Future of Food

After watching the film Future of Food, I researched my favorite snack, Cheetos. I visited the FritoLay website to search for some answers about Cheetos. It was very hard to find any answers about where they are manufactured, where the ingredients are grown, if they are made with any genetically modified ingredients, and how far they had to travel to get to my grocery store.

I decided to contact the company through email and ask them about my unanswered questions. A customer service representative contacted me within 24 hours. She stated that since the FritoLay company is so extensive, she would not be able to tell me exactly where my ingredients came from. However, she said they were grown in the United States and were shipped to my location from either Georgia or North Carolina. On the topic of genetically modified ingredients, the representative said she was unable to speak in that topic but she advised me to check out the "Our Planet" section on their main website.

(The label above lists the ingredients and the nutritional values.)

Ingredients: Enriched Corn Meal (Corn Meal, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Thiamin Monoitrate, Riboflavin, and Frolic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean, or sunflower oil), Whey, Salt, Cheddar Cheese, (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes). Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Maltodextrin, Disodium Phosphate, Sour Cream (Cultured Cream, Nonfat Milk), Artificial Flavor, Monosodium Glutmate, Lactic Acid, Artificial Colors (Including Yellow 6), and Citric Acid. Contains Milk Ingredients.
http://fritolay.com/our-snacks/cheetos-crunchy-cheese.html

After watching the Future of Food DVD in class, I began
thinking more about my food and where it comes from. I started buying my produce from the local farmer's market instead of the grocery store. I have payed more attention to the nutrition labels and ingredients in the pre-packaged food that I buy. I didn't know that 75% of the world's farmers depend on their saved seeds. The pesticide company, Monsanto launched a full-blown lawsuit on a farmer for "illegally" obtaining their (Monsanto) seed. I thought that lawsuit was ridiculous and the worst part is that Monsanto won. There were numerous occasions that this exact thing happened to many other farmers.

I think that consumers should be aware of what is in their food! I believe that we have the right to know what is in our food and be given the choice to eat it. We should also be informed of alternatives so that those who want to change what they eat, can.

This film was useful in my learning because before I watched this DVD, I had no idea that there were genetically modified foods, the government had such control over the farmers, or that there were government cover-ups and farmers were paid to keep their mouths shut.