Dice Roll: “Enlarged Carrot”

Jackson Lapp, Staff Writer

Welcome to Jackson’s Dice Roll, a new section about whatever textfixer.com’s Random Word Generator offers me. Every issue of this column starts with a roll for two or three words on the generator, followed by them being carefully put together and dutifully forged into an opinion piece for your viewing pleasure.

Today’s subject is “Enlarge Carrot.”

GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are commonplace in today’s society, as they are found in nearly every meal. They may come in the form of a thicker, juicier steak, a pest free tomato, or even an enlarged carrot. Eating more food produced in a more efficient manner is great, but culture still reverberates an unfortunate stigmatism towards genetic modification.

The main controversy surrounding GMOs originates from a group known as the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), who made an outright false claim stating that rats being fed on a diet of only GMO potatoes had had their organs twisted, corrupted, and destroyed in a matter of days.

While this information seemed suspicious, society’s mislead outcry for healthier and more natural foods prompted food scientists to run many tests throughout the years to further prove the feeble claim false. According to the Genetic Literacy Project, every test out of over 1000 by the US National Academy of Sciences confirmed that GMOs were okay.

The Academy of Sciences stated, “The committee could not find persuasive evidence of adverse health effects directly attributable to consumption of GE foods.” This final consensus closed the case in May 2016. Sadly, this conclusion has gone unnoticed by the American public, which opens the door to far more confusion and misunderstanding.

What we need to do, to move towards a more understanding society, is to understand where the claims that we believe come from, and research what is told to us. The only bad GMO food that we can be fed, is that which is spoon-fed to us by our media and society. Thinking critically about the claims made around us is far more beneficial (and healthy) than just assuming all that we are told is true.

So, when we rest our heads tonight, after a nice, disease-free, parasite-free meal, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that what we are digesting will not harm us in any way. After all, the ink used to write this, the paper you’re reading this on, and the phone in your pocket were all made with science, so why not some of our food?