Month: January 2016

GMO Article

A bill to ban the use of GMO’s on the island of Kona, Hawaii was introduced in May of 2013. Surprisingly, word on this ban flourished and the issue of GMO products were now becoming a national concern. Public hearings were now being governed by the issues that the use of GMO’s seemed to have been generating. GMO’s are, in simplest of terms, genetically modified organisms; living organisms that are artificially tampered with in order to achieve a certain result or modify a certain trait. Mainly, people see this as an unnatural way to produce the foods that we’re intaking nearly everyday. Google GMO’s, and you’ll find almost every result will read a negative headline. The real issue that farmers who use GMO’s face, is how to grow healthy food most efficiently at a time when global warming is more dominant than ever. Add in the fact that we’ve got an ever growing population, and things begin to stray from simple. The Council began to receive emails pertaining to the ban, so much so, that they suspended the idea of distributing each email to each council member, simply because there was not enough ink in the world. Emails from around the country began to fled the Council’s inbox. A woman from Chicago wrote, “Do the right thing, or no one will want to take a toxic tour of your poisoned paradise”(NY Times).  Many people, in support of these bans find it punishing to try and overlook the actions of seed-producing biotech companies who are responsible for this whole outbreak. Many are not willing to overlook this issue any longer. Perhaps the words of Ms. Wille, Chairwoman of Agriculture Committee Council, will best speak for those who want to rid GMO’s from our systems, “What mattered the most was no the amount of food produced, but it’s quality and the sustainability of how it was grown”(NY Times).