Genetically Modified Organisms Controversy

“If you aren’t concerned about the DNA from blueberries “transferring” into you, then you should not be concerned about DNA from GMOs either,”says Layla Katiraee in her article “10 Studies Proving GMOs Are Harmful”(Katiraee). More and more Americans are becoming worried about the use of Genetically Modified Organisms in their food. The controversy of the use of GMOs in food can be understood through examining how they work, their disadvantages, and their advantages. Farming has transformed so much over the years. Six thousand years ago, farmers had holding pens and growing fields (Shmaefsky 1). In today's world, farming is not that simple. Since farming has transformed, larger operations are taking away a lot of the mom and pop farms, and making them big industrial farms. Another change is the restaurant industry, which grew in the 1950s, causing the need for more crops, but in a shorter amount of time (Shmaefsky 37). Farmers are using Genetically Modified Organisms to farm
The first main advantage is the food quality. Genetically modified organisms improve food quality, its shelf life, nutritional value, and its size (Hodge 102). A lot of people think that Genetically Modified Organisms are not safe, but what people fail to realize is that the Food and Drug Administration, also known as the FDA, has to approve anything that is sold to be consumed as food (Hodge 103). If the FDA says that they are safe then, why worry about them? Americans express their concern because GMOs can cause health effects, but six out of ten people who say that are using some form of tobacco, which is a bigger health risk than GMOs. All food has the same requirements no matter how it was grown (“Food”). Even the pesticides that get used on the fields must go through the Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA, to ensure that everything they use is safe