You had me at GMO

The first day of poster projects were tough to watch because I realized “these are going to be tough to follow!” However, one group’s poster project really stood out to me and that was the project on GMO’s and knowing about them more.  More specifically, what stood out to me about this project was when they discussed “Pharm Animals” and the creation of insulin through GMO production within animals. This is where 90% of the world’s create insulin comes from and as Robin stated “the hands, feet, and lives of millions of diabetics depend on it”. This was incredible because, as a supporter of GMO, I failed to realize this impact and usage from GMOs.

GMOs seem to be firmly on one side of the created food production paradigm, and, unfairly, hunger and starvation appear on the other. (I am not sure if this is the actual paradigm or if this is the paradigm I have created in my head, through habitus, that secures my ideas of what I view as right). It seems that you are either supporter of GMOs, in all applications, or completely against them. Those who are against them view them as The Man, the source of all of the world’s woes and wrong doings. They have caused countries to lose culture, reduce access to traditional foods, weaker farmers around the globe, all while shoving unknowns into our bodies. However, GMOs have become a function of the times. The world’s growing population cannot be ignored when thinking about GMO and their products. They have provided a strong form of food production for many places throughout the world, provide environmental positives and pollution reduction, and help humans with many diseases, i.e. insulin.

It seems that it is GMO vs. non-GMO/Organic/Back-to-Nature/anti-science (I am not saying these are all true) but it seems that those occupy one paradigm vs. the other. However, these paradigms exist at the same time, albeit in different cultures and locations. The US appears to be the main support of the GMO paradigm with the EU and Europe firmly afraid and against. The poster project did a good job at introducing the concept of people’s fears of the unknown and thus the negative reactions associated with that. This, I feel, is incredibly true because it gets to the heart of people’s lack of science knowledge and the rhetoric surrounding issues like GMO. Most people cannot ignore GMOs because they have eaten them at least once in their life, whether they know it or not.