Take a moment and think about what you had to eat for breakfast or lunch today. A few replies might include cereal, fruit, or a sandwich. Chances are, most of you didn’t go outside and pick your fruits or vegetables off the plant, or go and butcher a chicken. For most of us, we purchase our food from the grocery store, where a majority of the food is genetically enhanced or different from its original form. Nearly 75% of processed food here in the U.S. contains at least one genetically modified ingredient (“Paturel, and Yamakawa”). Many of the world’s shoppers wouldn’t know about this without being told. Genetically modified organisms, known as GMO’s, are a great tool in agricultural technology that needs to be accepted, …show more content…
currently only has about 17 GM crops, but with several varieties of each, that have been passed for widespread consumption. However, there are currently more studies being done to introduce new ones (“GM Approval Database”). The top 7 GM crops include corn, soybeans, cotton, alfalfa, papaya, canola, and sugar beets (“Kelly”). It is currently reported that Corn is the number one crop being grown in the United States. In 2001 only 26% of corn was GM (“Ciment”), but now with nearly 88% being GM (“Kelly”), it is definitely holding its weight. Another interesting fact to understand is that there isn’t just one type of gmo for each species of plant. A great example would be corn. It comes in nearly 20 varieties, including drought protection, bug resistant, and disease resistant (“Kelly”). One variety contains a bacterial toxin that protects the corn and kills a caterpillar known as the European corn borer (“Harrar”). These advancements will help with the loss of plants, and solve many problems farmers face. Right above it there are Cotton and Soy which are being grown at 93 and 94 percent genetically modified. Much of the Corn and Soy are used for animal feed, along with food for humans. Also, nearly 75 percent of the Hawaiian papaya crop has now been modified to help withstand the dangerous papaya ringspot virus (“Kelly”). Genetic modification is helping ensure that countries don’t lose money on sales, provide the world with nutritional sources of food, and make sure that the food doesn’t become