...genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is one of massive proportions. The technology is revolutionary, yet it also displaces the order of nature with the manipulation and altering of the code of life: DNA. GMO foods are foods that have been genetically modified to produce some desired effect, like pesticide resistance, within crops, plants and animals. As with many artificial goods, when they alters and impacts the natural world and the food chain, they becomes a topic of concern. GMOs are fantastic in terms of health as they are mostly beneficial while bearing little risk. However, while GMOs are a positive force in terms of health, the rest of the technology is primarily negative. They disrupt biodiversity by introducing modified...
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...The topic of GMOs or genetically modified organisms, has been widely debated in recent years. GMO use in food has been focused on crops to increase their yield and use. The main concerns about GMOS are actually not human safety but more the economic and potential environmental issues. There are many people that are concerned about GMOs impact on their health. As a result, they seek to find foods marked GMO free so they can consider it “healthy” regardless of the price. This is an effect from the anti GMO industry in an effort to sell you higher priced food. This has an economic impact to businesses and consumers. Increased food pricing helps the industry become more profitable. In terms of the environment, pesticide resistance is a concern involving GMOs but not GMOs directly. The GMOs are bred with the ability to resist pesticides. As a result farmers use a lot to ensure that all the weeds are killed. While leading scientific organizations believe GMOs as a whole are safe for consumption, the overuse of these pesticides could potentially affect the environment. This area requires additional research and exploration....
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...As we have sped into the 21st century, we have run into the issue of keeping up food supply with the demands of the growing population. To keep up with these new demands, large food companies have enlisted the help of scientists to engineer our foods to make them easier, faster, and cheaper to grow. Unfortunately, using Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is bad not only for the health of us humans, but also the health of our environments. I believe that we should stop using genetically modified foods so that we can avoid liver disease, kidney disease and an increased risk of cancer in humans, and stop the rise of antibiotic resistance in animals and on crops. Throughout the past several decades, as we have funded the genetic engineering of our food, the higher ups of the food companies have turned a blind eye to the health risks that consuming engineered food have to us, and have conveniently forgotten to inform the everyday consumer of these risks. In “Evidence Grows of Harmful Effects of GMOs on Human Health” by Helke Ferrie, who has a MA in Physical Anthropology and has spent much time working with the World Health Organization, states that according to Canadian research “93% of all fetuses and their mothers tested were found to be contaminated with toxins associated with GM foods” (Ferrie 2) and that there is proof “GM soy products cause pre-cancerous changes to the ovaries and uterus of animals that consume them” (Ferrie 2). To begin with, the most important stage of...
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...modified organism, or GMO, is an organism that has had its DNA altered or modified in some way through genetic engineering (Livescience). Genetically modified foods are becoming more and more popular around the world. There has been a big argument for years on whether genetically modified foods are safe to eat. Recently, the FDA approved farm Genetically modified salmon as a certified meal. This makes it the first genetically modified animal to be approved for consumption. It has been a long time coming, but after being accused of delaying the decision for years they finally said that you can safely eat the salmon. The inserted genes remained stable in the salmon over several generations. The decision might quiet down a debate...
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...GMOs should not be labeled George Washington was quoted as saying “I know of no pursuit and which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.” While being said by one of the founding fathers of the United States, not all people agree on agricultural practices, or which president was the best. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are under attack by the uneducated, closed minded, and environmentalists. GM products should not have restrictions on labeling that would hurt United States farmers and cost the consumers billions and possibly trillions of dollars. While the cost is high and payout is low the fight still continues to rage on leaving the majority...
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...legalizing it and therefore taking away the drug cartels number one source of income. The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy ... says that more than 60 percent of the profits reaped by Mexican drug lords are derived from the exportation and sale of cannabis to the American market (Armentano2). It is ridiculous to think that the United States can put out a statistic like this and ignore the fact that if they legalized the drug there would be less violence because there would be no point for Mexican drug cartels to try and smuggle the drug into the U.S. In the article “Blame Prohibition, Not Pot Smokers for Violence in Mexico”, published by AlterNet.org, Tony Newman tells us how the people who run the “Just Say No” campaign against drugs have a new scheme in which they plan to blame people who smoke pot for the violence in Mexico. They are hoping to stop younger people from smoking marijuana if they associate it with the murder of people by the drug cartels in Mexico. There are a few problems with these campaigns: They are inaccurate in some cases, and downright dishonest in others.Office of National Drug Control Policy It is disingenuous to connect the average American's marijuana consumption to the horrific violence of Mexico's drug war. The average pot smoker's growing and purchasing of marijuana has no relationship to the violence along the border that is the result of large-scale drug trafficking. It isn’t hard to understand that the legalization of marijuana...
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...Position Paper Khadijah Shabazz CNSL 5203 Dr. Sampson Prairie View A&M University 9/20/2015 The legalization of drugs is one of the most controversial and debated topics of the 21st century. There are both negative and positive reasons to legalize them as well as negative and positive reasons to keep them prohibited. According to LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, drug prohibition is the true cause of much of the social and personal damage that has historically been attributed to drug use. It is prohibition that makes these drugs so valuable – while giving criminals a monopoly over their supply ("Why Legalize Drugs? | LEAP").LEAP goes on to say that criminal gangs are driven by the huge profits from this monopoly, criminal gangs bribe and kill each other, law enforcers, and children and as such their trade is unregulated and they are, therefore, beyond our control ("Why Legalize Drugs? | LEAP"). It is LEAP’s belief that by eliminating prohibition of all drugs for adults and establishing appropriate regulation and standards for distribution and use, law enforcement could focus more on crimes of violence, such as rape, aggravated assault, child abuse and murder, making our communities much safer ("Why Legalize Drugs? | LEAP"). Another positive aspect of the legalization of drugs is financial gains. According to the International Business Times in a study for the Cato Institute, Jeffrey A. Miron, senior lecturer on economics at Harvard University and a senior...
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... But there have always been varying ulterior motives. According to Baylor University Professor of Sociology, Dr. Diana Kendall, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed solely to criminalize marijuana by taxing it; this would dissuade migrant Mexican workers who smoked marijuana to seek employment elsewhere and not take jobs from U.S. citizens as the country struggled during the Great Depression (Kendall, 2010). Last year, voters in Colorado and Washington State approved legislation that supported the commercial growth, sale, possession and use of recreational marijuana. In response, United States Department of Justice, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, promulgated policy that established the posture for enforcing marijuana laws against people or organizations to that: Distribution of marijuana to minors; revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels; the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some...
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...Global Politics: The feasibility of universal drug liberalization as an emerging phenomenon RWaterhouse Globalization & The War on Drugs: Assessing alternatives to criminalization The purpose of this paper is to address universal drug liberalization as a feasible alternative to the current drug control regime specifically in North America and potentially applicable elsewhere. With an in depth analysis of the historical regulation, implementation of law, and resulting consequences we will be able to see how nations are effected by complex drug politics and why there has been a global paradigm shift in looking spiritedly at the ideal of decriminalization. I argue in favor of liberalization by bringing to attention the violence associated with the commodification of illegal drugs, what the re-directed costs of control could mean for domestic investment into proactive drug awareness education, and finally recognizing Portugal’s success and weaknesses in the adoption of a compete legalization agenda. Following will be a discussion of concluding thoughts centered on the efficacy and feasibility of universal liberalization in today’s globalized world. Historical Context Libertarianism has almost always had position in political discourse but has been majorly popularized through public attention within the era of globalization. (article) Control of drug consumption has always been a contemporary ingredient in the political reform of Canada and the America’s and...
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...The so-called “War on Drugs,” as declared by the Nixon administration in the signing of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, marked the beginning of the current era of mandatory minimum sentencing, racism, privatized prisons, and a powerful constituency that profits as a result of the prohibition of drugs. Psychoactive substances have been apart of the human experience as long as humans have walked the earth. There is little hope that drug production will ever be curtailed, so long as there is a demand; a demand that has remained steady even though it has been forty years since the beginning of said war. As Judge James P. Gray from the Superior Court of Orange County has so plainly put it: “Where did this policy come from? Unfortunately I have conducted an inquiry into this and I have determined that drug prohibition laws came for reasons of racism, empire building, and ignorance.”(Booth) The War on Drugs is politically motivated as a means of profiting. One may ask them self how government can financially benefit from such policies. In fact, they benefit in a myriad of ways. The government spends an exorbitant amount of money in an attempt to combat drug production and drug usage. The U.S. government has spent over a trillion—that’s right a trillion—dollars in its attempt to eradicate the drug problem. With so much time, effort and money there should be something to show, right? Wrong. Today drugs are more prevalent, more potent and cheaper than...
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...Table of Content 1. Introduction 2 2. GMO OMG: A Fathers Quest 4 3. GM Food ? Cultivating Fear: Expert position 9 4. Conclusion 14 Bibliography 15 1. Introduction Food is a huge part of our daily routine - most people eat at least three meals a day and think about what they are going to eat the rest of the day. The saying - We are what we eat; transforms genetically modified food into an unknown threat to our health in the case of GM food. The result is that when our source of nutrition is modified - controversies arise. This becomes apparent when investigating the GM-food debate; a controversial issue that has attracted attention in both media and public opinion.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Genetically Modified, because of rapid developments within the biotechnology-industry such as the CRIPSR-Cas9 system, GMOs are making major scientific advancements. ] One way of obtaining information about GM-food is by watching documentaries. They are presumed to be unbiased and truthful, a reliable source of information on the subject. However, the content of a documentary is generally chosen in order to make the message it wants to convey most convincing. The success of a documentary in conveying the message is determined by how credible it is perceived to be. According to Spence et al. in Crafting...
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...techniques was the food industry. By genetically modifying foods, industries could improve yield rates which made it popular for business. A high surplus meant that companies could output and feed their citizens more efficiently than ever. However, uncertainty exists, and even the most careful of calculations cannot guarantee the effects of genetically modifying an organism, or in this case, food. This uncertainty scares people, and as a result, the argument of whether or not to use genetically modifying techniques to enhance food is a constant issue...
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...GMO: Genetically Modified What? When you spot a food item that is labeled a “GMO”, do you know what that means? There are many people who don’t know what the abbreviated term means or even what it is, but simply it stands for “genetically modified organism”, in this case: genetically modified food. This means that much of the food consumed regularly has been altered in some way over the course of time. Essentially, it is not made from the earth; it is not classified natural. According to writer Yelena Sukhoterina, “In 38 countries, GM crops are banned on the government level, with the backing of the country’s scientists, doctors, and environmental agencies” (Sukhoterina). However, out of those countries, the United States is not one of them. Currently speaking, there are few select states that are fighting against the big GMO seed corporations, specifically they are fighting to have food labeled whether it is or isn’t GMO free. Today there is a massive controversy with GMOs and whether or not they are beneficial to our health. Although some are ignorant to believe that food is...
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...Research Paper 1 The issue of genetically modified organisms, often referred to as GMOs, is one of the most important arguments we can have as a society. A huge part of the argument stems from genetically modified foods. Some people regard genetically modified wheat and corn for their drought resistance and ability to feed millions of people in parts of the world that desperately need food. The other side of the argument stems from unwanted side effects caused by GMOs such as the creation of herbicide-resistant super weeds to the loss of biodiversity and uncontrollable transfer of modified genes into the environment (Whitman 4). The benefits vs. risks that GMO’s pose in regard to the environment and human health are still inconclusive. Only rigorous scientific research and time will yield conclusive results, along with possible advancements in technology that will help address most concerns. What is clear is that we need GMO’s to be able to feed the world’s population and that the potential risk GMO’s pose to human health and the environment can vary tremendously. The labeling of GM food is necessary will address the question of accountability of the impact GMO’s and large corporations have with their “proprietary crops” to the environment and health, along with minimizing potential risk. The argument that corporate driven agriculture and bio technology are ill suited to address global hunger...
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...The third potential risk concerning GM crops is the potential disruption of the food web. This concern is based on the argument that a reduction of the number of major pests caused by insect resistant plants will increase the number of minor pests. There is fear that these minor pests will in turn become the new major pests (Zhang 2016). However, the main flaw in this argument is the assumption that there is an unlimited number of pests, and when we eliminate the danger of one, a new pest will simply pop up. In reality, there is a very small number of major pests to the most commonly grown crops. Once we address the threat of these major pests, the majority of the pest problem will be alleviated. The biological arguments against GM in general...
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