GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD SHOULD YOU BE EATING IT?

WHAT IS A GMO?  GMO stands for genetically modified organism.  GMO’s are crop plants that have been altered in order enhance desired traits from the plant (Whitman).  Today, eighty percent of the processed food eaten is genetically modified (Lendman).  Some GM foods are grains like rice, corn, wheat, as well as soft drinks, vegetables and fruits, eggs, meat, and even infant formula, ice cream, and peanut butter (Lendman).

BUT WHAT IS SO SCARY ABOUT GMOS?

TESTING ON RATS  Some rats were fed tomatoes that are engineered to look fresh for weeks. They did this for 28 days and the results included stomach lesions (bleeding stomachs) and several deaths (Lendman).  Some rats were fed Monsanto corn. After 90 days many rats had allergies, infections, toxins, diseases like cancer, anemia and blood pressure problems (Lendman).

 The GM-fed rats experienced other dangerous side effects. After pregnant female rats were fed modified soy, the majority their babies died within three weeks, and those that didn’t were smaller. The control group of female rats that were fed natural soy only had a 10% death rate for their babies. In the end, the GM-fed rats had difficulty getting pregnant again (Smith).

THE OTHER SIDE  Some people are in favor of GM Foods because of what they can produce and believe that there is too little evidence to prove that GM Food is toxic.  They also like GM Food because there is a product called golden rice which was able to give vitamin A deficient children the nutrients they needed (Key).  Because people have been eating GM food for the last 15 years, they believe that there are no ill side effects.

 29% of Americans believe that GMOS are unsafe. That is 87 million people (Lendman).  The truth is, if we wait until doctors advise us not to eat GM foods it might be too late (Smith).  It’s best to at least avoid all corn and soy products (Smith).  If GMOS are causing things like diabetes, cancer, and autism we don’t know and it could be hurting us (Smith). SO SHOULD WE BE EATING GMOS?  Because of the benefits of GMOS it is important to experiment with them, but more importantly we need to proceed with caution (Whitman).

CAN WE CHANGE ANYTHING?  Jeffrey M. Smith in his book “Genetic Roulette” said that if people demand it “there is an excellent chance that food manufacturers will abandon GM foods in the near future”(Lendman).  In Europe, enough people were resisting GM Foods and eventually they removed all GM ingredients (Smith).