Explain why economies of scale are important to companies such as McDonald’s and GBK. Economies of scale gives big companies access to a larger market by allowing them to operate with greater geographical reach. Often, large firms in industries with high fixed costs can take advantage of savings that smaller firms cannot. Economies of scale characterizes a production process in which an increase in the scale of the firm causes a decrease in the long run average cost per unit. Economies of scale can be enjoyed by any size firm expanding its scale of operation.
Ethical and Critical Thinking Questions on GMOs 1. Explain the ethical dilemma (question) and explain why it is a dilemma. Should genetically modified food be allowed for sale in the U.S.? Even though there are many pros for this idea, there is not much back up on studies on the issue. There are many unknowns about this dilemma that are scary for some people.
Colony Collapse Disorder The colony collapse disorder of honeybees has become a very problematic issue. The Natural Resources Defense Council states that nearly that nearly one-third of all honeybee colonies in the country have vanished, putting many fruits and vegetables at risk. A controversial type of pesticide called neonicotinoids has become a prime suspect in this phenomenon, as it affects bees’ sense of direction and making it hard for them to find home. In order to prevent this disaster from continuously occurring, neonicotinoids should be banned or used more sparingly and replaced with an alternative type of pesticide. Author Brandon Keim, author of article “Controversial Pesticide Linked to Bee Collapse” states neonicotinoids began to be used in the mid-1990s as less-toxic alternatives to human-damaging pesticides.
This chemical has been defended over and over again by those who produce and sell it. But there are countless negative side effects that are not mentioned or warned about. This harmful food additive should be banned from artificial production in all countries. If not that there should be sufficient warning labels on all foods containing the ingredient. The global healing center warns consumers, “The glutamate industry is fully aware of the harmful effects of MSG, that it is a toxic substance.
Genetically Modified Foods Genetically modified (Gm) foods are integrated into products that we are not even aware of such as vegetables, fruits, grains, est. GM is a new way for creating foods, therefore scientists do not know ALL of the health and safety risks from eating genetically intergraded foods. The process of producing GM foods is difficult and the failure rate is high. This is why we (my partner and I) feel GM foods should be banned until scientist’s know ALL the affects Gm foods has on humans and the environment. Genetically modified foods use the latest molecular biology techniques and are commonly used for growing crops for human or animal consumption.
With the depletion of the forest that converts the carbon dioxide into oxygen it has monumental negative effects on the planet as a whole. “Eleven developing countries recently linked to 82 percent of the carbon dioxide buildup due to deforestation will likely come under the greatest pressure for change: Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Cote D’Ivoire, Thailand, Laos, Nigeria, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar (Formally Burma) and India”. (“cooper”) One of the major locations deforestation is in the south Asian country Thailand. “Located wholly within the tropics, Thailand encompasses diverse ecosystem, including the hilly forested areas of the northern frontier, the fertile rice fields of the central plains, the broad plateau of the northeast, and the rugged coast along the narrow peninsula.”(“Thailand”). Since the formation of the country Thailand
This way of improving foods has been taking place traditionally by just crossing two plants together and hoping that the new traits are taken without any negative ones (543). Since this is time consuming and not as accurate, scientists now just introduce the new genes, or traits, through the plants’ DNA. Genetically Engineered foods, although meant to be helpful, pose many problems by causing environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns. To begin with, one of the problems with engineered foods is that they can become hazardous to the surrounding environment. This unintended harm to other organisms is caused by many factors.
The type of pesticide that can affect our environment and health are the chemical pesticides. Even though it has been proven dangerous by scientists the government still allows the use of harmful chemicals on many of the foods we eat. The full health risks associated with pesticides are unknown and most pesticides have never been thoroughly studied for their possible long-term health effects on humans. Everyday humans, plants and animals are exposed to a number of different pesticides, which are harmful to their health. Constant exposure can seriously endanger their physical and mental health.
Genetically Modified Food can be accepted Nowadays, with technology’s developing, more and more Genetically Modified (GM) Foods are produced and come out in many markets around the world. However, there are a great number of people who think the GM foods are dangerous and may do harm to their health. Therefore, they can’t accept GM foods. Unfortunately, I believe that GM foods are available in our lives because they have never been proven to harm people so far, they are more nutritious than traditional foods somewhat and they also can benefit farmers a lot for their working procedures actually. Professor Ian Campbell from Australia's Peter MacCallum Cancer Center says that no scientific evidence showing that GM food is harmful to people's health has been presented to date.
Having human trials for the vaccine would take too long for any defects (An example would be Thalidomide, which caused birth defects in the 1960s because of incomplete animal testing by today’s standards. US regulations have expanded on what conditions a drug must be tested under due to the incident [Gauvra, 2011]) to show and not having trials is not an option when it comes to the flu. Should the vaccine be unavailable, a significant portion of the population would fall ill every year, and the number of deaths from just the flu would skyrocket. As well, there would be a sharp decline in the quality of life for humans. Many companies use animal trials to test out the safety of new drugs, pesticides, medication, food additives, packing materials, and anything else with chemical ingredients.