Dear Future President,

I grew up in a family that raised me to eat healthy, organic, non GMO foods and I am thankful for that. However, some families and children have not had the choice to refuse GMOs due to GMOs being cheap and easily accessible. If we stop the distribution and production of GMOs, than it will lead to more healthy families and children. I want to make this argument against GMOs not for my sake, but for the sake of our friends, neighbors, and everybody around us. I'm not sure if you are aware of the dangers of Genetically Modified Foods, but they are affecting our country in a negative way.

First of all, genetically modified foods aren’t nearly as good for you as non-modified foods. In my research, I found that genetically modified foods don’t have a more significant nutritional value than non modified foods. This means that there is no reason to use GMO’s over non GMO’s due to non GMOs being better for and you. Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, says, “ Not only are genetically modified (GM) foods less nutritious than non-GM foods, they pose distinct health risks, are inadequately regulated, harm the environment and farmers, and are a poor solution to world hunger. Worse still, these questionable GM crops are now polluting non-GM crops, leading to contamination that cannot ever be "recalled" the way you can take a bad drug off the market.” We should be focusing on providing nutritious food that with actual health benefits and not genetically modified foods with little health benefits. If we continue to provide these less nutritious, modified foods than future generations in our country will be less healthy than the present generations. We want the future of our country to be healthy,safe, and have no GMOs in the picture. Sure GMOs may be cheap but the non-genetically modified foods would help more in the long run. Non GMOs are nutritionally better for us and are much healthier which results in healthy diets and people. We want the future of our country to be a healthy and prosperous one and GMOs are leading us astray from that future. The continuous production and distribution of GMOs is leading us to a more unhealthy future.

Secondly, Genetically modified foods are just plain harmful. In our society, we grow up learning to stay away from harm. Sometimes the harm is our food and in this case GMOs. The Food and Drug Administration has recently said that, “One harmless bean protein that was spliced onto pea crops to deter pests caused allergic lung damage and skin problems in mice.” The FDA protects the health of the public and if they say report that GMOs cause harmful problems, we ought to listen. If it causes harmful problems to mice, than what would it do to us? We can’t risk the health of people just because it's cheap and easier to distribute and produce than non-modified foods. The FDA also tests the safety of various drugs and foods such as GMOs. They found GMOs to cause skin problems and other harmful problems but we still choose to ignore it. We need to focus on the future and what future is in store if GMOs are causing health issues? GMOs are negatively impacting the lives of the public and future generations.

Lastly, GMO aren’t accomplishing what they are being used for. GMOs are being used for many reasons. They’re cheap, and easy to produce. We believe that they will help out the environment but we are being misled. The Center for Food Safety has previously said, “Genetically engineered (GE) crops will not alleviate traditional environmental concerns, such as the chemical contamination of water, air or soil.” If they aren’t helping our environment, than I feel that they are causing more harm than any good coming out of them. The main cause of using and creating GMOs is that they can withstand that, which ordinary organisms can not. This would in theory, eliminate environmental concerns or even make the situation better. However, if this doesn't seem to be happening, and we have seen above is doing harm, then why do we keep using them? The downsides outweigh the positives. GMOs, from my research, seem to have very limited positives and don’t seem to be helping those problems which we wish to correct. If a solution to a problem doesn’t work, in most cases you try to find a solution. We need to find another solution for our problems which do not involve the use of GMOs. GMOs as we have seen, have more negative impacts than positive. They are negatively impacting our country and if we continue, our future will not be as healthy and pleasant as we imagined.

Future President, we can't allow this to continue. There are too many downsides. I have only mentioned three but I assure you, the problems are not limited to those which I have brought to your attention. We need to stop this. For people’s health, for the environment. We have a duty to look after our own, and our own includes the people and the environment. All of which we are affected by everyday. If you don’t do anything, then who will?

Sincerely,

Noah J