The American Food Supply is the Most Corrupt in the World

This paper will discuss how much the American food supply is corrupted and how this is correlated with the increased number and variety of disease in the United States. The modern American food supply is truly a verified minefield of health threats due to numerous toxic substances contained in the food available for citizens’ consumption. The consumers of the food are usually exposed to chemically harmful preservative and additives, among them many of which are prohibited from use in other countries all over the world (Bollinger, 2016). Americans are constantly exposed to many genetically modified organisms which are sold unlabeled most of the times. Due to the modern and inorganic farming practices, the exposure to herbicide and pesticides residues has been on the rise and is expected to rise more over the years, coupled with the prevalence of mycotoxins, which have been labelled as some of the greatest threats to the human life (Mead 618).

The main ingredients that they regulate are various color additives and food additives. Additives are substances applied intentionally to foods with the aim of improving the texture and taste of food, increasing the nutritional value of food, and enabling the food to stay fresh for longer periods of time. Color additives are the substances that are used to give food products their color. Before any substances are used, their manufacturers must first get approval from the FDA, which analyses the safety of the proposed products and either clears the product or bans it (Goldberg). The FDA also has the authority to set a limit on the kinds of foods that a proposed chemical substance can be used. If the companies produce harmful substances and fail to seek approval from the FDA before its launch, or deceives the FDA during to approve a harmful product, then the country's food supply becomes corrupted.

Therefore, the FDA and pharmaceutical companies in the country affect the United States' food supply system by far. Despite, this, the FDA is not without its faults. Failure in the Regulation Systems Even though the regulatory bodies have increased the safety of the American food supply a little bit, they have still failed by far, a factor that makes America's food supply the worst in the world. Many professionals and critics in this sector have raised concerns that the FDA approves new drugs and food substances too quickly, which might compromise the whole process of ascertaining their safety. These colorings are identified by the use of number at their ends and they include Red#40, Yellow#5, and Blue# 2 and #1, among others. In Europe, some substances like bromated oil, butylated hydroxyanisole and folic acid there cannot be used in the manufacture and processing of consumable substances, however, they are still in heavy usage in America.

Some other chemicals that are widely used in the American food industry but have questionable safety profiles and have been banned elsewhere are arsenic in chicken, propylene in alcohol and food, antibiotics in fish, poultry, and meat, and artificial growth hormones usage in the processing of milk. Another sensational topic on the food supply of the United States is the high presence of genetically modified foods in the system, and yet most of them are not labelled. American authorities have been very silent about the issue of GMOs yet they have been the subject of high scrutiny and criticism in the European countries. It is could be no surprise if the executives of these corporations were found out to avoid the GMOs themselves.

Any harm to human health, no matter how minimal it is or the number of economic gains that may come with it should be avoided highly. Even with the pressure, some companies are not labelling their products as GMOs making it very difficult for people to identify them. The most prevalent GMOs found in food are corn, including; corn syrup, corn oil, corn starch and corn flour. Some other derivatives from corn that may be GMOs in nature are xylitol, dextrose, citric acid, and vitamin C supplements; Aspartame, which is a commonly used sweetener gotten from bacteria that is of GMO nature; Daily products with artificial growth hormones; Sugar beet, which is the main source of sugar used in food processing, canola oil, cottonseed oil, soybeans, etc.

As these chemicals destroy the important soil microbes, they also eliminate the important nutrients like copper and zinc from them. This strips the bio-potential of the food crops and other plants making these plant highly vulnerable to destruction by mycotoxins, which are extremely destructive threats to human health. There is a dire need to address the food pollution by mycotoxins as they are found everywhere in the modern United States’ food supply. Foods grown on microbe-deficient soils are bound to get infected by mycotoxins from fungi and yeast that can only survive in such soils which are more common than healthy soils in America owing to the intense use of farm chemicals like the Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide (Alshannaq and Yu 13).

Human beings should do their best to avoid these toxic substances as they cause cancer, hormone imbalances and they are highly damaging to the nervous system. The monitoring of the concentration of pesticides in water has also been challenged as it has been found that there are many times when the concentrations of atrazine have been found to be higher than the allowed limits (Nesheim 108). This paints a rather clear picture of the serious health problems that are being caused by the presences of herbicides and pesticides traces in the food and water consumed by Americans. Hormones and Antibiotics in Meat in the American Food Supply The antimicrobial and hormonal growth enhancer in the rearing of food animals has numerous detrimental health effects on the consumers of these animal products.

Growth hormones are used to increase the size and weight of animals beyond the normal ranges and to hasten their growth and development (Landers et al 20). These hormones are usually passed on to the consumers of the products from these animals and they produce the same, though toned-down result in the consumers. This menace can be mainly attributed to the weak regulation of the use of agricultural and food production chemicals by the relevant bodies like the FDA. Therefore, to get rid of this problem, the relevant authorities like the legislature and the FDA must implement stricter rules and regulations in the food production sector the US. This will go a long way in enhancing the overall health of the United States' citizens.