preview

Genetically Modified Organisms : The World 's Growing Population

Good Essays

Genetically modified organisms are both widely loved and hated, but what really is it? You may hear of GMOs but did you realize that it 's around you more than you would think. According to Elizabeth Weise on USAToday (2016), “40-75% of food in a typical supermarket has been genetically modified”. In today 's day and age, genetically modified organisms are taking over the market. It is important to understand what they are and how they affect the food we consume in our everyday lives. Because of the world’s growing population and need to meet demand, GMOs are becoming more common-use, changing our food in ways we are unaware of. Like giving a crop immunity to a virus, it is important to be informed and educated of the changes. A genetically modified organism is one that has had another organism 's genes inserted into it to give it attributes it did not originally have. Manipulating an organism 's genes has been done by humans in the BC time period however it was done differently than how it is done today. In the old past, humans would cross breed their livestock through artificial selection, hence producing offspring with the desired genes/traits. This older method was deemed “genetic modification” by the USDA and FDA (2016). The modern method of extracting one organism 's genes and inserting them into another 's through laboratory work is defined as “genetic engineering”. In the book “Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation” (2016) it is said that

Get Access