John Paul Nemec
Topic: Genetically Modified Foods
General Purpose: To persuade
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to not support the mass production of genetically modified foods until we have more empirical data of the effect this new technology has on natural health.
Thesis: Genetically modified foods are being prematurely manufactured due to all the possible benefits people imagine this technology can bring and are potentially impacting human health, the environment, and agricultural markets.

I. Introduction

A. Attention Getter: In today's world the demand for large quantities of quality cheap food sources is at an incredible high. Unlike most of history, where growing crops was a common profession today's food industry now resides in the hands of fewer people than ever thanks to modern improvements in harvesting technology.
B. Source: According to an article in the National Cattleman's Beef Association in 2005, this advanced technology allows the average farmer to currently feed 129 people contrasted with only fifty years ago where one farmer could only feed 25 people.
C. Thesis: Genetically modified foods are being prematurely manufactured due to all the possible benefits people imagine this technology can bring and are potentially impacting human health, the environment, and agricultural markets.
D. Significance: This dramatic change in the nature of food production has set the stage for the takeover of the industry by large companies, incorporating these new technologies to their max and killing traditional small farms who simply can't compete against the efficiency of their competitors.
E. Preview Statement: Specifically, I will be discussing the potential benefits this technology provides, as well as the potential harm it has on human health, the environment, and agricultural markets.
Transition: As large corporations, these food manufacturing giants have substantial resources dedicated to further improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the food making cycle from research in crop fertilizers to planting techniques to harvesting methods.

II. Problems
a. The first problem that arises from genetically modifying foods is that scientists are more focused on potential benefits this technology provides than giving adequate regard to the consequences such a radical implementation of a technique could have.
i. As Dr Suzanne Wuerthele, a toxologist of the Environmental Protection said in TIME magazine 2009 “We are confronted with the most powerful technology the world has ever known, and it is being rapidly deployed with almost no thought whatsoever to its consequences.” ii. While many of the concerns against genetically modified foods rest on the uncertainty of the technology, as we have no idea of its long term effect on our food system and environment or how they might mutate into something else, the negative consequences engineered varieties of food can bring on human health are already becoming well documented.
b. The next major problem with genetically modifying foods is the increased prevalence of food allergies against genetically modified foods. As the technology of genetic engineering involves incorporating assorted genes into a crop, the plant develops foreign proteins into an otherwise safe food.
i. Since allergic reactions occur when our bodies overreact in the presence of unknown proteins, genetically modified foods pose threats not only from the proteins from the foreign organisms but also from unintended proteins formed as a result of the process. ii. As shown by a study done by researchers at York laboratory in 1999 the year after new genetically modified soybeans were introduced to the U.K. soy allergies had nationally skyrocketed by a staggering 50% increase over the previous year. iii. Due to its complex nature it can be often difficult to directly