Concerns About Genetically Modified Foods

The term GMO is being used widely, it stands for Genetically Modified Organism. When something is genetically modified it is changed to make it grow faster, grow stronger, or some other, supposedly, beneficial trait. Genetically altered foods would include things like turkeys that are fed so many hormones so that they are just one big piece of breast meat, which means more food for us, but it makes it so that the bird can barely walk. Even crops are being modified so that they can fight off bugs without the use of pesticides.

Genetically altering foods make more food, but it hurts the animals, and chemicals used in the production of these foods, like hormones, can have negative effects on the people that consume them. There just is not enough information to say whether it will be safe in the long run.

The government regulates genetically modified products basically by testing. Testing is done for safety, if no one gets sick right away then the process is OK'd. But who's to say that ten years, or twenty years, down the road we won't find some after effect of this supposedly safe process. There isn't any way to know without time and if we waited all that time then many people would go without food. And it could be that the effects of the altered foods aren't as bad as the effects of the foods contaminated with pesticides. The EPA (Environmental protection Agency) is one of the many implemented guides placed for regulating this system. The basic role of government in agricultural biotechnology, as stated, is to regulate. They also are in charge of research and marketing and they are the ones that delegate to the agencies what they need to do.

Biotechnology, which is the system used to create GMO's, is with both animal and plant based organisms. Although this science fiction like technology is done to help people, like modifying foods to contain vitamins and minerals that some people may not be getting enough of, who knows the effects in the long run. Could this cause cancer? Maybe. But we may never know for sure in this life time.