GMOs Argumentative Essay Example

Many people believe that GMOs are good for you and provide many benefits, however, this is not the case. GMOs are definitely not good for your health or the environment. In fact, many food industries try to hide what they use to make food grow faster or keep bugs away. GMO’s, or Genetically Modified Organisms are basically chemicals that alter the food to make them bigger, grow faster, or keep insects away. Since GMO’s provide little to no benefits, they should not be used in the US. 

To understand why GMOs are so bad, we should first understand how they work. GMO’s is when a gene is inserted into the nucleus into a cell. This may seem like a very small change, but it modifies the cell. After this, scientists keep giving it hormones to further growth and development. This makes the plant bigger but does not increase nutritional value. It’s like eating chemicals with your food, which does not sound appetizing or healthy. The DNA is basically altered, and when new seeds are produced, they will contain the altered genes. These changed genes can survive pesticides such as weed killers and can stop bugs from eating them. Bugs and many other organisms are dying after eating GMO’s, and althpugh humans aren’t yet, no one know the long term effects of eating modified crops. Since these new plants are stronger, more chemicals are sprayed on GM crops. As if that’s not enough, many countries such as France, Germany, and Austria have banned GMOs, and they would only do that if they were not good for us.

The first reason you shouldn’t be eating GMO crops is that they can cause many high-risk health problems.  Many animals such as rats don’t even survive after eating these crops, and even though we humans are much stronger, the long-term effects of eating these crops can be terrible. What’s worse is that the FDA is allowing the biotech industry to produce GMO products without testing or scientific proof that the foods are safe to eat. These crops are not healthy and there are multiple health risks associated with eating GMOs. For example, GMO’s can be very toxic, “Each genetic insertion creates the added possibility that formerly nontoxic elements in the food could become toxic” as stated by the Center for Food Safety (CFFS). This proves that GE food producers are hoping that the food doesn’t become toxic, and along with the fact that the FDA doesn’t even ask for proof of safeness, the crops can become extremely toxic. 

Also, they can cause infections and don’t provide antibiotic resistance. Natural crops are the things keeping us safe from all these diseases, which GE foods may not be able to provide. The Center for Food Safety once again states that “disease-causing bacteria resistant to current antibiotics [are in GM crops], resulting in a significant increase in the spread of infections and diseases in the human population” (CFFS). This just proves that infections are much easier spread, since some bacteria in the plants are resistant to antibiotics. Furthermore, cancer can be caused by the increased amounts of hormones in GMO foods, which you won’t get by eating natural, GMO-free food. Plus, foods lose their nutritional value when injected with GMOs. Along with the pesticides sprayed, the food can become truly unhealthy. If this all can happen in a short term, imagine the long term effects. Moreover, GMO’s are causing many problems with farmers, causing them to lose a lot of money when not growing GMO crops. These crops also cause soil depletion. So the next time you head to the store to buy some veggies, spend a couple extra cents get the non-gmo version, which can improve your health in the future.