Becasue they can

I looked at the ingredients on a loaf of bread the other day, Roman Meal.  100% Whole Wheat.  I was shocked to see some of the things in the list.  Item number three, High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Then a bunch of fun stuff, Ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, calcium steryl lactalate, azodicarbonamide and calcium propionate.  That's a lot of crap poured into a product that right on the label expresses this very charming sentiment, "Natural Whole Grain Goodness"  Really, azodicarbonamide!  This is a plasticizer for industrial use to make rubber floor mats, shoe rubber and even carpeting softer.  You would have to eat a lot of it to die, but it is cumulative and it is listed as a CLASS 2 CARCINOGEN.  It is illegal to use in food products in very nearly every other country in the world.  But it is used here in the good ol' US of A.  It does the same thing to bread as it does to your sneakers, it makes them softer. This little tidbit is copied (article) 

As usual, the FDA is pretty clueless when it comes to azodicarbonamide. The FDA’s official database on food additives is called EAFUS, which stands for Everything Added to Food in the United States. EAFUS contains more than 3000 additives, including nearly 700 which have not been tested for toxicology. These untested additives are classified as EAF.
According to EAFUS, the classification for azodicarbonamide is NIL, which officially means, “Although listed as added to food, there is no current reported use of the substance, and, therefore, although toxicology information may be available in PAFA, it is not being updated.”

No reported use of the substance.  The FDA is clueless once again. 

Calcium Proprionate has been shown to exacerbate stomach ulcers and can permanently damage the stomach lining.  Ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides have been shown to cause genetic changes, birth defects, cancer, and severe allergic reactions.  Calcium steryl lactalate is a moisturizer for hand creams and has limited feeding studies done on it.

So what!

Food manufacturers everywhere put chemical additives into our food for a variety of reasons.  To make bread softer in this example; everywhere else they are added to extend shelf life, to enhance flavor profiles, to mask certain flavors from other chemical additives, to allow the use of cheaper ingredients, to combat low profit margins and to get the leg up on the competition.  The thing is, few people read the ingredient lists.  Even fewer know what the toxicity levels and carcinogenic factors are for most of the additives.  And the plain fact of the matter is that many, no, MOST of them are cumulative toxic poisons that slowly degrade the body's defense mechanisms and destroy your health.  So why add them to our food supply?

Because they can!

The plain fact of the matter is that since MOST of the agribusinesses manufacturing food in America today utilize these poisons, if any one individual, or groups of individuals get sick with degenerative long term illnesses, cancer, heart disease, strokes or anything else; they can't be sued.  How could they be sued when no single food manufacturer could be held accountable for the addition of these toxic substance to the products that they manufacture.  After all, this or that sick person did not live on a diet exclusively of their product only.  Commonality makes for immunity.  They add these toxic additives to our food supply because they can.