GMO’s or Genetically Modified Organisms appear to be the utmost talked about entity this year as well as the most mysterious. It’s not a surprise that when you type GMO’s into the Google search bar that you get 21,500,000 results and it’s also not surprising that out of the first five links on Google, three are about the negative effects of GMO. But as it was learned from reading “A Lonley Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops” by: Amy Harmon, there isn’t enough empirical evidence presented to the public about GMO’s and their effects whether it be positive or negative. It appears that the world is left in the dark uneducated about the truth of GMO’s while news and media play a game of he said she said. Why aren’t the consumers being educated and GMO products labeled on the shelf? And if GMO products were to be labeled would it even be effective or will people become susceptible to it? Why isn’t private long term research being done on the effects of GMO within the agriculture industry? One of the leading questions is the lawfulness of GMO products. Are they safe? Who are they harming? And are people really scared of GMO’s or large corporations like Monsanto?

Resembling council member Greggor Ilagan, I believe there are a lot of answers left uncountable that need to be answered in order for the public to make a decision whether GMO’s are moral or immoral for our plant and our health. The public can no longer ignore that every time GMO is brought up the topics change. As humans and consumers we can’t keep following the game of word against word without true answers. And to get true answers a task force needs to be created with certified scientists not bought by Monsanto. The warning of Derek Brewer, “We don’t fully understand genetics. Once you change something like this, there is no taking it back”. Consumers have no idea what they are buying and what is inside their food and we as a country need to change that.

The United States is sort of in a bad position, we are focusing on GMO labeling when in fact we should be concerning ourselves with whether or not to ban GMO’s altogether such as Ms. Wille’s bill. GMO labeling doesn’t actually address the problem it only gives the consumer information to make a conscious decision to buy that product or not. Although it might not seem a problem for most, almost 80% of packaged foods in the US contain GMOs so what is the use of labeling when you can’t buy anything without having GMOs in it?

Some might even say they are fine with buying the 10% of foods that don’t have GMOs but it is almost guaranteed to be made from agriculture sprayed with pesticides and herbicides more toxic than “Roundup”. So either way you end up eating food that can kill you in many different forms and we don’t seem to be doing anything about that. You might say okay well label the pesticides and herbicides as well but that doesn’t stop the farmer from using it nor the manufacturer from making it. The point is labeling can only do so much and it doesn’t prevent people from growing GMO food or producing toxic chemicals. The problem is our current farming practices and meat industry are not suitable, we can’t keep injecting our meat with growth hormones, using massive amounts of fossil fuel to produce food, or let mega corporations control our food supply. And if the above information isn’t convincing enough we need to examine why GMOs have been banned in 27 countries, and labeling is required in 50.

• 94% of U.S. soy crops (which by volume accounts for just under half of all the GMO crops grown worldwide)
• 90% of U.S. cotton plantings
• 88% of the U.S. corn crop
• 90% of the U.S. canola crop
• 95% of U.S. sugar beet plantings
• Alfalfa (planted in 2011)
• Papaya (Hawaiian crop; around 988 acres)
• Zucchini/Yellow Summer Squash (approx. 25,000 acres)

Personally one of the principal aspects the article barely touched on is: are people really scared of GMO’s or Monsanto? Yes, there seems to be a lot of confusing evidence floating around the internet that GMOs cause tumors and other such dieses but we haven’t truly learned of any positives from GMO’s yet. That might be because there are no positive outcomes from GMO within food but we as a society don’t fully know this without testing it. And by successful I don’t mean the survival of the Rainbow Guava, I mean no pesticide use and natural vitamins. I am contradicting myself a little bit only to say that each case should be treated individually like Mr. Ilagan thought. Why shoot down all the future opportunities when they might be more natural and beneficial? Even though at present GMOs seem to be more harmful than good. My main concern is the company Monsanto who has a reputation I can’t forgive and most Americans forgot. One of their most notorious products was a chemical called Agent Orange which was an herbicide and defoliant used in Vietnam by the U.S. Military to deteriorate the foliage around the jungle to make it easier for U.S. soldiers to see enemies. The herbicides sprayed were 50 times the concentration that would have been used for normal agricultural uses. Vietnam estimates 400, 000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of Agent Orange. The facts are unforgettable and the truth unforgivable that Monsanto and the Government knew the herbicides had sever consequences yet sprayed anyway. A company capable of doing that is a company I will never trust.

If the facts about Agent Orange isn’t troubling enough take Ms. Wille’s quote for example; “There’s a saying, ‘If you control the seed, you control the food; if you control the food, you control the people’”. Monsanto has dominated the seed market to the point where they control the price of the seed they are no longer a company but a multi-million dollar corporate. They perform their own safety testing and have never conducted long term experiments. Worst of all they created a Terminator gean that makes a seed sterile until the farmers spray it with a Zombie spray that wakes the seed up. In my opinion there is no need for a seed like that or Monsanto.

We as Americans and human beings need to focus on what is important which the Earth we live upon and the future of our children and grandchildren. What matters isn’t the amount of food that is produced or the size of it, but that its sustainability and nutrients remain. The fruits and vegetables with added GMO’s don’t appear to be natural when it requires more pesticides and chemicals. We aren’t taking care of ourselves or our Earth by soaking it with chemicals, burning fossil fuels to produce food, and enhancing organisms. We all need to take a step back and create a taskforce into investigating the effects of GMO on food and people. As well as inform one another and shut down Monsanto. Then maybe more people will realize the fight for GMO’s isn’t just about labeling it is about morality.

Link to: “A Lonley Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops”

Link to Video on Monsanto and GMOs: “2 Minutes on Monsanto and GMOs”