Mikaela Marinis September 19, 2013 Periods 4 and 8 The Danger of Genetically Modified Foods

"When you're doing genetic engineering, you're getting into a whole different mode of manipulating plants, and one, do we need to do it? Two, have enough studies been done in the past to really make it viable for commercial use?" (WebMD, 3) . Government officials and the public should opt against genetically modified foods. First of all, they are harmful to human health and not fit for consumption. In addition, the public unfairly lacks awareness of the genetically modified portion of their food supply. Lastly, they negatively impact farmers. Genetically modified foods are harmful. GMOs are food that have been modified, or changed, to fit certain characteristics by an insert of a gene(s) into an organism through human activity. DNA encodes the instructions for life. Everything a cell does from respiration to produce proteins is instructed by the organisms DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Therefore, if someone wants to change the way an organism behaves, in this case so crops are more efficient, the person can do so by changing the organisms

DNA. In order to do this, first, a gene must be extracted from another organism. Genes are segments of DNA that control a specific trait. For example, the gene that helps fish keep from being frozen may be inserted into a tomato so it will stay fresh for longer periods of time. Restriction enzymes act as DNA scissors to get the job of extracting the desirable gene done. In this case, they read the DNA of the organism to cut along the desired DNA segment, leaving the rest of the DNA strand behind (Genetic Engineering). Afterwards, the bioengineer again uses restriction enzymes. A separate bacteria plasmid is cut using the same method. A bacteria plasmid is basically a circular ring of DNA that can exist in bacteria, (Genetic Engineering). The scientists then use DNA ligase- which is an enzyme that can be compared to tape- to attach the desirable gene into the bacteria plasmid where they cut the plasmid earlier. The plasmid is then inserted into a bacteria cell by cooling the cell and then quickly heating it to create holes in the cell membrane to put the plasmid through (Genetic Engineering). Bacteria cells are used because they reproduce rapidly- which means more DNA copies in less time. The new, desirable gene copies can then be inserted into the crop to modify the crop. This is done by the using the DNA particle gun method, where pieces of DNA are injected into a plant cell (Christiansen, 83).

Genetically modified foods are a threat to human health. Even with the large controversy swirling around, scientists do agree that there are risks centered around these foods. As far as health is concerned, WebMD scientists claim these risks include: allergens and toxins in these foods, and negatively changing the nutrient content of the crop. The only benefits that that were mentioned centered around the fact that they make farming easy and increase crop production, which simply states nothing on health (WebMD, 1). Secondly, there have been numerous studies that these foods are indeed harmful. For example, MIT and Cambridge have both concluded in their research studies that these foods effects arent immediately evident. Instead, they slowly wreak havoc on our cells and cause some of the most popular medical conditions in the United States, including diabetes, obesity, cancer; you name it (What's the Deal with Genetically Modified Food?). Which, of course, the connection would make sense, considering the U.S. is the number one genetically modified food producer. Finally, the biotechnology companies states that these foods are nutritionally equivalent to the foods that we see in nature. This statement cant be further away from the truth. As stated by Ronnie Cummins, the author of Genetically Engineered Food: A Self- Defense Guide for Consumers states, No serious scientist in the world would stand behind that unless theyre on the payroll of the biotech

industry. If theyre substantially equivalent, why do these companies have a patent on them? (WebMD, 2). Lastly, people should be skeptical of the biotechnology industry strong bias towards the healthfulness of these foods. For example, isnt it a little bit suspicious that for all the forty-one studies conducted by one biotech company concluded that they were just as healthy as nongenetically modified foods when numerous studies not supported by the biotechnology industry said the opposite? (What's the Deal with Genetically Modified Food?). Genetically modified foods negatively affect human health. In addition, the public unfairly lacks awareness about these foods. For example, it is impossible to differentiate between transgenic and non-transgenic foods. These foods are unlabeled, making the public have no choice but to blindly buy genetically modified foods. It is impossible to know which foods are genetically modified or not without labeling, and with less than one percent of the U.S. population making a living as a farmer, the public as a wholes knowledge of its food supply is lacking. In fact, statistics show just how ignorant people are about these foods, and how can they not be, considering theyre not labeled and the biotech industry tries so hard to mask these foods as normal. While 60-70% of the of the processed foods on the U.S. market contain GMOs, researchers from the Food Policy Institute have concluded from surveys that 52% of

Americans realize that transgenic foods are at the grocery store and 26% of participants in the survey believe they have never eaten these foods at all (WebMD, 1). Lastly, these foods are widely untested. It is unfair to put foods on the market where little is known about their long term effects. Ever heard the saying knowledge is power? Scientists know way too little about these foods, meaning that these foods are very risky to eat and grow in the first place. The public deserves to be completely aware of what they are eating. Finally, these foods are harmful to farmers, the very people who grow them. GMO supporters state that these foods are beneficial to farmers because they can produce more crops with less work. However, according to the European government (where transgenic foods are rightfully prohibited) they actually squeeze farmers out of business. The number of farmers is rapidly declining, with less than 1% of U.S. population claiming this as their livelihood. With the domination of the biotech industry, even more farmers can no longer compete and make a living. In todays economy, can the U.S. really afford to even further decrease the number of available job opportunities? Additionally, these foods cannot be contained. They contaminate nearby crops that organic farmers have worked so hard to grow. In fact, they have contaminated around 80% of U.S. organic crops, which are unfair to the few farmers left trying to keep their crops

organic (What's the Deal with Genetically Modified Food?). Lastly, there has been great fear out there that insects might become resist to the toxins produced by these crops to ward them off. This could produce a whole new generation of pests that eat away at famers hard grown crops with nothing to stop them (Britt, 1). Genetically modified foods arent just harmful to consumers, but to the people in the agriculture profession as well. Genetically modified foods are harmful. They are a threat to human health, scientists and the public know too little about them, and they are harmful to farmers. With these three reasons, the biotech industry is the only group to benefit. It is time for the U.S. to ban GMOs as an option in the agriculture industry. Anyone can help by writing to policy makers about how negative these foods really are and by buying foods labeled organic, as these are not genetically modified.