The problem with genetically
modified foods is… that there is yet to be determined any actual problem with genetically
modified foods. A trend in the United States these days, is for people who have
access to cheap produce to rebel against our privileged lives by choosing to
spend excessive amounts of money on the same foods. I know what you’re saying,
it’s their money, what do you care what they waste it on? I agree, except for one
inadvertent problem. People don’t like to do research.
With all of the criticism about our
schools not teaching life skills, perhaps we need to put some more emphasis on
learning on how to find facts from unbiased sources. There is currently no substantial
data to suggest that genetically modified foods, foods treated with pesticides,
or foods that contain gluten are harmful to the average person. Why, then, do
so many people steer away from them in favor of much more expensive versions? They
hear horror stories from enough sources to think that they are dangerous. They
might not even remember the stories, they just become convinced that there is a
consensus regardless of the source of the information. Similar situations exist
for the issues of global warming and immunizations. There are people who
seriously think that a significant portion of professionals in the field agree
with their counter opinion. In reality, the reigning scientific consensus is
that global warming is occurring and manmade, and medical professionals will
overwhelmingly recommend immunizations to nearly everyone. So, what is wrong
with labeling foods as genetically modified or having been exposed to
pesticides? The problem is that it promotes the idea, to the uninformed, that
these foods are somehow dangerous, despite there not actually being strong
evidence to suggest that.
Let me briefly explain what
genetically modified organisms (GMO) actually are. Certain traits are seen as
favorable in organisms. To maximize the yield of these traits in the offspring,
one can selectively breed the organisms containing these traits. Over time,
this practice can lead to significantly different organisms. Think dogs. Golden
doodles are an adorable, hypoallergenic dog that were created by breeding two
dogs that contained desirable traits. When talking about crops, the traits are
things like resistance to pests and weather or a lack of seed production
(seedless watermelons or grapes). In this day and age, however, we have the
technology to bypass selective breeding, and we can do it all through gene altering
in a single generation. Genetically modified crops have been around for years,
we just got better at doing it. If you don’t believe me look up a picture of
wild bananas or carrots from a few thousand years ago, they were all but
inedible. There is nothing wrong with genetically modified produce, in fact
without it, we likely wouldn’t have enough food to go around.
Speaking of food shortages, let’s
talk about organic produce. It might seem like the fruit without the poisonous
spray on it is the obvious choice, but there is a reason organic fruits can
cost five times as much as treated fruits. Our genetically modified fruit is
delicious and insects know it. A significant portion of organic crops are lost
to pests. In fact, if we had only organic crops, many of us would likely die of
malnutrition from not being able to afford fruits and vegetables. Additionally,
the “poison” we use, is specifically designed to target pests but not humans.
Think of antibiotics. They target bacteria while ignoring human cells.
Pesticides are tested for their safety. There could of course be dangers in
certain products that we don’t yet know of, but the same can be said of
anything and everything. We might eventually find a connection between dish
soap and cancer. Plus, organic produce might contain insect born diseases or
parasites that would have otherwise been prevented by pesticides. That is the
job the Food and Drug Administration though, to pull products that are shown to
be harmful. So for now, I feel confident saying that the benefits of readily
available fruits and vegetables outweigh the potential risks of pesticides or
genetic modifications.
-AMS
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