Food Safety versus World Hunger Debates

Consumers want to know who monitors the toxin levels in fish?

An excellent debate in nutrition centers on the excessive fears for food safety. Are there true or false expectations as to what improved nutrition can accomplish? I highly recommend reading these informative scientific journal articles if you’re researching the topic of food safety for your term paper, feature article, or public speaking presentation for debate.

Debate the topic of how much fiber intake should be appropriate. For research, read and explain in plain language the scientific article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 31:1111–1112, 1978.

Should we ban or limit, or demand labeling of certain ingredients? Which ingredients? Debate the use of artificial and natural ingredients used in the US food supply. Read the article in the Journal of Irreproducible Results 34(4):18, 1989.) Read the article on a proposal to impose an extra tax on “healthy foods” to help pay for the care of the additional elderly people who will result in The Grassroots American 1(4):12, 1995). Highly recommended are the monographs published in the (1993, 1999) editions of the American Council on Science and Health’s monograph, Eating Safely: Avoiding Food-borne Illness.

What you might want to debate on in the field of nutrition are the types of excessive fears of perceived risks in food and the false supposition that improved nutrition offers a path to immortality. What do improved nutrition gains offer in terms of health values?

Which facts are valuable and which facts are unscientific and elitist? On one side of the debate would be the great deal of hunger in America. On the other side of the debate table would be many of the proposals that are being taken seriously. The debate could be about which proposals are most likely to add to the ranks of the hungry and which proposals are focused on safer food and better nutrition leading to longer life spans, improved health at a later age, or childhood health through nutrition.

Another debate for public speakers or students writing term papers could focus on the fact that at least one-third of the world’s population lacks access to food on a regular basis.

You could debate the American quest for a zero-risk food supply (as evidenced by alarms over Alar, genetic engineering, mercury in fish, PCBs in chicken, or food irradiation. The other side of the debate question could emphasize what the cost would be in human and animal lives. Use statistics such as the fact that presently 4000/year of people die from malnutrition in the US. The opposite side of the debate table would be about how many lives are saved by focusing on a zero-risk food supply.

As regards the role food plays in the prolongation of life, for your debate or term paper subject, read the excellent, published 1990 essay proposing that the US build a National Institute of Natural Causes to employ the medical scientists who will be out of jobs after all cancer and heart disease have been prevented (FRI [Food Research Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison] Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1, April 1990).

Your own essay or debate could be on the subject of what role food research plays in the cure for certain diseases or in making life spans longer and healthier. If all diseases were cured, who would employ all the researchers? Who would lose or gain an income? Think about these subjects for your term paper, debate, or public speaking presentation.