I NEED TO MAKE COMMENTS ON MY CLASSMATES’ COMMENTS. THIS IS MYANSWER TO THE QUESTION FOLLOWED BY MY CLASSMATES’ COMMENTSBELOW IT. EACH COMMENT YOU MAKE ABOUT THEIR COMMENT SHOULD BENO MORE THAN 50 WORDS UNLESS NECESSARY BECAUSE THESE ARE JUSTPARTICIPATION POINTS SO THEY ARE OPINIONS ABOUT THEIR ANSWERS. NOAPA FORMAT OR ANYTHING. I AM REQUIRED TO COMMENTON 5CLASSMATES’ COMMENTS SO YOU CAN PICK ANY 5 THAT YOU WOULD LIKE.THANK YOU!MY ANSWER:No the government should not subsidize organic farming and the federal government should alsonot give the money to the organic farming. The reason behind this are the following six pointswhich would make the scenario more clear.1. Organic foods won’t solve the hunger problem.This is the one that the pro-organics often seem to gloss over. Chemical-based farmingmethods vastly increased crop yields and made it possible to feed far more people than everbefore. So much so that it could be argued that the recent food crisis isn’t so much about our foodsystem failing so much as it is about the slowdown of an unprecedented food boom that occurredthanks to the methods the organic movement decries.2. It’s questionable whether organic foods are healthier for you.Cancer rates dropped by 15 percent since the approach of chemical farming and the average lifeexpectancy went up nearly 10 years from 1950 to 2000 according to the CDC.3. It’s questionable whether organic foods are safer.It’ll be hard to argue that organics do or don’t make you live longer for at least anothergeneration but you can get a quicker sense of food-safety issues surrounding organics.According to the Center for Global Food Issues organic foods account for only 1 percent of theU.S.’s food supply but eight percent of its e. coli cases.4. Organic farming may not help the environment.There’s something to be said about this. If you’re buying produce from an organic farm you’rereally not doing much to reduce your carbon footprint by paying to have it shipped to you in say Miami Beach Fla. And since organic farming is less efficient than what’s now consideredconventional farming it requires more land spelling disaster for certain decaying ecosystems.5. You’re not sticking it to the man by buying organic. Corporations are nothing if not good at sniffing out new ways to make money and the fact thatorganic food grew into a $40 billion worldwide industry by 2006 wasn’t because mom-and-poporganic farms everywhere started suddenly thriving.6. Organic food doesn’t necessarily taste better.CLASSMATES’ ANSWERSHEATHER’S COMMENT:I believe it should. I do not know much about farming or organic farms. I do know that organicfarms have a lot more hurdles to jump through in order to be certified as organic. While there isnot any federal government funding for farms there are US government and non-governmententities that provide funding for research activities related to sustainable agriculture includingorganic farming and food. It doesn’t amount to much and also depends on what you areresearching. For right now that is all the help available for organics in the farming industry.CYNTHIA’S ANSWER:This will forever be an issue for so many people the same arguments will be made about GMOfood and how they are not real. I can see where each side has a point the want to make. If youcan give the customer the healthiest food possible that should be all that matters. I have no wayof knowing what is organic until I go to the store and see the price increase for the same food onsale. If I take a bite of an apple and it tasted like a banana them I will have an issue with thatfarmer and the government. At this rate it is safer to just grow your own plants to eat. If you likeorganic food at a good price grow it yourself. If you could care less that talk to the governmentand have them pay everyone for the food they grow for us to eat.NATALIA’S COMMENT (INSTRUCTOR):Should we be subsiding farming at all? Should they get all these millions of dollars to plant foodthat will be used in unhealthy processed foods (mainly corn) or give it to low income families tospend at farmer’s markets?HERMAN’S COMMENT:I believe that the millions of dollars used for subsiding farming should be given to low incomefamilies to spend at farmer’s markets. However how would it be regulated to ensure that themoney is spent properly? Not subsiding farming would undoubtedly cause an increase in food prices to make up for the lack of funds provided by the government but it could also forcefarmers to become more concerned about the quality of their crops. If low income families hadmore money to spend at farmer’s markets it would increase their option to purchase a healthierchoice. Yet at the end of the day the choice is theirs to make.JASON’S COMMENT:The money should be given to low income families in the form of the food stamp card where itcan only be used to buy food. It can also be altered electronically to where only a specific typeof food can be purchased with it thus making it impossible for the families to use it onsomething else. There is the chance of the card being “sold” for cash or other types of food butnothing is 100% perfect and people will find loopholes if they are desperate enough.HEATHER2’S COMMENT:I think that is a good option. There is so much to regulate with it though. How would youdetermine who is truly needy and who isn’t? It is so hard to regulate food stamps regulating themoney from farming to low income would be difficult. Then you are talking about more statefunding for employees to handle the procedures and protocols and in the end there is not muchsaving or going to the low income families. Might as well keep it with the farmers.
