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Alejandro Ballinas

Osman

English 3P, Period 1

30 April 2019

GMO Advantage

The policy to make food healthy and affordable dates back to Roosevelt’s Pure Food and

Drug Act of 1907. However, megafood corporations have found a way around these regulations

and adulterated the food they produce by introducing it with chemicals. In “The Pleasures of

Eating,” Wendell Berry talks about the consumers’ unconsciousness of where their food is

produce and the chemicals it contains. In “Big Agriculture Is The Only Option to Stop the World

Going Hungry,” Jay Rayner introduces the idea of how many of these toxic chemicals found in

farms can lead to a larger carbon footprint. Thus, policy makers should increase genetically

modified organisms (GMOs) to put a stop to the toxic chemicals presented in growing

vegetables/fruits to preserve the health of humanity and the environment.

Growing vegetables/fruits is not the natural sunlight and water process people assume.

There are various other chemicals involved to make sure insects, fungus, and invasive plants are

kept from interfering to ensure maximum productivity. In “The Pleasures of Eating,” Berry

states, “...she should not be encouraged to meditate on the hygienic and biological implications

of mile-square fields of cabbage, for vegetables grown in huge monocultures are dependent on

toxic chemicals…” (Berry 3); in which he explores the mistake of focusing on the sanitary look

of a farm, because although it may look clean many toxic chemicals are confined in the fields.

To further analyze his point of view, various pesticides (organophosphates being the most
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relevant) are used to grow non-organic foods; and these can be harmful to people because they

make us more susceptible to vomiting, seizures, and difficulty breathing if exposed in big

concentrations. For this specific reason, GMOs should be increased to modify the crop making it

more resistance to pathogens while keeping up with its high demand, diminishing the need for

toxic chemicals. However, the benefits do not stop there because with an increase in GMOs,

there is a reduction in greenhouse emissions.

Most believe a traditional farm does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions because

it is all natural. However, with the knowledge that chemicals are confined in every farm it can be

concluded that this is most certainly not the case. Thus Jay Rayner can conclude in “Big

Agriculture Is The Only Option to Stop the World Going Hungry” that, “..carbon footprint of

such a large facility may actually be many times smaller than that of the traditional dairy farm”

(Rayner 15); in which he is addressing the importance of abandoning the mythologies of

agriculture and accepting the industrial methods of farming. The reduction of the carbon

footprint is a huge benefit for the environment, to relieve the atmosphere from this powerful gas

that has contributed significantly to the greenhouse effect. The industrial method includes using

GMOs that are also herbicide resistant, meaning that it allows farmers to manage weeds without

the need of the traditional method of tilling fields. Thus if policymakers increase GMOs, they

will decrease the tillage resulting in fewer tractor emissions into the atmosphere, which is

equivalent to removing 12 million cars off the road. However, many still argue of the drawbacks

of GMOs but are not even aware of what GMOs are.

People will often argue that GMOs have contributed to cancer, autism, allergies or other

illnesses. However, the ​NAS​ researched the GMO’s safety in 2016 and found no correlation
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between them and the illnesses listed. To further counteract this idea, the study in ​Nature and

Human Behavior ​came to a conclusion that as opposition to GMO foods increases, knowledge of

them decreases. Meaning that the more GMOs are degraded by consumers, the greater their

statements become opinionated and are driven away from the facts. This study, along with the

research done by the ​NAS​ serve to counter argue that GMOs place a significant risk to our health,

and thus places them at the top of regulation for food policy makers to ensure that our

environment and health is secured.

Although Roosevelt had a great idea in his head to stop corporations from misleading

consumers’ with his 1907 Food and Drug Act, this idea has failed to live up to its expectations

because they continue to use toxic chemicals in growing the products they sell. Thus, Policy

makers should increase the amount of GMOs that are used in today’s society to insure that

harmful chemicals are kept out of consumers’ food, and that these chemicals are not released into

the environment. Food regulators should draw back from trying to adjust food policy with

inspection acts and focus on how they can try and change the way food is processed with

science; or else their will be a continuation in nutrition problems like food poisoning as well as

climate changes that can make life difficult for future generations.
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Works Cited

Rayner, Jay. "Big Agriculture Is the Only Option to Stop the World Going Hungry." ​The

​ ondon,​ ​2010​. ​Print.

Observer. L

​ eb. 26 April. 2019

“GMO Myths Vs. Facts.” ​Council for Biotechnology Information. W

https://gmoanswers.com/gmo-myths-vs-facts

Bakalar, Nicholas. “Opposed to G.M.O.s? How Much Do You Know About Them?” ​The New

York Times​. 15 Jan. 2019. Web. 26 April. 2019

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/well/eat/gmo-foods-genetically-modified-knowledge.html

Berry, Wendell. “The Pleasures of Eating.” ​What are People for?: Essays​. Counterpoint

Press, 2010. 145-152. Print.