GMO matter blog

GMOs are widely controversial topic when it comes peoples opinions about health. However I believe that GMOs are a good think for our country because of the benefits to bring to the table. The term GMO originated in 1996 upon the creation of them; it stands for genetically modified organisms. Before I start with the reasons GMO are good I want to bring up the problem of knowledge. The problem is that the majority of the population is undereducated about GMOs, in fact 71% of people in a survey done by Pew Research Center stated that they knew little to no information about GMOs. This becomes a problem when anti-GMO brands and movements see it as a chance to gain profit.

One of the biggest anti gmo movement is lead by an organization called the “The non gmo Project” The way it works is by having companies apply and pay huge sum of money to become certified and have the non gmo project sticker on their product. These products are most often advertised at high income families with kids. Advertisements such as this are focused at them telling them to pay the premium price if they want the best for their kids. Advertisements like this are borderline propaganda and provide no substantial evidence for their case. And to prove it is a study done by premium science which asked people who believed in buying only organic foods if they determine which fruit was organic and which was GMO by using their senses the study showed the even though people believed in non gmo the participants were not even able to determine definitively which fruit was which. This and many other studies like it prove that the propaganda like ads are the one affecting the buying opinions, not real facts.

So even though people are under educated when it comes to GMOS, what makes them worth learning about? Well, there are tons of reasons GMOs are good, and worth telling people about so they can make their own opinion. Take eggplant, a crop that is vital in Bangladesh, but has whole harvests destroyed by pests. As a result, farmers began using an abundance of expensive pesticides, leading to farmers not only losing money but also becoming sick. The introduction of a new GM eggplant that contained the “BT” protein mentioned before reduced pesticide use by 80%, farmers got healthy, and their income rose dramatically. Along with this, GMOs give millions of American the opportunity to be healthy.In the US many people living on minimum wage may find it hard and impractical to buy fresh produce for themselves for a multitude of reasons. But the main reasons is price organic fruits and vegetable are expensive because the grow slowly and companies know they can charge a premium for the word organic. However GMOs help solve these problems, and give many people the opportunity to be healthy. Which is why there so important to the welfare or our nation's health.

In the future GMOs will be one of the most important tools in feeding our world's growing population. Earth’s population is estimated to reach between 9 and 10 billion by 2050. Which means we could grow enough food to feed that population by cutting down more forests and setting up more pastures, or we could use GMOs and intensify farming, producing larger yields from the same amount of land. In fact, in data available from the past 21 years we can see that GMOs on average have increased crop yields by 25%. And that 25% increase is is only from the beginning stages of GMOs, so the new applications and benefits of GMOs of the future are endless.

https://www.nongmoproject.org/gmo-facts/
https://responsibletechnology.org/gmo-education/