Have you ever eaten cereal, soy, corn, or meat? If so there is a high chance that you are eating Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Renée Sharp, Director of Research from EWG, says “On average, people eat an estimated 193 pounds of genetically engineered food in a 12-month period.” This mean we are potentially putting possible harmful chemicals into our body, without knowing the full effects. This could mean that GMOs are in our school lunches, and even the lunches you bring from home. Unless you go out and get fresh and organic produce, your food is most likely not free of any potential damaging chemicals.For all we know, the continual eating of GMOs could have possible unknown health problems. According to the GMO Free USA Organization page: “Potential concerns include alteration in nutritional quality of foods, toxicity, antibiotic resistance, and allergenicity from consuming GM foods” .

We talked to Child Nutrition Assistant Director Patty Duenow, about the Anoka District’s opinion on GMOs: She said  “We are trying to find out how they apply to the food we serve.” We then asked her if the district thought if GMOs were a good idea – to which she said, “The district can’t make a decision on that without a great deal more information. This is still a relatively new science that has much to be discovered. We will continue to do more research about it before we can make any decisions”. Considering the GMO technology has only been in use for 20 years, no one really knows what the effects are.

There are still potentially harmful effects  with GMOs that are being researched. According to The Natural Revolution, Americans are “Ill-Informed about GMOs In the U.S…and the U.S. mainstream media has failed to discuss other data suggesting GM [genetically modified] foods may pose enormous health risks…” Consumer Reports says, “Consumers have the right to know what’s in their food so that they can make informed choices.” Yet the United States of America is one of the few countries who still has not put laws in place for GMOs to be labeled on products.

People who are Pro-GMO focus on the fact that it is cost effective. With GMOs, you can have more for less. For example: by feeding a cow GMO food (such as GMO corn), they are making it bigger and selling it for less money. Other benefits listed by The Natural Revolution include the reduced need for herbicides, pesticides, and greenhouse emissions.

With all said and done, we should put more time and money into finding out if our food is safe: “..the entire American food supply has been systematically hijacked by chemical companies, not bent on trying to feed the world; not providing healthy alternatives, but rather for profits that they reap from the chemicals that are used by thousands of farmers..” (from “The Good, Bad and Ugly About GMOs”). In the end, we found out how much of our food contains GMOs. There is a huge controversy going on in the world at this moment, and it affects all of our futures.