People have eaten GMOs without realizing that they are genetically modified. Many people don’t know what they’re eating and if it’s good for them. Genetically modified foods are a great example of that. GMOs don’t necessarily mean putting harmful chemicals into foods, but it means transferring DNA from one organism to another. This can sometimes help our bodies to grow, but it also harms the environment.
Growing foods that are genetically modified results in more efficient use of land. Also with that, larger crops can be produced and prices could be lower. The crops are usually sturdier. The artificial DNA causes the crops to hold ground longer in brutal weather. Now that the environmentally-friendly side has been introduced, let’s move on to the humanely better side. Organic food has been considered higher quality. Some state that genetically altered foods have better taste and texture.
Certain countries don’t have the necessary conditions for particular nutrients. Malnutrition like this can be solved by GMOs. Scientists can disseminate nutrients from an organism that has too many nutrients and put them into a crop without the nutrients. Regions can be producing food with all the necessary nutrients. Adding or removing certain DNA can have a longer shelf life. This can help feed billions of people. Genetically modified food can terminate harmful chemicals so that the body won’t have to toil to digest the chemicals.
Everything with a good side, must have a bad side. The cons of GMOs might overtake the pros. As stated before, people continue to consume foods that they don’t know the ingredients of. Let’s say that someone grabs two bunches of bananas at their local grocery store. One of the bunches is a GMO and the other is not. Many people are allergic to peanuts because peanuts contain “Ara h 1” a chemical that doesn’t cooperate with the human body very well. Now, if scientists think that Ara h 1 is going to help banana trees be safer or better for the environment, they will insert the chemical (Ara h 1) into banana trees. The chemical will seep into the banana bunch that the someone bought. If that person is allergic to peanuts, he or she will suffer the consequence of the allergen. All in all, GMOs can provoke people to allergens and toxins that they are not used to or strengthen their body’s fear of the toxins/allergens.
Not only do GMOs affect the human body in a bad way, but they also damage many animals as well. Unsuspecting animals may eat food that has been modified in some way. Resulting that would be accelerated aging, causing animals to die earlier than should be. This would lessen species populations, leading animals to be endangered. Females’ reproductive system would be punctuating due to the large amount of GMOs that she is consuming daily. All genders would suffer through changes in the liver, kidney, spleen, and gastrointestinal system. That leads to another shortcut to death. Want more? GMOs affect the food chain. Let’s say a rabbit wants a carrot and draws it out of the ground. The rabbit is unable to successfully eat the carrot, because guess what? It has GMOs in it! The poor rabbit would starve and so with the other animals that have rabbits as their meal. Animals such as foxes, snakes, eagles, and hawks that prey on the rabbit would not satisfy their stomach because the rabbit is not “fully charged”. So snakes, foxes, hawks, and eagles wouldn’t be pleased either and that would affect the food chain.
Lots of foods have GMOs, here’s a quick insight into those foods. Any products with soy on the ingredient list have GMO in them because soy is genetically modified. Packages with corn such as cornflakes, corn syrup, soda, corn starch, certain baby foods, and any bakery goods all have GMOs in them. COtton and papaya also join this list of main products with GMOs. And the horrible thing is, America doesn’t require you to have non-GMO or GMO certified labels on them so thousands of people won’t know if they are about to buy genetically altered foods. Although foods aren’t required to be labeled, there’s always a PLU to look at for fruits and vegetables. Genetically modified fruits and vegetables require a PLU number with five digits and the number has to be starting with eight. Recently a small number of restaurants have banned any GMO produce in their ingredients. Some of these wonderful restaurants are Chipotle, Panera Bread, Cafe Lotus, and Frantoio. These restaurants have technically banned any unidentified allergen or toxins from entering their customer’s bodies. The restaurants are a great role model for America as GMOs have proven to be harmful. America should follow these restaurants as they lead our nation to a GMO-free country.
Nans Diary 