Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)Genetically modified organisms are the new trend in agriculture. They alter the genes to create super-plants that are resistant to the bugs, funguses, and other things that destroy profits for farmers. This sounds great on the paper, but given more thought, you can see that this is highly dangerous. In nature, we have always had many varieties of each of our plants. That's how each has survived for so long. If one species is killed out by a particularly tough season, bug, parasite, or something else, we would still have plenty of others so we wouldn't lose that plant forever. If we have just one type of corn, and it's affected badly by something, we might be out of corn forever. 
I use corn as an example because it is one of the most genetically modified organisms on the market. Corn is used in tons of our processed foods like chips, alcohol, desserts, corn syrup and the ever popular high fructose corn syrup in most of our canned beverages, candies, ice creams, condiments, cereals, baking ingredients, and others. Also, farmers use corn as a cheap feed for their animals.
Tomatoes are another popular vegetable to modify because they are so easily affected by disease. Have you ever bitten into a tomato that was bright red by had a mealy texture and almost no flavor? Of course you have, we all have. 
Guess what? That was probably a genetically modified tomato, extremely resistant to disease, but almost tasteless and nutrition-less. I think this is why so many children hate tomatoes nowadays-- the ones they have tried have had no flavor. Anyone who's had a real tomato-- straight from the garden, that drips down your hand when you bite into it, and with that warm sweet taste-- knows that there's no reason on the planet to hate tomatoes.
Genetically modified plants are tough and are not easily destroyed by outside factors, but because of that, they also easily take over other plants. They grow like mad men. Also, when they are pollinated by bees and birds, and anything else that touches it and travels to a new plant, they spread to other plants. So, if a bee lands on a genetically modified corn plant flower and eats some pollen and then goes over to a nice organic corn plant, it cross-pollinates. That organic plant is ruined and will now create babies that are half genetically modified. It's very, very hard to keep all the good plants away from the bad. Genetically modified organisms are taking over the grocery stores, but you can take your own measures to avoid buying them. Buying organic currently safeguards you from eating GMOs. You can also look to buy produce from local organic farmers.
Done with Genetically Modified Organisms? Return to Organic
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All these corn products don't come from the corn that we eat off the cob. This is a special corn that has been modified to be resistant to bacteria and has virtually no taste or nutrition. 
An organic farmer told me a story once about his corn plants. He had some sweet corn plants in the field, but not many rows, just a modest half-acre or so. Next door, a conventional farm grew hundreds of acres of corn. The funny thing was that the raccoons would climb to the top of his corn stalks and ride them down to collect all the ears of corn. Next door, the conventional farm never had a raccoon problem. Animals are smart!
