In 1982 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved GMO’s. In 1994 he first type of GMO to hit the grocery shelves was a tomato, which had a longer shelf life than regular tomatoes. These tomatoes allowed to grocery chains to make a profit being able to keep tomatoes longer without rotting at such a fast rate.
The purpose of genetically modified crops has many advantages to include “reduced costs for food, enhanced nutrient composition and resistance to pests and disease” (T. Phillips, 2008). The purpose of genetic engineered animals has multiples reasons. Salmon for example takes one to two years to mature to adult size; engineered salmon grows market size sooner. Chickens have been engineered to combat the spread of the Avian Flu to other birds. According to the Food and Drug Association Genetically Modified Organism’s are created by Techniques such as direct insertion of genes into target bacterial cells is used in the production of human proteins, such as human growth hormone and human insulin. Scientists take pieces of DNA from different kinds of organisms and put them together and that should results in the product people want for example; small designer dogs, tomatoes resistant to high rotting turnover rate, and wheat resistant to herbicides. Foods that I notice in my local supermarket that contain genetically modified organisms are corn, tomatoes and potatoes. I have purchased these items and have noticed the longer life of these vegetables. Normally these particular vegetables go bad within a week in my home but when I purchase the GMO vegetables they last for at least two weeks. Purchasing GMO has saved me money and cut the frequency time of when I purchase vegetables.
Even though many people aren’t on board with using GMO products many do use them. Some people actually believe GMO crops are understudied and genetically modified crops have not been safety tested or that the research done on the health or environmental impact of GMOs has all been done by the companies that are actually producing the seeds, and why would they say something negative about a product that they have a stamp on that will make them money in the future. To counter that argument there has been a team in Europe that tested crops against a database of know allergens and found a very small number that contained allergens. In that case the information was reported to the producing companies any crop containing these allergens were not commercialized. “These 1783 studies are expected to be merged into the public database known as GENERA (Genetic Engineering Risk Atlas) being built by Biofortified an independent non-profit website. Officially launched in 2012, GENERA includes peer-reviewed journal articles from different aspects of GM research, including basic genetics, feeding studies, environmental impact and nutritional impact. GENERA have more than 650 studies listed so far, many of which also show up in the new database. When merged, there should be well over 2000 GMO related studies, a