Omnivore
Science is a neutral human pursuit. It is only the application of science that raises potential ethical questions. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle perfectly exposes the ways science can be manipulated by the hands of its sponsors. Money determines the nature of research, its methodologies, its findings, and its applications. Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma raises similar ethical questions and concerns, focused not on the military but on the food industry. Arguably, the food industry poses far more complicated ethical issues than the military-industrial complex. The military can be viewed as an ethically incorrect institution, as even when it presumably protects the lives of Americans it does so necessarily at the expense of the lives of others. National security is not built on a universal human rights vision, but on a xenophobic model that presumes national superiority and reinforces an "us vs. them" mentality that is at the root of many human problems. Unlike war, food is a universal need. When food science is in the hands of the corporate oligarchy, Americans suffer distinct negative consequences on a personal and collective level. It can even be said that food industry science indirectly harms national security by creating generation after generation of unhealthy, overweight individuals trained to listen more to advertisements than to their own bodies. Therefore, science used by oligarchy is inherently wrong. Food science and military science both have the ability to benefit Americans, but neither is currently doing so.
Science needs to be freed from the hands of corporate interests, even though those interests are what fund science in the first place. This is the core dilemma of any argument about the nature of science and its impact on American lives. It is technically impossible to pursue scientific knowledge without financial resources. Therefore, corporate interests need to become more benevolent in their goals, and more humanistic, if the pursuit of science is to be ethically correct. Given the relative and theoretical impossibility of that happening, both food science and military science are likely to harm Americans in the near future.
There are proven detrimental effects of both the military and food science industries. These detrimental effects need to be explored rationally. As Ferrie puts it, the "fundamental right to business has to take the back seat...because the right to life is higher than all laws and rights." Scientists concerned about keeping their jobs are conveniently selecting the information they would like to include in reports, eliminating others in the interests of pleasing corporate sponsors. Issues such as food safety, food security, "the human right to choose what goes into our mouths," and natural crop diversity are taking a back seat to corporate interests and not enough Americans seem to care ("The CCPA Monitor"). Interestingly, science is showing Americans that agriculture is bad for the body regardless of whether it is peddled by Monsanto or not. Public health "appears to have dramatically declined when they shifted from hunting and gathering to relying on agriculture," ("The CCPA Monitor"). Unfortunately, it may be too late to return to the hunter-gatherer model, as Michael Pollen poignantly illustrates in The Omnivore's Dilemma. The question now is how to rescue science from the clutches of corporate greed.
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan explores several different ways corporate greed in the food industry is hurting Americans. One of those ways is by desensitizing Americans to the sickness that is the modern factory farm. Part one of the book explores the nefarious industry. It is difficult if not impossible to find any inherent benefit to factory farming, other than profitability. For the average American who is not directly profiting off the industry in terms of being a shareholder or investor, the factory farm is detrimental to health. Factory farming is detrimental to American food security because it id diverting acre upon acre of arable land toward cattle. That land could be put to better use that benefits...
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