thought and following it with the science that counters his claims. Mark explained how dangerous he thought GMOs were, he followed that by explaining how GMOs are safer and more precise than conventional breeding. He also told us he thought GMOs would increase the use of chemicals but it turned out they needed less insecticide. Mark thought GMOs were only benefitting big companies, and turns out they were generating billions of dollars that were benefitting farmers. Mark goes on to talk about the benefits of GMOs and how they are effecting our world today.