America has much looser regulatory approach to approving new ingredients and chemicals

Jason Karp: "Americans now live in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals, plastics, and untenable pesticide loads that permeate our food, water, and air. Having studied the evolution of corporations, I believe the root cause of how we got here is an unintended consequence of the unchecked and misguided industrialization of agriculture and food. I believe there are two key drivers behind how we got here.
First America has much looser regulatory approach to approving new ingredients and chemicals than comparable developed countries. Europe, for example, uses a guilty until proven innocent standard for the approval of new chemicals, which mandates that if an ingredient might pose a potential health risk, it should be restricted or banned for up to 10 years until it is proven safe. In complete contrast, our FDA uses an innocent until proven guilty approach for new chemicals or ingredients that's known as grass or generally recognized as safe. This recklessly allows new chemicals into our food system until they are proven harmful. Shockingly, U.S. food companies can use their own independent experts to bring forth a new chemical without the approval of the FDA. It is a travesty that the majority of Americans don't even know they are constantly exposed to thousands of untested ingredients that are actually banned or regulated in other countries. To put it bluntly, for the last 50 years, we have been running the largest uncontrolled science experiment ever done on humanity without their consent. Why should America, the greatest country on earth, be the last developed nation to protect its people?"