By:  Reporter Nicole Stratton

Brought to the media’s attention by filmmaker, Mr. Jeremy Seifert, via his documentary GMO OMG, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are internationally affecting countries.

Walking in Biotechnology class, teacher Mrs. Molly Brown, explained to the class the importance of the future. Once the film reached the credits she explained to her students why she showed the film to them.  She said that throughout school, teachers instruct topics that are irrelevant to students’ futures, so she chose a topic that everyone experiences every day: food. “We all eat and food is a key importance to life. I want my students to take this information to make positive decisions in their lives.”  She stressed that this is the generation at the center of the ever changing food industry.

As the food industry is involving the creation of GMOs are exceeding rapidly. A GMO is an organism in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered by mutation, insertion or deletion of genes. “The United States is the world leader in genetically engineered crop production, with 165 million acres, or nearly half of global production. Currently in the United States, approximately 85 percent of all processed foods contain GMOs,” Seifert said in his documentary. Once he realized how relevant this issue was becoming, Seifert sent out on a journey that would change the food industry forever.

His award-winning film, submitted into the International Film Festival, was influenced by hidden events that have affected many international countries, including the U.S. Monsanto, a chemical corporation, sent genetically modified seeds to Haiti to grow crops after a traumatic earthquake. The Haitian citizens set fire to the seeds, their only food source, to prove to the corporations their admiration of their sacred land was not to get poisoned by these modified seeds. Additionally, he took flight to Norway and Europe learning about the bans of GMOs and similar products like high fructose corn syrup.

According to Brown, these countries know how terrible processed and genetically modified foods really are. It is increasing the rate of cancer, especially breast cancer in women. It is even creating severe disease in salmon and cows, things we eat! “Humans think we are invincible, but we aren’t,” Brown said. Questioning and researching the ban on these foods led to the truth of GMOs and how they are affecting the bodies of animals and human beings.

The film’s perspective captured many hearts of not only Americans, but people from all over the world. As Seifert hit the road, his family followed. With him was his wife, Jen, and their three children, Finn (8), Scout (6), and Pearl (3). He used  Finn’s love of seeds to encourage the rest of the family to ride from North Carolina all the way to California. Once returning back from the road, he tried cut all GMOs out of their daily living. The children were upset when they could not eat ice cream or McDonald’s kids’ meals. Seifert was unsure if  letting them go trick-or-treating was a good idea, considering all processed candy products contain GMOs.

According to GMO Inside Blog, a discovery was made in 1935 by Russian scientist Andrei Nikolaevitch Belozersky of the production of GMOs from an insulated piece of DNA. Time was used for research for 40 years and then groups of scientists used these creations to recommend guidelines for the FDA. In 1982, the FDA approves its first GMO product, humulin, a form of insulin.

Nowadays, GMOs “consumes about 80 percent of all grocery markets,” Brown said. The food markets are not the only businesses that are receiving such a dramatic change in their industry. The farming industry is booming, but only with GMOs. Organic farms make up only 2 percent of agriculture, the 98 percent is all chemically modified. “These corporations use an excuse of feeding world hunger, but organic farming makes such as much if not more than the chemical companies, but organic farmers can plant their crops continuously compared with the genetically modified seed of only one usage,” Seifert said in his documentary.

As GMOs take the shelves, humans are still unaware of the future effects. The agricultural businesses are getting taken over, resulting in a scarcity of organic foods, raising grocery prices exceptionally. Additionally, the environment is getting destroyed by the heavy loss of unusable topsoil, which effects the ecosystem. Cancer and other diseases are increasing rapidly, causing a huge amount of money loss and animal extinction. GMOs are changing the food industry forever, but in all truth we are changing because of it.