The Pros And Cons Of GMO Research

Walking through the grocery store, the plethora of food stimulates a person’s senses. In a small town a mother is completing her weekly grocery shopping. This mom firmly believes in providing healthy food for her child. She puts apples, carrots, cereal, and milk in her cart. She quickly finishes the rest of her shopping and heads home. After arriving home, she gives her child some cereal, and shortly after his throat swells up. Unbeknownst to the mother, any item she picks up in the grocery store likely contains a secret ingredient that could have triggered her son’s allergic reaction: a genetically modified organism, or GMO. Scientists design GMOs to increase crop yields by making new plants resistant to biological diseases, last longer, and
Despite an unexpected frost or an untimely plague, farmers are hard-working, essential people. However, they are sometimes poor and underappreciated. Farmers play crop roulette every year; they look for better ways to economize and streamline farming. GMOs have become the farmer’s way to achieve higher profits. However, the idea that GMO crops instantaneously raise crop yields is a common misconception. Average yields of genetically engineered (GE) corn in the United States from 1986 to 2011 were slightly lower than non-GE corn (Cassidy). To a farmer, higher yields translate into the notion that they will earn more money. However, seeds not performing as advertised can lead to an unexpected loss of profit. This can be a drastic loss for a farmer, but it does benefit agricultural corporations. Agricultural corporations benefit from misinforming and lying to
Several published market GMOs as more healthful than non-modified foods. In reality most GMO studies are paid for by companies such as Monsanto who create GMOs (Schwab). Because corporations fund the studies, company research distorts any negative aspects of GMOs. If more than ninety percent of our processed food is modified, people deserve to have objective information about their diet, (Schwab), however, there are no laws that force companies to say whether their product has been produced with GMOs. Because corporations do not have to disclose this information, food can be sold as one hundred percent genetically modified, but marketed as “all-natural.” This lack of disclosure becomes a problem with GMO crops that scientists alter with bacterial or legume DNA. There have been several cases of these modified organisms causing severe allergic reactions in unsuspecting consumers (Porterfield). However, corporations refuse to label their GMO products for