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Austin Fuller
Douglas
ENG 112
11 September, 2016

Food Fight
As the juice from the burger one just devoured runs down ones face and the ground of
beef starts to settle in your stomach, you start to think about what exactly you are putting into
your body. Not the calories, the nutrients or the vitamins you are in taking, but about where the
products you just consumed came. Think of the farms where the cows were raised, the field the
lettuce was grown, the factory that produces the perfectly browned buns that sits on top of your
burger. If one take a closer look into the foods that one is putting into their bodies you may be
shocked. The articles found were from the ProQuest database, they were chosen due to their
scholarly journals and relevance, one written in 2013 and the other 2014. The author of The
Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods Debate, Sudhir Burgaards intentions when writing the
article were to inform the readers on the unknown and harmful effects that come with genetically
altering foods. The article was directed towards the general population considering an upwards
of 70 percent of processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients (Burgaard), everyone
who has eaten today has probably come in contact with genetically modified foods. V
Divyadharsini, author of Genetically Modified Foods - A Review, conducted experiments
trying to find out if people are aware of the genetically modified foods that they are consuming.
This article is intended for the public and is meant to inform the reader on what he or she is
really putting into your body. Genetically modified foods are not only labeled incorrectly and

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harmful our bodies, they are creating tumors and cancers that could kill us all. The articles The
Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods Debate and Genetically Modified Foods - A Review,
were written to inform the public of the harm one unknowingly puts themselves in every day.
Genetically Modified Foods - A Review is the article that was most informative and was
all around about genetically engineered foods and their effects on the body. The article stated the
major problem with Genetically Modified Foods and that is that public is not aware of the
hazardous effect, The genetic engineering process is inherently imprecise and causes
widespread disruption to the genome, which can lead to unintended effects (Divyadharsini).
This means that the process of genetic engineering is not precise and the scientists don't know
what harm could come from it, this has lead to the rise in unknown allergens in small children.
The author is against the use of genetically engineered foods, she states genetically modified
foods are said to create hepatic, renal and reproductive problems and the major threats are
infertility, rashes on skin and cancer. The article is informing the reader of the effects of these
foods were eating, the author uses scientific experiments to prove that the food that we eat could
be killing us. The experiment shown was rats were fed over a two-year period with Genetically
modified maize and had increased rates of severe organ damage, tumours, and premature death
(Divyadharsini). This is alarming to many who read this, it scares the reader into wanting to
know more, with that people educate themselves more and become aware of the effects of the
food they are eating.
The article, The Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods Debate has amazing points on
why genetically modified foods should be labeled and the harmful effect of these foods. The
author uses logic to scare the reader into becoming more aware of the foods they are eating, the
use of genetically modified foods also raises many concerns, including unknown long-term

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health effects, increased risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria, increased use of pesticides, unknown
toxins produced, unknown long-term environmental effects, risks to wildlife and insects,
introduction of unknown allergens (Burgaard). The weakness of the article is when the author
goes into the benefits of genetically modified foods, it contradicts all of the negative arguments
he had just stated. There are always positives to a negative but in this case from what was just
read the negatives outweigh the positives. The author states genetically modified foods have
many potential benefits, including the decreased use of pesticides, increased food production in
lesser developed countries, lower food prices, increased vitamins and minerals, increased disease
resistance in crops, etc (Burgaard). This article is mainly against genetically engineered foods
and the author does a good job of showing both sides of the argument, but showing which side
he is bias towards.
The Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods Debate goes into great detail on what
genetically modified foods are, then states the benefits and the concerns of the foods we are
eating. Although the negative effects of genetically modified foods outweigh the benefits it is
beneficial to see the good and the bad of genetically engineered foods. The author of
Genetically Modified Foods - A Review did a great job using the Logos appeal, the author used
research from a two year study on rats to prove the harmful effects of the foods we consume.
This article shows how unaware our culture is, food is something we need to survive and if the
food were eating is harmful we need to know. European countries have had a ban on genetically
modified foods for years now and have a law forcing all companies to label if they use
genetically modified organisms or or not. The united states is one of the last countries to have
Genetically modified food labeling on products and that needs to change immediately.

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Work Cited

Burgaard, Sudhir. "The Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods Debate." Natural Resources &
Environment 28.1 (2013): 55-7. ProQuest. Web. 5 Sep. 2016.
Divyadharsini, V. "Genetically Modified Foods - A Review." Research Journal of Pharmacy and
Technology 7.3 (2014): 9-395. ProQuest. Web. 5 Sep. 2016.