Stuart-Calvillo 1

Kevin Stuart

NWCTA

Mrs. Acosta

15, October 2021

GMO Essay

GMO Argument

Have you ever wondered if GMOs are safe or healthy? Genetically Modified

Organisms (GMOs) are defined as organisms such as plants, animals, or

microorganisms, where their genetic material (DNA) has been altered in such a manner

that it does not occur naturally through mating or natural recombination. I think GMOs

are very healthy and here’s why…

GMOs have many benefits to our health but also because it is in the healthy foods we

eat. People eat a lot of healthy foods and we never knew what GMOs were intel a

couple of days ago. GMOs are in tomatoes, potatoes, corn, squash, papaya, sugar,

yogurt, milk, granola bars, etc… All these foods or vegetables are really good for you

but they all have GMOs in them. We eat these vegetables just about a couple of days a

week, and they make us feel good and healthy but also full. Another main food that has
GMOs is wheat bread. We eat wheat bread a lot. A lot of people say that wheat bread is

really good for you. Whole wheat bread contains more protein and fiber than white

bread. It provides up to four times the amount of zinc, essential to immunity and

carbohydrate digestion. Whole wheat bread also contains more folic acid and iron, two

nutrients that support oxygen circulation by aiding in red blood cell growth. But the thing

is, it has GMOs in it, which makes it healthy.

The benefit of GMOs is Engineers. They design plants using genetically modified

organisms, or GMOs, to be tougher, more nutritious, or taste better. Genetic

Engineering in agriculture increases crop yields, reduces cost for food and drug

production, reduces the need for pesticides, enhances nutrient composition and food

quality, resistance to pests and disease, greater food security, and also medical benefits

to the world’s growing population. Engineers have been around for a long time and

people have been altering the genomes of plants and animals for many years and have

been breeding different techniques. As with food animals, genetic engineers research

ways to upgrade the production of plants and crops. They might alter the genetic

makeup of fruits or vegetables to enhance their resistance to diseases and pests. To

improve crop yield, they investigate the interplay among plant genes and identify DNA

that aids growth.

They open up jobs for many people, but there are other jobs in the engineering

agricultural field. Genetic engineer job descriptions in animal science focus mostly on

boosting the production of farm and ranch animals. They develop genetically
engineered, synthetic vaccines that avoid the potential side effects of live vaccines

against infectious digestive diseases in livestock, and they have created antibodies that

make some live vaccines less dangerous. Genetic engineers are also behind growth

hormones that make leaner meat and increase meat and milk output in cattle and pigs.

GMO’s might be dangerous through intentional means and unintentional means,

however, no GMO put on the market is dangerous. According to the World Health

Organization, there is no evidence of harm caused by GMOs but they also have to go

through a safety check by the markets so they can get sold, which means that they

cause no harm whatsoever. Though studies published in 2014 by agricultural

economics. GMOs have increased agricultural yields by 22 percent. The way engineers

can do better or make it better is by growing more farms on top of each other with

sunlight at the top and water around it. When you build things on top of each other the

sun hits it but so does the water around it and the bigger you make it the more you get

out of it.

Although most people say that GMOs are good and that they benefit you and they

help people in the engineering field and stuff like that, GMOs can cause many things

that are bad for your health or other people. This article states that “ They increase

“superweeds” and therefore increase pesticide use and toxicity, and do great economic

harm to farmers and the food system. GMOs lead to increased use of stronger, more

toxic pesticide combinations.” But not just that, they also cause allergies, cancer and

toxic pesticides. Allergies can cause an allergic reaction because it may trigger, the

reason for that is because GMO foods contain foreign genes in it and it is likely to
trigger allergic reactions in people all over the world. Also cancer is a very dangerous

thing in life, cancer of all sorts can happen but mostly in the liver because of the genes

in the foods, but that is a very dangerous thing and people still decide to trust it. Lastly,

toxic pesticides which are chemicals in the foods to kill pest, it says that these are the

things in the foods such as “The most commonly applied pesticides are insecticides to

kill insects, herbicides to kill weeds, rodenticides to kill rodents, and fungicides to

control fungi, mold, and mildew.” These are the pesticides in the GMO foods but also so

the food doesn’t get bad.

Now have you ever wondered if GMOs are good or bad? GMOs are a ton of different

things into one and it controls the things we eat. Yes, GMOs have a lot of things in them

and they change the food and the size of it and make it last longer but it’s not bad.

That’s life, just eat what you need to eat because GMOs have been around for a long

time and it hasn't changed in what people eat or how they eat it. So just keep eating the

food you like whether it has GMOs or not. Because GMOs are really good for you, GMOs

have done nothing to people yet and it’s growing more and more every single day. It’s in

literally every food so don’t stop eating what you wanna eat, you only live once.

Citations:

MLA: Hsaio, Jennifer. "GMOs and pesticides: Helpful or Harmful." Science in the News (2015).

APA: Hsaio, J. (2015). GMOs and pesticides: Helpful or Harmful. Science in the News.
MLA: Scuro, Alexandra. "Are GMOs good or bad seeds in the developing world?: a discussion of the

growing role of developing countries in the debate over climate change and the loss of biodiversity."

Fordham Environmental Law Review (2007): 369-398.

APA: Scuro, A. (2007). Are GMOs good or bad seeds in the developing world?: a discussion of the

growing role of developing countries in the debate over climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

Fordham Environmental Law Review, 369-398.

MLA: Van Acker, Rene, Motior Rahman, and S. Zahra H. Cici. "Pros and cons of GMO crop farming."

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. 2017.

APA: Van Acker, R., Rahman, M., & Cici, S. Z. H. (2017). Pros and cons of GMO crop farming. In Oxford

Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science.