Saturday, December 21, 2019

To An Anthropologist, Food Is The Basis To Social, Cultural

To an anthropologist, food is the basis to social, cultural and biological life, and therefore of the utmost concern to most people (Leng, 2016) however, with the growing population, climate changes and lack of agricultural land we have had to switch our approach to food production. Genetically modified or engineered food has become a heated topic in the media for the past few years as there is not a clear decision on whether their benefits outweigh their concerns. Genetically modified food is a grey area to discuss as there are strong opinions surrounding which tend to be very biased. The difference between genetically modified food and genetically engineered food isn’t explained and the terms tend to be used interchangeably- however,†¦show more content†¦Since 1996, farmers in developing countries have received an extra 70 billion dollars from switching to genetically modified crops as they are able to produce a higher yield (Staropoli, 2016). Globally, farmers have reported that on average, they were able to make back over 3 dollars on every genetically modified plant in comparison to traditional crops. However, that 3 dollars was actually over 4 dollars in developing countries in South America, Africa, and parts of Asia (Staropoli, 2016). For example, corn farmers who had genetically modified insect resistant crops claimed to have a 13 percent increase in their yield, whilst cotton farmers had a 17 percent yield in comparison to conventional farmers (Lendman, 2008). Farmers are able to get a notable yield improvement but at the cost of plant di versity and vulnerable plants. In the last one-hundred years, the global seed diversity has declined 75-90%. The majority of our world relies on less than 20 different crops (Gidding, 2016). This highlights many concerns revolving around genetically modified plants vulnerability and a lack of plant evolution. We continue to lose touch with our wild plants. In 2014, over 180 million hectares of genetically modified crops were cultivated by more than 18 million farmers in 28 countries (Kalaitzandonakes, Phillips, Wesseler, Symth,Show MoreRelatedFood Preferences and Taboos: an Anthropological Perspective1526 Words   |  7 PagesFood Preferences and Taboos: An Anthropological Perspective Across the world, there is an extensive range of animals and plants of which humans have at their disposal for consumption. Despite this though, many cultures and societies engage in preferences and taboos of which restrict their dietary range. The term â€Å"food taboo† has been used to describe the practice of where people deliberately avoid consuming a food, which is otherwise perfectly okay to eat (Lien, 2004). 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