What is in my food?

Food fads and diet programs are rampant in modern society, and I am all for it. After all, taking care of what one eats is not necessarily a bad thing. The catch-22 occurs when unapprised people become activists and spokespeople for the rest of world. Over the past decade, nothing has inspired more fury from the “food police” than genetically modified foods. Genetically modified foods are produced from Genetically modified organisms better known by their acronym GMO, or by the bombastic term, ‘Frankenfoods.’ I understand why the term sounds formidable to the “not cognizant” mind. After all, there is a sense of permanency and awe attached to the term “genetic modification.”

Organizations like “Greenpeace” and “Non-GMO Project” do not exactly help understand the concept. Neither do major fast-food chains, who label their food as “GMO-free” attaching a sense of foreboding to the GMOs. Just last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for mandating the labelling of all GMO foods. A few days before Sen. Sanders’ protest over the bipartisan compromise vote over GMO labelling, 107 Nobel laureates signed a letter admonishing “Greenpeace” for obstructing the introduction of a strain of genetically modified strain of rice called Golden Rice, which can alleviate vitamin-A deficiencies in the developing world. Rice is the staple food crop in many developing nations where vitamin-A deficiency causes blindness and death in children. Golden rice can easily alleviate the Vitamin-A deficiency in these countries and save lives.

So, what are GMOs, and why are they considered unsafe, toxic, or a health and environmental hazard? The first part is easy for me to answer. GMOs are organisms (like bacteria, plants, or other microorganisms) that are engineered in laboratories to alter certain genetic traits. This method allows certain desirable genes to be transferred from one organism to another. Different methods are used by molecular biologists to insert different genes in different organisms, and for this reason, each case is assessed on an individual basis. The GM (genetically modified) foods currently on the markets have passes all safety assessments and are unlikely to cause any health hazards to animals or humans (according to the WHO, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the American Medical Association, and England’s Royal Society of Medicine among others). An overwhelming number of scientific studies support the safety of GM foods.

The second part of my question has an easier and shorter answer than the first -- ignorance!

What will you believe: The scientific evidence or the general public rhetoric?