Good afternoon judges, opponents, and audience members. We, as the affirmative side believe in the resolution as stated before: ‘Be it resolved that Genetically Modified Organisms should be banned”. Rebuttal: If I recall correctly, my opponent has stated that GMOs would reduce the use of herbicides. I argue that GMOs can pass their herbicide-resistant genes onto other species such as weeds. This would potentially result in “superweeds” that are becoming more immune to genetically modified crops which would result in farmers having to use more herbicides. To back this up, a study released by Food & Water Watch finds the quick adoption of genetically engineered crops by farmers has increased herbicide use over the past 9 years in the U.S. Summary: As my colleague Tianna has mentioned, GMO’s should be banned because there is a lack of research about the …show more content…
Argument: To start, genetically modified organisms impact the environment as seeds from GMOs can travel well beyond where they are planted and affect farms and organic crops. For instance, a case in Oregon, United States, where a farmer found genetically modified wheat growing in his fields where he did not plant it. These genetically modified crops spread throughout the field and as my colleague Tianna has mentioned in her first argument, that it is hard to reverse the organisms once they have have been modified, or in this case spread. This is an issue for small farms because there is no way for them to get rid of them entirely and allows companies, such as Monsanto, that have a patent on the genetically modified seeds to be able to now sue the