The Fear of Losing Control Due to Scientific: Prevalence of Genetically Modified Foods - Eccology Essay Example

Over the last couple of years, a controversy about the dangers and the benefits of Genetically Modified Foods (GMO) has ensued. While proponents of GMO cite various benefits of the foods, its critics boggle peoples minds and instill fear in us, through their central contention that any organism that has undergone these forms of genetic engineering could substantially endanger the human health. In this regard, recent studies have substantiated that GMO foods have increasingly caused serious health risks in certain areas of toxicology, allergy, immune function, metabolic and genetic health, among others. This essay, therefore, seeks to explore the reasons for my fears, in regard to the Genetically Modified Organisms.

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Firstly, the controversy over the health risks and dangers brought about by GMO, concerns something very personal to each one of us. This concern which questions the safety and health benefits of what our children and we are eating instills great fear in me, owing to the fact that the society we are now living in prioritizes the love for money over the love for their fellow humans. This is evidenced by the fact that we no longer have genuine food labels that help us in alienating the GMs from the organic foods in the markets. Thus, this being said, scholars contend that about 78% of the worlds population today has consciously or unconsciously been consuming GM foods, which have been rendered very dangerous for our health, for quite some time.

In a similar regard, my other greatest fear is overly aggravated by the increasingly and worrying loss of control of the science behind the GMOs. By far, the biggest scientific influence and the use of technology have been applied in large-scale agricultural crops. This aside, genetically modified foods have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sterile, sick and dead livestock. This, in its deepest essence, worries and instills great fear in me, when it comes to the health safety of this and the generations to come. Whats worse is that the scientific organizations that encourage and propagate the production of GMOs have continually brainwashed people arguing that the fear-mongering, running through the debates of GMO foods are more emotional than factual. These organizations have refused to own up to the fact that GMO foods endanger the health of human beings, citing great safety in the crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology. Thus, in a nutshell, my greatest fear lies in the fact that a lot of people in our generation will be deceived into giving to the excessive control by science, to the point of compromising not only their health but also their lives, as a whole.

Nevertheless, all is not lost. Reading the novel, Frankenstein, points out various measures which in turn impact knowledge that can be used to alleviate and most importantly protect the society from fears like those brought about by the prevalence of genetically modified foods. For instance, while the pursuit of knowledge is the heart of the novel Frankenstein, through the use of characters such as Robert Walton and Victor, the author indirectly warns the world of the dangers of subliming nature in an attempt to surge beyond the accepted human limits. In this regard, the novel gives us a different interpretation which can substantially help protect the society from the dangers of transgressing human boundaries. This is discussed in the section of the novel where Victor, a classic mad scientist, indulges in brave adventures into unknown scientific lands and claims that he should not be held responsible for the ramifications of explorations. This, in essence, helps the society learn that it is we, the people, who are at a loss, when we allow people who claim to explore different scientific worlds to indulge in measures that overstep the human nature.

References

Shelley, M., Shelley, P. B., & Robinson, C. E. (1996). The Frankenstein notebooks: A facsimile edition of Mary Shelley's manuscript novel, 1816-17 (with alterations in the hand of Percy Bysshe Shelley) as it survives in draft and fair copy deposited by Lord Abinger in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Dep. c. 477/1 and Dep. c. 534/1-2). (The Frankenstein notebooks.) New York [etc.: Garland.

Thayyil, N., & Edward Elgar Publishing. (2014). Biotechnology regulation and GMOs: Law, technology and public contestations in Europe. Cheltenham, U.K: Edward Elgar Pub. Ltd.