There are many foods that have been genetically modified.  How many do you know of? Did you know Cotton seed?  Canola oil?  Alfalfa?  Papaya?  The earliest these foods have been GM (genetically modified) was 1994 and.  There are many reasons why they were changed by mankind.  The range of reasons goes from pest-resistant to faster growth to requiring a less amount of environmental resources.  What people over look are the risks and side effects and we should be educated and have the right to know why and how GMO foods are there.

Most people don’t bother to look at labels.  They might say, “That’s for nutrition freaks.”  However, then don’t know what goes in or out of your foods.  Here’s an example of what they do to tomatoes to create an insect- resistant thing.  They first cut the gene and insert the resistant bug gene, then copy the gene into bacteria.  Next; they load “Vector-Coated” particles into a gene gun and shoot it into the plant cells where it is put into the plant’s gene pool.  After this, they put the creations into a platter and allow to grow into plants called tomatoes.  

It is said that GMO was first introduced in 1994. Prior to the introduction, there was research leading up to GMO going on the shelves of local grocery stores.  In 1980, the GMO patent was created, and led to the FDA approving GMO.  The first thing was Humulin, which was insulin produced by engineered E. coli bacteria.   Next came GM tomatoes that ripened after picking, then years later came weeds resistant to Glyphosate.  Studies showed those weeds were 11 times more resistant than other plants.  In 1997, the European Union made it mandatory for all GMO foods to have labels on them.   This isn’t just an American problem.  There were studies of risks and all around the world. 

In these GMO foods there could be dangerous toxins hiding inside.  In Quebec researchers found that BT toxins in the blood of pregnant women goes to the baby.  BT toxins are bacteria that release toxins that kill insects.  This is a synthetic chemical that modern farmers use all around the world, and it is the most used biological pesticide.  It can be sprayed onto crops or added into the DNA.  It is a very aggressive toxin that kills bugs in a violent way by making their stomachs’ burst.  That way caused many researchers to explore those effects on humans.  Pure BT harms the digestive system by attacking normal cells and therefore burning holes into the intestines.  This causes “Leaky gut syndrome”.  There are also studies that show that BT has an effect on the lungs and other organs.  Not everyone has these symptoms, why?  Some people do get BT poisoning.  BT is related to B. cereus which causes food poisoning.  There was a study of 49,000 food samples; B. cereus was found which was because of BT.  Foods that contain BT pose a risk of damage to the digestive system.  Researchers found it in pasteurized milk, ice cream, juice and green tea. 

Regular GMO foods can also harm you.  It could cause allergic reactions.  “Allergic reactions in humans occur when a normally harmless protein enters the body and stimulates an immune response (Bernstein et al., 2003). If the novel protein in a GM food comes from a source that is known to cause allergies in humans or a source that has never been consumed as human food, the concern that the protein could elicit an immune response in humans’ increases.”  Basically this is saying that if someone is allergic to something in one plant and it is put into the second plant, through the GMO process, and the person eats the second plant, they could have an allergic response.  This is a quote I found about increased toxicity from GMOs.  “Most plants produce substances that are toxic to humans. Most of the plants that humans consume produce toxins at levels low enough that they do not produce any adverse health effects. There is concern that inserting an exotic gene into a plant could cause it to produce toxins at higher levels that could be dangerous to humans.”  Of course, these are all concerns and aren’t proven but they are very valid points and could be true if people were interested in what goes into their food.   The same web site goes on to add decreased nutritional value and antibiotic resistance to the list of concerns. When he added decreased nutritional values he says that it is proven that GMO soybeans have a decreased amount of a chemical that helps protect against heart disease and cancer than traditional soy beans. 

There is a quote that highlights why there is no concrete evidence for GM harm on humans. “It’s very very bad science, we assume that the principals governing the inheritance of genes vertically applies when you move genes laterally of horizontally.  There’s absolutely no reason to make that conclusion- Geneticist David Suzuki”  He is saying that, the scientists that are messing with the genes in our food, have no reason to test if the food is harmful to humans or even edible is because they are only combining food genes, that is the fault in GMOs.  They don’t know if it is harmful or good because they have never tested it.  You might say the FDA has approved it though.  Yes, they have approved the use of genetic engineering,  but, they said, “They are not much different than regular food so there is no need and should be treated the same” How do you know they are “not much different”? Because you assume that because you have only used other food genes, that it is ok? You should never assume something that might and could quite possible change our bodies in a harmful way.

There can be a solution to this problem.  If we learn about this new technology then we will have an understanding of the effects it has on our bodies. There, also, needs to be a law passed that says that every container of food that has GMO foods in it must be labeled.  They do that in Europe so why not here.  It is because the companies don’t want it on there in fear of the marketing consequences.  Which would yo rather have? Natural or GM?