Essays *collection*

[~ A7lA DoNiA ~]

More and more farmers and food manufacturers are genetically modifying their crops to reduce

susceptibility to disease, improve flavor, and reduce costs. Do you think genetically modifying foods is a

good idea? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.


A few decades ago, manipulating genes in people, plants, and animals was just science fiction. Today, it

،¯s a reality, and genetic modification may have many positive applications in the future, including the

eradication of many hereditary diseases. But like most scientific and technological advances, the genetic

modification of organisms for our food supply can be as dangerous as it is beneficial. Because of the

potential dangers of this technology, I think genetically altering plants and animals in the food supply is a

practice that should be very tightly controlled and carefully studied before it is an accepted and common

practice. Unfortunately, it may already be too late for that.

Many people don،¯t even realize that many of their foods are genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

GMOs are already prevalent in supermarkets and grocery stores across the country, but manufacturers

are not required to label foods as having been made from GMOs. As a result, millions of Americans

purchase and eat GMOs every day without even knowing it. Yet we don،¯t even know if GMOs are harmful

to our health. We don،¯t really know how GMOs may affect our bodies or our ecosystem. When we mess

with DNA, we may be making changes that have all sorts of dangerous repercussions, including some that

we may not even realize for several generations.

One of the main concerns about GMOs is the unpredictability of the behavior of altered genes and of the

bacteria, plants, and animals that interact with the altered organism. For example, a crop of corn

genetically modified to be less susceptible to a particular insect may take on other unwanted

characteristics due to the change. It may, for example, become more susceptible to another disease, or it

could develop a tougher skin on its kernels, or it could decrease the crop،¯s ability to produce vitamin E.

More frightening is the domino effect of genetically modifying foods. Any change in an organism،¯s DNA

has the potential to affect not only the organism but also anything that feeds off of it, including us. How do

we know how GMOs might affect us on a microscopic, genetic level? We don،¯t know, and can،¯t know,

without years of studies that track all sorts of potential outcomes over several generations.

Another fear is that transferred genes may escape from one organism into another. For example, imagine

that Strain A of sweet peas was altered by adding a gene that would increase its sugar production.

Through cross-pollination, this altered genetic code could enter other strains and slowly (or quickly) infect

the entire sub-species. If the alteration was beneficial, this could be a good thing. But the altered gene

might not act the same way in all varieties, and the change may not be a good thing in the first place,

and/or it may have unintended consequences.

Genetically modifying foods is a practice that has been driven by the desire to make more food available

more quickly and more cheaply than ever before. This attitude puts profit first and consumers and the

environment last, and that is simply dangerous. The agribusiness needs to slow down and stop selling us

GMOs until their safety is certain.