By :
Catherine Harvey Submitted:
2008-07-10 11:12:59 Number of Times Read: 8
The credit crunch is biting. Mortgages are hard to come by, house prices have dropped, wages are not rising with inflation and the cost of food has rocketed in recent months. In fact, the food bill is now such an expense every week that banks are lowering the amount they are willing to lend people because of it. It's not easy to get a carrier bag of food shopping for less than twenty pounds these days and that's not enough to feed a family for long.
We are constantly advised in the press and from the medical world, how best we can look after our health. The biggest way is by our diet and lifestyle. Sticking to a varied diet of fresh food and staying active is enough to keep our general health in good shape as well as keeping down our life insurance premiums. But how on earth do we do this when food is so expensive?
Help is at hand. The issue of genetically modified food has reared its head again but with a different twist. Back in the nineties, GM food was in the press, hailed as a way of making greedy food manufacturers more money by producing larger crops. These crops were genetically altered to make them resistant to weed killers, which meant that they could be sprayed without harm and they were also made to produce their own insecticide in order to reduce the amount of pesticides needed.
However, even back then, they had a point. The world's population are living longer with the help of new medical discoveries. The more people on the planet, the more food is needed. With global warming comes our unpredictable weather system and a few days bad weather can wipe out a whole crop, leading to food shortages. Therein lies the argument for GM food.
To take that one step further, food scientists have now found a way to enhance this food with extra nutrients, in effect, giving us all we need for a day in one meal. If the idea takes off it means that not only will the food bills be reduced for everyone, but food will go further round our ever expanding population.
Examples of the new GM foods are potatoes that come with a third more protein content, tomatoes with the inbuilt capability to prevent cancer and peanuts without the allergy causing chemicals. Cassava is one of the top vegetables in the new GM crops with genes that enable it to draw extra iron and zinc from the soil.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what could be achieved through this science. Fighting disease, starvation and poverty can only be a good thing and it might well pay us to give the new crops a chance before we dismiss them out of hand.
If governments allow these GM crops to take the place of 'normal' crops it could mean an end to many illnesses, malnutrition and high life insurance premiums. I, for one, cannot see the problem with this.
Author Resource:-
Insurance expert Catherine Harvey looks at the health benefits of GM food and how they could help reduce life insurance premiums.
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