In the past several years, the increasing use and growing supply of genetically altered crops has influenced farmer's supply and affected consumers" demands for agriculturally related products. Consumers are asking themselves, "Just what's coming to dinner?" .
For some, this question is easy to answer. For others, this poses a controversial debate into whether genetically modified crops should be allowed into the American food supply. In half a dozen countries, consumer groups and government policy makers have fired a debate saying that while genetically modified food may feed the starving now, the long-term effects may harm public health and hurt agriculture trade in the future. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, over 30 percent of American corn and at least 70 percent of American soybeans are genetically modified. That means the plants genes have been altered to make crops easier to grow and more pest resistant. Seed developers are able to target a single plant trait without the unintended characteristics that may occur with traditional breeding methods. The current U.S. food market contains almost 60 percent genetically modified food. The GM food supply seems to be endless in a world where food is definitely everyone's security. .
Consumers have responded to the increase in GM food with challenging questions such as the expected effects of GM food use. The enthusiasm is far from unanimous. For instance, two years ago when protein from Starlink corn was found to have a possible human allergen, over 300 corn products were recalled--everything from Taco Bell taco shells to various corn chips and other snacks sold by Kroger and Safeway. Food companies shelled out $9 million in order to settle the consumer class action suit for this case. .
In more recent months, the seed production giant Monsanto--hoping to avoid a controversy--notified officials of a system slip of canola strains that had never been commercially approved for use.
