Letter about GMOs and The Issue of Their Safety - Essay Example

11/18 Hyewon Shin Essay 5 Dear Mr. F. Ross Johnson (CEO of Nabisco), GMOs and the issue of their safety versus the issues tied to crop yields and the use of pesticides have been all over the news for some time now. In many countries GMOs are banned and severely regulated, and the primary issues relate to the long-term health and ecological impacts of GMO. Here in America GMO use is pervasive, but that does not mean that people consent to their consuming GMO in their food. In fact the opposite may be true, if people know what they are eating. People now have access to news about GMO developments all over the world, and the Internet has come to provide us with a wealth of scientific, layman, and very rigorously vetted information regarding GMOs and the arguments of both sides of the debate. The bottom line is that GMO safety to human health and ecology is not something that has been conclusively proven. Judging from the worldwide furor, moreover, it seems that there are significant negative health effects that can be likened to a ticking time bomb associated with GMO use. Will we wait for the mass onset of diseases like cancer and other serious ailments that ultimately will be traced to GMOs, before we act? What will happen to your brands and to your company when the bomb explodes? I am writing to strongly urge you to reconsider your current practices surrounding the use of GMO in your food products, and consider taking GMO ingredients out of your whole products portfolio. I understand that Nabisco is a business, and that you are operating within the bounds of the law. Your business provides jobs, and you add value to the community by such, and by the products that you create, market and distribute. Your long-term success means that you must be doing some things right for American society. In the case of GMOs though, "The perception that everything is totally straightforward and safe is utterly naive. I dont think we fully understand the dimensions of what were getting into (Oxley).” What I mean is that just because people perceive GMOs to be safe does not mean that they are. Many studies and observations by governments worldwide reflect this. In conscience, I cannot allow GMOs to be marketed unfettered to us given the potential large-scale misery and negative health effects that they can inflict. We just dont know what the long-term health effects of genetically modifying organisms are (Milavec 1-2). The change in the genetic structure of organisms is not an approved method of growing organisms since they may become contaminated or even harmful when consumed. It therefore means that these products that you are inventing may end up doing harm to their consumers in certain ways. I strongly feel that even a business that exists for profit must take the public welfare into consideration. Also I would like to remind you gently that the public does have recourse to legal remedies, such as class action suits, but who wants that? The best scenario is one where you consider taking out GMOs from your products, and one where people remain safe and healthy eating your food. The statistics and contrary data on GMO safety are alarming. GMOs in your food are associated with risks such as, increasing toxins in the body which is associated with production of opposing materials within the body once consumption of these products take place. This is very dangerous to all the body systems as the toxins may be destructive and lead to damage of body tissues causing more infections in the body. One of the toxin known is the Bt toxin. This toxin produced in GM crops causes allergies and when accumulated in the body, could cause serious health problems. A study conducted in Canada at Sherbrooke Hospital discovered that 93% of the pregnant women they tested had Bt-toxin in their blood from consuming Monsanto’s GM corn. And so did 80% of their unborn fetuses (Poulter, Para.14). You should also understand that your products may mean thriving of many diseases within the society which consumes them since they lead to body resistance with antibiotics. There have been several lab experiments on rats regarding GMO. In an Austrian lab experiment rats fed with GM corn had fewer babies and smaller babies (Binter 85). This study showed that there is a big impact on reproductive failure and infant mortality. Many labs use rats and mice as their experiment subject because they virtually share the same set of genes. (NIH) We were able to see dramatic effects of GMO on rats as described above, and from past studies we know that there is a reason for rats being used in such experiments The physiological affinity between man and rats is considerable, and it is only a step away from saying that as it is in rats, so it is in human beings. We see therefore from this study that GMOs have potentially disastrous consequences for humans. Would you put your familys lives at risk in this way, for instance? Sane parents, reading the study above, will surely think twice before giving GMO food to their children. Yet by the market power of Nabisco that is what is happening, millions of people and children being placed at grave health risks from eating GMO food. Knowing these effects, why then should you go ahead with producing and distributing those products knowing that even your family may be part of the consumers? It is in such cases that you get faced with a dilemma of whether to forge ahead or let it go with no regrets. As part of the society that is on its way to being exposed to such risks, I am desperate to lie down my concerns before matters run out of hand. You should understand that there are different types of individuals living among you in the society. These include the, “we don’t know”, “we don’t mind” and the “we have no choice” groups of individuals. Why can’t you try to take care of these different types of people through giving what is non-harming and best? In the short term one may accept your arguments relating to the way GMOs are able to reduce and even at times do away with pesticides, while retaining and even improving crop yields. In the long run however, we see that the continued use of GMOs can have potentially devastating effects on the well-being of people, and we do not know that there are no alternatives to the use of GMOs, such as natural farming methods, that can achieve the same results and realize the same vision of more food using little to no chemical pesticides and herbicides. Given the large potential damages to man and nature that can arise from long-term GMO use, it may not be worth it to sacrifice the long-term sustainability of the planet and the long-term health of people just for the sake of short-term rewards. Though there are many scientific studies defending the use of GMO, there is a reason why EU is putting such strict regulations to GM products and why non-GMO products are taking their place on the shelves of supermarkets. At present your brands are successful and your company itself has come to stand for many good things, such as economic success, jobs, and being able to provide nutrition and food products that span the globe. This may be true now, but if you continue to market GMO food, it may be that you are putting yourself at risk for some ticking time bomb with unforeseen events in the future, should the backlash against GMOs take hold for instance. It may be that if you stick with marketing GMO food, that at any time some event relating to GMO food will undermine your whole business. We have recalls in mind. To prove the point, a peanut manufacturing company “Peanut Corporation of America (PCA)” in Georgia had to make a vast recall that ultimately led the company to close down. It all started with the daily test for salmonella when one day it came back positive but then with again negative. PCA had not done enough thorough examination and just “believed” that it will be all right to distribute the product. As a result, there have been an outbreak of nine deaths and more than 600 illnesses. PCA had to close down and many innocent companies transacting business with PCA had to bear the cost. (McGrath) This incident is an example of what could happen to your company if you continued on with the use of GM products. That one negative test for salmonella that came back gave the company an excuse to distribute their products, which could potentially be contaminated. PCA even voluntarily recalled their products but the company’s ultimate fate was to close down. If you lose trust once, it is extremely difficult to recover your image and gain the trust back. Since your business is dealing with food, it is extra important that you know for sure what you are selling and that it is completely safe for people to consume. I just hope you could take moment to think about this incident and be more fastidious towards making your decisions. Another incident that you might look into is the recall for Tylenol made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a Johnson & Johnson unit. McNeil Consumer Healthcare voluntarily made a recall because some products may have had manufacturing deficiencies (Singer, para.3). Luckily there was no direct effect on the consumers who bought the product yet but the fact that they have made a recall made an impact on the trust of their brand. Since social network is pervasive these days, consumers started posting comments toward the recall making issues with the trust of the brand. “Another recall for baby Tylenol!” Kevin Kowalski, a father in Illinois, wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “Well, then no more baby Tylenol, back to generic brand. (Singer, para.6)” If the company had made sure that nothing was going to be wrong with the product in the first place, this issue would not have happened. Accumulation of such events would lead to loss of trust, which is one of the most important factors for a business. I urge you once again to rethink before it is too late, before a recall event like this could happen your company when one day there comes a time where GMO products are proven that it is unsafe. Proponents have for sure built a case for GMOs and have evidence to prove that they are safe. However there still remain findings on the harmful effects of GMOs that are yet to be disproven. Moreover we just dont have enough data through time to know for sure that GMOs are safe. Contrary data say that they cause great harm. Why take the risk of using GMO products when there are completely safe, natural alternatives? I would like to remind you again that what your corporation is dealing with are food that can and as such have a direct impact on our health as ordinary consumers. They affect the health of your family and friends too, and your whole community. Health issues are fundamental and cannot be set aside. Therefore I strongly urge you take think harder about the business decisions you are making relating to GMO products. Continuing to use GMOs can be disastrous to your company in the long term, given the uncertainty and the large potential damage to humans that GMOs can bring. Despite the fact that you have highly invested in your GMO businesses, and short-term changes to do away with GMOs may cause financial pain, you have the choice to do do right by your companys long-term prospects. GMO is not the future. The misery of the society would not be what you want for your people given that even your loved ones might be affected at the same time. I hope you can hear the cries of those with limited knowledge and imagine the disappointment of those who trust you. Introducing harmful products to society is like cutting the umbilical cord of a fetus before full development thus disconnecting the future with the present. I hope fervently that you will not make the mistake of acting only when it is too late, for your company and for all of us. Yours Sincerely, Hyewon Shin Work cited Oxley, Ken. "Prof. Philip James Warns of "Frankenstein Foods" MONSTER OUTLOOK ON NEW NOSH!" Scottish Daily Record 3 Feb. 1998: n. pag. Print.  Žel, Jana, Mojca Milavec, Dany Morisset, Damien Plan, and Den E. G. Van. How to Reliably Test for Gmos. New York: Springer Verlag, 2011. Print. Alberta Velimirov and Claudia Binter, “Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice,” Forschungsberichte der Sektion IV, Band 3/2008. Report-Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth. 2008.http://www.biosicherheit.de/pdf/aktuell/zentek_studie_2008.pdf Poulter, Sean. "GM Food Toxins Found in the Blood of 93% of Unborn Babies."Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 20 May 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. . "Importance of Mouse Genome." Importance of Mouse Genome. Ed. National Institutes of Health (NIH). National Human Genome Research Institute, 23 July 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. . Singer, Natasha. "Tylenol, Generics and Trust." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 May 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. . McGrath, Jane. “10 costly food recalls” 12 March 2009. Howstuffworks.com. < http://money.howstuffworks.com/10-food-recalls.htm#page=10> 11 November 2014 Read More