Essay topic: GMO
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Kylee Davis
Ms. Long
English 10
11/11/2016
GMO’s
Think about the companies Pepsi and Lays . Have you ever seen advertised “Genetically altered because it cost us less to produce!”? No, if anything, you see on the back of your chip bag in fine print camouflaged with the other fine print “Produced with Genetic Engineering.” This essay will show you the reasons why people have reconsidered putting genetically modified organisms into their shopping cart. GMOs are more common than you might think and you should watch out for them like many others are doing to avoid harm to your body and environment.
What are GMOs? GMO stands for the term genetically modified organism. This is a change humans make on things like plants and animals in their DNA. In the year 1982 the FDA approved the first GMO. Since then we have been using the technique of genetically altering our food from large american crops to have more desirable traits. The traits that are seen most in genetically modified foods are resistance to drought and pesticides, grow rapidly, have longer shelf life, and even more. Many people have their own opinions on GMOs regarding if they are good or bad. The two sides of the argument are that GMOs are “not” harmful and can contribute to ending world hunger because they are cheaper and easier to grow. The other side, where I stand, is GMOs are linked to environmental incidents and health issues.
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There is no argument about whether or not GMOs are bad for your health. There have been several studies regarding this topic and they have proven that GM foods can be linked to allergies, toxicity, infertility, gluten disorder, birth defects, and even cancer. In 26 countries GMOs are banned. Some of the countries include Switzerland, Australia, China, India, France, and Germany. People have demanded that they know what’s in their food. There are now 64 countries that have based a law that GMOs must be labeled. If GM foods were safe to eat they would not be banned or have labels to warn people from them. People are confused why America supports and eats these foods that they know nothing about. David Schubert from Salk Institute of Biological Studies says “There is no credible evidence that GMO foods are safe to eat.” We also see the Organic Consumers Association, American Academy of Environmental Medicine, and Institute for Responsible Technology advocating that GMOs are not safe to eat and we should not be giving them to ourselves, children, and loved ones.
People may not think that genetically modifying foods would affect the environment, when in fact genetically modifying foods could lead to serious problems now and in the future. GMOs can lead to mass death of insects like bees, permanently damage the soil, and cause problems in our ecosystem. The herbicides that they use in the plants are harming honeybees and contributing to their deaths. The soil that the GMOs are grown in can become contaminated and organic foods and plants will be harmed and not be able to grow properly in that same soil because of the altered DNA inside of it. You might ask what will be the final out come if we
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keep producing these crops? The damage is irreversible. The DNA has spread into the soil, animal feed, bees can transport the DNA of the GMOs to other organic plants. The damages of GMOs are not just within our bodies and just within the crops them self, they are widely spread and once they are done we wouldn't be able to go back.
When you buy foods and products that contain GMOs in them you are causing an effect on your health and the beautiful environment that we have. Next time you go shopping make an effort to buy non-GMO products, your effort could go a lot farther than you would expect. You could stay healthy with a strong immune system and keep your community’s environment as well as the whole world’s environment in healthy conditions.
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Work Cited
In my opinion, you chose a very interesting topic that is very important to our generation. I think GMO foods are an interesting concept. Thousands of years ago, humans had clean health, they used foods as medicines and ate what the land gave to them and because of that they flourished. There are ancient remedies from Asian countries or Native Americans, or really an ancient civilizations, because back then people knew the benefit and power of food. Today, we take food for granted and eat to be full, not to power our bodies, (most people at least). I think GMO foods and inorganic foods were invented because of profit and convenience. America in my opinion has always been cheap and greedy. We had such a struggle during th Industrial Revolution because America found a way to pay workers cheaply and make a great profit. The same goes for food, buy it and make it cheap, sell it for a lot. Many countries see the importance of having a healthy nation, but America sees a way to make a profit through methods that are unhealthy. Make cheap unhealthy food, make great profits. Feed the people questionable food, make more money off of prescription drugs that we have to sell because our people are getting sick off of the foods they're eating. I appreciate that you considered your topic's effects on not only people, but the environment too. We are causing ridiculous amounts of damage to our planet, commonly because it's convenient and profitable to do so. GMO crops are poisoning not only insects such as bees, but animals as well, so why do we think that these foods don't effect us? I appreciate that you mentioned that the damage done by this is unfix-able. I think that is something really powerful to consider, that by supporting GMO industries, you as a consumer are causing damage that can not be reversed. I also looked up organic foods, as your post made me wonder if all organic foods are GMO free. They're not. According to gmo-awareness.com many organic products can have trace amounts of GMOs and that there are loopholes about these labels that allow organic foods to contain GMO. I learned that it is safest to avoid corn and soy products. I also learned that many meat products might say organic, but previous to being a piece of meat, as an animal they could've been fed GMO and inorganic food, therefore the meat you're eating may not necessarily be organic or GMO free. I appreciate your article and your concern for this topic. <3
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