Maybe Chipotle Going GMO-Free Really Does Matter?

            On Monday, the fastest growing fast-food chain of this decade – Chipotle, announced that they would no longer serve food that featured genetically modified organisms (GMO’s). The announcement brought on widespread criticism from the scientific community as both the Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization have deemed GMOs perfectly suitable for human consumption in recent years. Several media outlets around the country were quick to hail this change as a baseless PR stunt that only worked to help boost Chipotle’s image as a cheap and conveniently healthy alternative to other ‘fast-casual’ chains. National headlines have labeled the announcement as the restaurant’s way of promoting a “global propaganda campaign^[1]” that has no true scientific backing.

When looking at the response to this change it appears as though we are missing out on one of the key ramifications of the change, how will this improve or hurt farmers around the world?

            The scientific community has come to a clear consensus on the whole GMO matter: they do not have immediate effects on anyone’s health (long term research is still not fully conclusive as pointed out by Chipotle in their press release) and are safe for human consumption. The farming community has not had the same cohesiveness when it comes to a clear outlook, and the opinion on GMOs depends majorly on what country you are farming in.

Countries like India and the Philippines have gone as far as to adopt harsh anti-GMO policies that often ban many types of GM seeds from being used in that country. Currently 26 countries have specific policies that ban the use of a GMO seed – and more are looking to follow suit every day.

Why are so many nations banning farmers from using genetically modified crops? The path to these laws can be traced most clearly along the journey of genetically modified crops in India. In India, a large percentage of the population operate in agricultural professions – 27% according to the last 2011 census. This is a large percentage for the second most populous country in the world; the United States only recorded 2% of the American workforce as farmers or in the agro-business in the most recent 2010 census. A majority of that 27% are small farmers – who have been forced by the introduction of genetically modified crops in the industry to completely transform every aspect of  their operation.

Truth be told these small farmers can simply not keep up with many other mass producing farmers across the country that hold secretive and lucrative deals with GMO companies such as Monsanto. Unfortunately small farmers inability to compete in this new market has led to a tragic growth in suicide rates for farmers all over India.

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice recently released a report that estimated that in 2009 alone 17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide, or one suicide every 30 minutes. In the last decade the number of suicide rates has toppled well over 100,000^[2] and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. This issue is mostly widely seen where genetically modified cotton crop produced by the now infamous GMO Company Monsanto, are grown. The cotton crop that large scale biotech farms use to produce higher yields is critically impacting small scale farmers in India who are unable to compete with these larger farms. Small scale farms are unable to compete in the industry which has placed an ever growing emphasis on GM crops.

Unfortunately this is just one of the many effects of Monsanto’s GMO monopoly on small farmers around the world. Just a few months back, Monsanto paid out over 2.4 million dollars to American farmers over a failed 2013 wheat crop that stalled the wheat industry completely for several weeks. Monsanto continues to deny their culpability in any of these cases and remains committed to the spread of GM crops.

            Chipotle’s announcement on Monday is a relevant indication of the changing attitude toward companies like Monsanto and the products they represent. When only focusing on the scientific aspect of the GMO argument, human lives in the agricultural profession are ignored. Maybe Chipotle is promoting a “global propaganda campaign”, but why can’t that be seen in a positive light? When massive companies like Chipotle promote revolutionary policies, it is easy to only side on the side of the critic. But, the effects of this change are much farther reaching than we can imagine. This announcement could encourage the agricultural industry to make a bigger effort to look behind the GMO curtain and examine their effects on not just large scale farmers but the small family owned farming businesses in India and the Philippines that are struggling to stay alive in this rapidly changing food machine.

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^[1] "Chipotle's GMO Gimmick Is Hard to Swallow." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.

^[2] "How Many Farmers Does India Really Have?" Http://www.hindustantimes.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.

To Test or Not to Test?

 Like thousands of other high school students across the country, my younger sister will begin another long awaited week of PARCC testing – or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam in a few weeks. The exam, which has been met with controversy and criticism in virtually every state it's been introduced in, has been a topic at school constantly recently. What is the test for? What does it measure? Why did we switch over from the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System exam (DC-CAS)?  These are questions that are being asked in schools not only in DC but around the country.

    In 2014, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) replaced the almost decade old DC-CAS exam with PARCC.  The switch from DC-CAS was anticipated by many as the exam had been met with mounting criticism from both educators and parents in the last few years. Although many at first encouraged the switch in the District, there has still been significant criticism towards the new test. This negative response has not only been seen in DC but all over the country.

    The uproar across the country towards the exam has been increasingly prevalent as thousands of educators, parents and students have begun to stage mass protests in cities across the country - especially in strong teacher union cities like Chicago. In New York City alone, 175,000 students have chosen to opt out of the PARCC test with many more expected to follow behind as the testing date nears. These numbers are significantly higher than those seen in previous years, and have brought on an even more of critical analysis towards the role of testing in schools. The PARCC exam is just one of the many additions to the several mandated tests and exams that students are put through every year. DCPS in particular has seen constant change in standardized testing recently and has been host to three different types of standardized exams in the last five years.

Standardized testing is an attribute of the American educational system that is constantly under heavy critique. Despite the amount of standardized exams students throughout the country  go through every year the ranking of American students internationally has not increased significantly in decades. Many have identified ‘over testing’ as the reason as to why American students are falling so far behind, which has opened a new debate as to whether or not testing helps or hurts students.

    Unlike the United States, many nations have followed a decreasing trend when it comes to the number of standardized tests students take each year. In nations like Finland, who scored in the highest percentiles for both reading and writing on the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA (a test used to track educational trends around the world) have adopted strong ‘anti-standardized’ policies in recent years.

Schools in Finland promote creative thinking over memorization and emphasize a culture that is focused more on how you interpret over how much you know. Finland has one of the strongest policies towards standardized tests--the small Northern European country has banned standardized tests for all students in recent years. This model has worked extremely well for the country and their students and the educational trends in Finland have been on an upward track for the last few years.

While completely eliminating standardized tests in American schools might be far away from where we as a country are at education wise, it is still worth examining. It is clear that standardized testing in America is a broken system. As a country, we have to reevaluate how much these tests effectively change and impact our educational standards and ability. When looking at how we compete internationally - a nation heavy on standardized testing - with a nation like Finland who has banned standardized testing a clear message can be deciphered.  The United States will continue to follow a downward trend in terms of education if we do not wake up and smell the flowers, and realize that a change has to be made.