Genetic Modified Organisms

Genetically modified organisms, GMO for sort, is a food that has been altered at the molecular level to make it better looking, nutritional, or have a longer shelf-life. GMO seeds have taken over most of standard farmers because they are easier to grow then traditional seeds because they are fortified with pesticides and growth additives. These GMO’s are in all of our supermarkets unmarked and are used to feed livestock in the US. Due to the lack of scientific record of GMO’s and their effects, no one can predict the long term effects, but there have been enough “red flags” to have people looking into it. Genetically modified organisms have been plaguing the American public by the lack of government and corporate regulations and the effect they have on agriculture.
GMO’s have skid under the radar of government regulation for some time now. Scientists first discovered in 1977 that they could inject foreign genes into plants to potentially modify and enhance plants (Rich, 2011). They also were able to modify animals like pigs with spinach genes to produce low-fat bacon. The government first recognized GM foods in the early 1990s and noted they should be considered for regulation. This did not stop the first augmented tomato in 1994 to hit the grocery stores. GM supporters claimed that the process improved flavor and reduced the cost of the product. Corporations often claim that GMO’s are the solution to world hunger so they get the backing of organizations like Center for Food Safety and Greenpeace (Driscoll, 2011).
Right when GM foods were first introduced in the early 1990s the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warranted considerations to regulate the production of GMOs. This was then shot down by former Vice President Dan Quayle that headed up a regulatory review committee that dealt with genetically modified food (Rich, 2011). The committee ruled that GM foods had substantial equivalence with unaltered food, so there was no need for the FDA to regulate them....