1. This question should be addressed to Tina Milam

Well this topic is a new one for me because I have never heard of GMOs or what it even meant. Now that I know a little more about this I will say I'm not surprised but I am kinda worried. I mean I have thought about what I am eating but not this close to it. Genetically Modified Organisms seems to me to have more cons then it does pros. For example, it causes more health risk and cause someone have health problems. I don't know about most people but I like to read the labels of the packaged food items that I buy before actually buying it. I like to know what I'm putting in my body at the same know what my kids are eating. I also like to know that the food I'm eating to stay alive isn't going to kill me one day with a bunch of chemicals or something. I understand that it has some pros as well. Meaning that it's easier on farmers when growing their crops. It helps them increase the time and their out put on stock. This also means that farmers can grow more crops on a smaller amount of land (Vaesa & Wubble, 2013). I believe when there is that is modified should have some kind of special label on them before being on the shelf for people to buy. It's crazy to learn how much goes on when growing food. I liked the video due to learning much more about what Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) truly meant. I plane on learning more about how much it actually takes place in every day life.

-Vaesa, J. Wubble, W., M., L., M, GMO (2013, July 19). GMO's: Benefits and Negative Effects of Genetically Modified Food. Retrived from https://www.decodedscience.org

2. This question should be addressed to Laddie Rice

In researching the topic of GMO’s and the pros and cons associated with them I found that I did not really know much about them, and like many, had a negative opinion based on what I thought I knew. Humans have been altering the genetic makeup of our foods for nearly 10,000 years and today virtually everything we eat has been produced from genetically altered seeds (Ronald, 2013). There are several cons that folks tend to rely on when casting GMO’s in a negative light but most seemed to be based on mere opinion. Many of these have changed and several early researchers have re-evaluated their stance on GMO’s. Environmentalist Mark Lynas took the unusual step of apologizing for his own role in helping to launch the anti-GMO campaign in the 1990s. He characterized this campaign as the most successful he had ever been involved with but now admits that it was misguided. After taking a more careful look at the science, he came to see GMOs as a "desperately needed agricultural innovation" that is being "strangled by a suffocating avalanche of regulations which are not based on any rational scientific assessment of risk.” (Ronald, 2013).

It can be shown that GMO’s offer increased Insect Resistance, Environmental Protection and offer more nutritious food. GMO based foods can, and have been, seen as the cure for worldwide food insecurity however most widely used GMO crops today are controlled by corporate interests and their cost tends to put them out of reach of the truly poor (Moseley, 2017). The cons associated with GMO’s typically revolve around food allergies, the decrease of antibiotic efficacy, and the unintended gene transfer to other plants. I like many, want to find a specific example of how GMO’s are horrible, but struggle to when you factor in the health risks associated with crops that are sprayed with unknown quantities of herbicide and pesticides. In short, essentially the only way to eat something without the effect of GMO’s is to forage for wild berries, hunt wildlife, or catch wild salmon.

As earlier stated, I am really surprised regarding the level of support for GMO’s. I assumed that most would be totally against any food that had been altered but found a plethora of information regarding support from scientific sources.

References:

Moseley, W. G. (2017). A Risky Solution for the Wrong Problem: Why GMOs won't Feed the Hungry of the World. Geographical Review, 107(4), 578-583. doi:10.1111/gere.12259

Ronald, P. (2013). THE TRUTH ABOUT GMOs. Boston Review, 38(5), 16-32.