One of my friends recently told me that she believed Genetically Modified (GMO) foods are bad for you. I asked her why she thought this, and she said this “Don’t you think putting something else’s genetics in something like tomatoes would make the new topic something that’s not a tomato?” I didn’t know where she was going with this statement, so all I said was “No”. I’m sure we went on a little further with it, but she basically didn’t have any points to back up why she thought GM foods were bad.
Why Do People Think that GM foods are Bad?
Simply put, many people are afraid of the unknown. What they don’t know, they perceive to be bad for them. So even if a plant is modified to withstand the cold, or resist pests, or to resist pesticides they believe they are bad for you because they don’t know how they were modified to do so.
Could They Ever Harm You?
Allergic Reactions: Many people have deadly allergies to certain plants such as peanuts, but even though it’s possible to modify crops to have allergic potential, it likely won’t happen since proposals to incorporate such potentially allergenic components into crops will get turned down for that reason. So, no need to fear about that!
GM Foods Advantages
Aside from all the obvious advantages such as disease resistance, cold tolerance, and drought tolerance, you have:
Nutraceutical: Many diseases now being used to treat or prevent including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes are made possible by discovering drug targets to correct.
Artificial mosquito repellents that work in full the same way as natural ones.
Your Kitchen’s Health: It is now common knowledge that pesticides and other contaminants found in the kitchen can make food much more toxic than it otherwise would be. In addition, we are finding that as many as a third of the food we eat is loaded with nasty, harmful chemicals. Nevertheless, we continue to turn to GM foods because they produce consistently quality food.
GM foods are not different from the food that naturally comes from the earth. Only when GM foods are coated with patented products such as corn, can they fool the human body into thinking it’s getting vitamin C from the fruit, when in fact it’s not.
This is why you need to educate yourself around what you are eating, especially when GM foods are in the grocery store.
On the TableGo for OrganicIf you must use GM foods, ensure that you buy ones that are labeled “organic”. This is the only way to ensure that you and your family are avoiding these potentially harmful products.
ItÕs Not Just About Making Money: The main focus of GM foods is making money. That is why when you buy GM foods, youÕs not only avoiding the potential health risks, youÕs also throwing away money.
Think about this. GM foods cost me $10 per bag. That is $10 per pound of potatoes, or $10 per carton of eggs. When you realize that the average family in America wastes over $600 a year on eggs, you’ll realize just how big your impact on the world can be.
Think about it. The average family in America wastes over $600 a year on eggs.
You could save up to $600 a year just by going organic.
What Does Organic Really Mean?
Organic food is grown by farmers who avoid the use of bio-engineered crops. This is because the produce is next to impossible to control. Organic fruits and vegetables are grown on the same soil as the rest of the farm products. Plus, the soil has been used by humans for thousands of years.
The only way for a farmer to get certification is to pass aCertified Organic Grower(COG) exam. The best organic COG certifications come from organizations that have their own strict criteria for certification.
Hopefully these few details have helped you understand what organic really means. Organic foods are grown by following very strict rules – so as to ensure that what you grew will be grown as nature intended.
This is important because organic food carries a much lower risk of toxins and pesticides. Extreme care is taken to ensure that the farmers don’t use harmful pesticides. The land used by the farmers is regularly monitored to make sure that safeguards are in place to protect the environment as well as the farmers.
TheCertified Organic Foodkeeps the integrity of the family farm. The farmer has to meet a set of very strict guidelines. They must never use chemicals, have aorate restrictions on insecticides, fertilizers and has strict guidelines on their use. This ensures that the integrity of the farm and the quality of the food that they produce remain safe.
One last thing that wondering about organic food should not be confused about is its taste.
About The Author
Helena Eater
How much does the quality of food really matter? If you eat food that tastes good, your life will be better. If you eat food that tastes bad, your life will be worse. The difference between good and evil is partly subjective: what tastes good to me might taste bad to you. The difference is also partly objective: what restaurants I think serve good food might serve lousy food to you. But if we stick to objective measures — measures such as how much weight people gain or lose — we can cut through some of the subjectivity.
