Genetically modified foods have not been in regular conversation since it's birth, but that is beginning to change when more people have learned about this subject. There are several questions that have come up and raised concern such as: What are the benefits of GMO foods? What are the risks of them? Should these companies label the GMO foods that they sell to the customer? How healthy are GMO foods for humans? The more that the consumers know about GMO foods the more questions are asked. What exactly are GMO foods? GMO foods are crops that have their DNA modified to resist certain diseases, bugs, weather, inhabitable soil conditions, and other problems that could hinder the supply of food. 

Aschbrenner, Joel. Eller, Donnelle. "GMO discussion shows sharply opposing views" 	DesMoinesRegister.com. 15 October 2013. Web. 19 October 2013.

In this article the authors are reporting on a discussion between farmers, researchers, and 	others who work in the industry. The debate brought up different arguments such as: there 	is no proof that GMO foods are bad for peoples' health, there is less land erosion from it, 	less pesticide use, less diversity within plants, and among others. The issue of labeling 	came up later in the conversation. This would be a reliable souse because many of the 	people involved give first hand accounts. This proves accuracy and value of the stakeholders stories. This article is good for arguments that are made in this issue and can 	be used in the future to argue any point of view.

Bartolotto, Carole. "Why Genetically Modified Foods Should Be Labeled." Dick and Sharon's 	LA Progressive. 7 September 2012. Web. 19 October 2013.

Bartolotto says that GMO foods should be labeled because we do not know the full implications of them on humans. The least that these companies can do is label the products that contain GMO foods. Bartolotto has a bias for no GMO foods and does not present an argument for GMO foods. She even says that the companies are greedy and power hungry so they spend millions of dollars to not label GMO foods. I believe that 	this article is not as reliable because the author has a strong bias and she is not a 	professional on this topic. This article is more persuasive than informative. The argument made in this article would be good to use in a claim made for labeling GMO foods.

Bech-Larson, Tino. Grunert, Klaus G. Lahteenmaki, Liisa. "Attitudes Towards the Use of GMOs 	in Food Production and Their Impact on Buying Intention: The Role of Positive Sensory 	Experience." Agribusiness. 20.1 (2004): 95-107. Biological & Agricultural Index Plus 	Web. 19 October 2013.

In this academic journal the experiment that is presented is if people know about GMOs 	in their food that they will stop buying that food, even if it is tasteful. A sample from four 	countries participated by tasting cheeses. People in the European Union are skeptical of 	GMO foods and this experiment was done to see if these people could have a positive 	experience eating a GMO food. This is a reliable journal because I found it on a database 	through the library system. Also, the authors work within this field. The in text citations 	inform the reader where they can go to find out more about the subject. There is more 	accuracy with this journal than other articles I have found because the results are posted 	within the journal . This is useful to see how people react to eating a GMO food that is 	tasteful. 

Eng, Monica. "GMO supporter tells food industry meeting in Chicago to stop opposing GMO 	labeling" wbez.org. 16 October 2013. Web. 19 October 2013.

In this article Eng informs the audience of a strong supporter of anti-GMO foods, Mark 	Lynas, who has changed his view to pro-GMO foods. Lynas had a presentation that many agricultural companies attended and have taken time to think about what he had to say. The main argument is for these large companies to be more transparent to the consumer. This article has many quotes from these agricultural companies that prove it's authority to 	the audience. Eng does show that those who are quoted are for GMO foods, but not GMO labeling except for Lynas. This creates a bias for GMO foods and not just the labeling 	argument. Those are two separate arguments. This is an interesting article that gives this issue a different point of view. The article is very useful for explaining other thoughts on GMO foods.

Haslberger, Alexander G. "Monitoring and labeling for genetically modified products." Science. 	287.5452 (2000): 431-432. Biological & Agricultural Index Plus Web. 19 October 2013.

This academic journal is informing of the GMO food situation in other countries. Many of them have legislation put in place to regulate GMO foods. Many countries label the foods that contain GMOs and some countries refuse to accept them from the United States. This is causing many issues with exports from the United States. Haslberger gives information from the European Union with references to make this academic journal reliable. There seems to be no bias here because Haslberger is informing the audience of GMOs in other countries compared to the United States. 

Haspel, Tamar. "Genetically Modified foods: What is and isn't true." The Washington Post. 15 	October 2013. Web. 19 October 2013.

Haspel discusses in her article how much the public does not know about GMO foods. We do not know if GMO foods are good or bad for our health. This unknown leads people to take sides on this issue and not consider if another side has factual arguments. Haspel publishes this article at a time when people are taking sides on an issue that they do not fully understand. Her article serves as a reminder for all to research all sides of an argument and then a side can be chosen. The author, Haspel, is a reliable source because she has been writing for more than fifteen years on food, science, and health. This article is a reminder for me to research the sides of the argument and not have a bias during research. 

Leiser, Ken. "Hundreds protest outside Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis." stltoday.com: 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 13 October 2013. Web. 19 October 2013. 

In Leiser's article, the main objective is to inform the audience of the protest outside of 	Monsanto's headquarters. Monsanto is a company that genetically modifies plants. This article does not have a strong bias because it presents information from the two sides that are mentioned. Those who were protesting had more to say than the representatives from Monsanto, I believe because that Leiser had more access to the protesters. This gives me more information on what companies are genetically modifying foods and some of the arguments presented. This article gives me information on companies that are modifying foods and helps me in my research to find other relevant information.
	
Round, Christopher. "One thing Everyone's Missing About GMO Foods" PolicyMic. 16 October 	2013. Web. 19 October 2013.

This article mentions the protest from the Leiser article and goes into more detail about 	Monsanto. Round makes two good points in his article; an argument against is that the diversity among plants will diminish, and the argument for is that the plants could become resistant to heat or inhospitable soil. I am not sure how reliable this article is because there are no references from any research that Round has done and I do not know much about the website it was published on. This article was published during the middle 	of this issue of GMO foods and gives the audience more points to consider when choosing what they agree and disagree with. With this information I can use it to back up previous arguments mentioned.

Reflection Essay

GMOs are interesting because I knew about little about them, but some people are not informed about GMOs at all. They don't realize that the food that they are ingesting is genetically modified. So with what little I knew I thought that it would be good to find out more on this topic.

I held the belief that GMO foods are bad for your health because the DNA is naturally that way. Also, people have been eating the non-GMO foods for centuries. So, I wanted to my research question to be: are GMO foods good for your health? This could not be my question as I started my research because there is not definitive evidence that GMO foods diminish a person's health. After I found similar statements I changed my question to: What are the arguments made in the GMO food issue and what evidence is there if there is any? This question opened up several research opportunities.  

I went to Google first to see what I could find on the topic/issue. After finding several articles I moved on to the library's website for databases. I found one under biology and within that there was one for agriculture. I used that to find my academic journals, that have more reliable information than the articles. The only problem with them is that they are dated. The articles that I found are very recent and are up to date on the new strides made by the government for stricter regulations on GMOs. I also used references from other articles to find out more information on a topic listed. This expanded my search to find out about companies that create GMO seeds and sell them to farmers. 

This issue has been developing for years because there is still no evidence that GMOs are safe. This topic is still too young for anyone to have proof that these GMOs are either good or bad for humans' health. My research informed me that GMOs are recent; they were not developed until the early 1990s. That is why there is still so much that is unknown.

I still have the same position as I did in the beginning, but I am glad that I chose this topic. It has opened my eyes to the arguments that are made. There is still so much more to learn about GMOs and what benefits or consequences can come from them. As time goes on more research will be done to obtain proof, but for now we must find out what arguments are made and decide for ourselves if the benefits out weigh the costs.

