Persuasive Essay On Gm Foods

Today there are new ingredients and seeds that are taking grocery stores and farms by storm. They can be found in foods, fuels, and medicines alike. What are they? They are GMOs and are on at least 75% of shelves in our grocery stores. (Emery) A GMO is a genetically modified organism, which is a food, or bacteria, that has had its genetic code modified by another organism. When a product is modified, it is because the DNA of another organism is mixed with the original. Often they are referred to as a GE or GM, but the most common reference is the full abbreviation. (IRT) Why should we care? Think about it, when was the last time you checked what you were actually consuming? Subsequently, GMOs often are not labeled and this causes several debates, but do people actually read their labels? (Nelson) More than likely if you eat, then you are eating a genetically modified food. Some of the most common modified foods, or ingredients, include: soy, corn, canola oil, and cotton. (Non-GMO Project) Another form of GE is adding the pesticides to them during the growing phase. (Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia) GMOs affect most of us and we do not even realize how much we actually consume

To some, modified foods are seen as taboo. The reason light is being brought to these organisms is due to recent research has linked problems like allergies, cross pollination, and birth defects to GMOs. (Nelson) In recent studies GM ingredients have been linked to allergies and possible birth defects. When crossing DNA strands of two, or more, products it is hard to determine the reactions to the whole population - it could go either way. The cross pollination is a problem due to the fact that the GMO seed gets mixed with the organic seed and that product can no longer be “organic.” Some refer to GMOs as “frankenfoods” due to the fact that they feel like these foods are we have mixed together are monster-like.