Every week, we ask you which stories you want us to pay more attention to. Here are a few of your #RFDUnder ideas – choose one for us to focus on next by filling out the poll below!
1. The effort to ban GMOs
The age-old debate about whether genetically-engineered foods pose a risk to human health is back in the news – Monsanto and a few other major agrochemical companies are donating major cash to defeat a ballot initiative in Oregon that would restrict the growth of genetically-modified crops in area farms. The vast majority of processed foods in the US are made with genetically-modified organisms, otherwise known as GMOs. GMO crops are only grown in 18 countries worldwide. And to put things into perspective, only 2 varieties of GMOs have been licensed for use in the European Union while 96 varieties are used in the US.
2. Unemployment numbers for the blind
We recently discovered, thanks to our viewers, that only 36.8% of the working-age blind population is employed – a pretty stunning number. Why is this number is so high – are employers reluctant to hire this blind? Is new technology that aids the blind not developed enough to properly integrate the blind into the workplace? Do mere logistics, such as the inability to drive to work, get in the way?
3. Garbage polluting the world’s oceans
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 drew our attention to another story that we don’t talk about enough: the crisis with a growing amount of trash in the world’s oceans. Hundreds of objects sighted off the coast of Perth as possible plane debris have turned out to be unrelated, all just disposed garbage. There is a frightening amount of garbage floating around in the world’s oceans. Most of it is plastic, according to National Geographic, and as marine life ingests it, the consequences for the ecosystem are dire. Debris tends to migrate to regions known as “garbage patches,” and these patches made up of 90% plastic are responsible for the deaths of 1 million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals yearly.
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