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Do you know what you’re eating? You may never find out. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are materials or organisms that have been genetically modified by scientists, and are the source of genetically modified foods. Some of these organisms are hybrids of the genetic tissue of plants and other organisms, such as fish. This bioengineering is used to implant the beneficial traits of one organism into another — such as implanting cold-resistance into tomatoes, or round-up resistance into wheat. By making crops resistant to external actors, these crops are able to give greater yields to whomever plants them. They are, essentially, super-crops. And while all this may sound fine and dandy, there is little known about the side effects of these bioengineered products. What’s worse is the failure by federal and state governments to educate the public on GMOs, or even make known their presence in the foods that we eat. With the potential for health, economic, and environmental factors, this doesn’t seem like something you’d want to keep in the dark.
Worldwide acreage of GMOs, source
This call to action isn’t for the banning of GMOs — by no means. Instead, both individuals, and institutions alike, should become responsible for their education of GMOs, in order to allow the public to choose for themselves what they want to eat. Now that Prop 37 has failed to pass into California law, there are no labels to inform the consumers of what they’re putting in their mouths. So, it is up to us, as consumers, to demand to know what is in our food, and not take a chance on what we put in our bodies.