GMO foods are such an embedded part of our food system these days, but it’s not difficult to think back to a time when food was simpler and healthier. Although GMO 's have a been around for thousands of years, when new discoveries arrived at the tip of our hands in the early 1980s, a conflict over ethics, health, and long-term environmental safety have become the main issue of concern for many. The ongoing debate over genetically modified organisms can get brutal at times, and most often, very confusing due to a lot of misleading information. In overview, a GMO is a plant, animal, or any organism, whose genetic material has been modified or manipulated through a process called genetic engineering. Although many organisms can be genetically
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With the many possibilities that genetic modification has sparked, health and ethical problems have become a topic of disagreement for a significant portion of the population, especially the consumers. So far, genetic food modifications have been the answer to our drastic population growth, but many have accused it to cause cancer, assist to the destruction of the environment, and accumulate horrible future health risks for children. To test on some theories, certain tests have been done on animals and the results are somewhat shocking. According to Jeffrey Smith in his article “Health Risks- IRT”, rats fed GM foods showed liver problems, reproductive problems, and infant mortality. Other animals, such as sheep, cows, chicken and buffalo, who fed on GM corn, were linked to sterility, disease, and death. Now for humans, allergic reactions have skyrocketed and been liked to genetically altered soy, cotton, and corn products after being introduced in certain place in the world such as the USA and UK. ( Health Risks- IRT, 2) Unlike safety evaluations for drugs, there are none of GM foods, so if GM foods on the market are causing common diseases, we may not be able to identify the source of the problem in time due to the lack of GMO-monitoring and long-term animal studies. Some consumers feel that at this point, biotechnology corporations are gambling with the health of our nation for their own
With the many possibilities that genetic modification has sparked, health and ethical problems have become a topic of disagreement for a significant portion of the population, especially the consumers. So far, genetic food modifications have been the answer to our drastic population growth, but many have accused it to cause cancer, assist to the destruction of the environment, and accumulate horrible future health risks for children. To test on some theories, certain tests have been done on animals and the results are somewhat shocking. According to Jeffrey Smith in his article “Health Risks- IRT”, rats fed GM foods showed liver problems, reproductive problems, and infant mortality. Other animals, such as sheep, cows, chicken and buffalo, who fed on GM corn, were linked to sterility, disease, and death. Now for humans, allergic reactions have skyrocketed and been liked to genetically altered soy, cotton, and corn products after being introduced in certain place in the world such as the USA and UK. ( Health Risks- IRT, 2) Unlike safety evaluations for drugs, there are none of GM foods, so if GM foods on the market are causing common diseases, we may not be able to identify the source of the problem in time due to the lack of GMO-monitoring and long-term animal studies. Some consumers feel that at this point, biotechnology corporations are gambling with the health of our nation for their own