We want consumer protection

What I'm getting from some of our latest in-class material is that we need more consumer protection (for a start). Consumer Protection calls for "fair competition and the free flow of truthful information to the marketplace". A lot of the information that we have learned in class about the products we consume is certainly out there, but it is far from mainstream. More and more people are getting this information (about where our products come from, what they are composed of, where they are disposed at, etc), but the numbers are still far from the majority.

Freedom of information for consumers should be mandatory, so that we can make smart choices about the products we buy. With adequate consumer protection, the consumers become the power rather than the retailers and manufacturers, who basically don't want us to know much about their product and want us to believe everything that their advertisement says. Remember all those junk-food advertisements aimed at children under 10? Do we really want that? I don't think most of us do. Do we really want dangerous microscopic organisms being used to modify food so that the crop allegedly has a "higher" yield per acre? A very questionable practice in my mind.

I strongly recommend that everyone looks up consumer protection and gets informed. It is an important thing to know about in our current economic system. The informed consumer is the empowered consumer, the ones to which companies will listen.

Lastly, not to become too political here, but there are politicians who are working for points such as these. While most seem too interested in supporting their campaign backers, not to mention keep the status quo, others are working for common interests such as these. . . I strongly recommend people look up leaders like Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich. . . . not that I agree with all their points, but they have very interesting platforms.