Critical Summaries

 Summary #1

    In this Graphic Novel, we see how GMOs are beneficial and awful for the world, animals, and humans. A girl scientist first tells us what is a GMO for people who don't know what it is. She tells the benefits first by stating, "I can grow in all environments" and they can produce more products. Now she gets to the negative side of our health and environment, by stating if a human eats GM food, "A chemical substance will be left in the body... this can lead to more than 20 kinds of diseases!". The diseases are Thyloid cancer, Alzheimer, etc. I feel like GMOs are dangerous because we don't know what they use in GM foods. This specific quote from the graphic novel, "Then, the farmer needs to use a herbicide to kill them (lead to water pollution)... And more Carbon-Dioxide is released into the atmosphere". This supports my opinion because we know herbicide is used to manipulate undesirable vegetation which is a good thing, but we don't know the side effects of using this product. Since I read this graphic novel, it has shown me the side effects of herbicide which harms the entire world, making it hard to breathe. Looking back on this I've learned that you just have to be careful about what you are consuming because things are guaranteed to be safe.

Summary #2

    The article "GMOs and Food Safety" speaks about how important our safety is when it comes to GMO foods. This article mentions that "science continues to suggest that there is no substantiated evidence that GMO foods are less safe than non-GMO derived food products". This article brings up the testing from 2016 about GMO safety and if it's related to cancer, etc. The testing results show that they aren't harmful to our health. A specific quote that changed my mind is, "When comparing rates of these conditions in the United States, where GMOs are ubiquitous in the food supply to the United Kingdom, where essentially no GMOs are consumed, there were no significant differences". This changed my mind because I thought that GMOs are unsafe for us because we don't know what is inside our foods which can lead to diseases. I'm wrong because based on the results of scientific testing have proven that GMO foods that don't relate to diseases are safe as Non-GMO products. Another quote that has convinced me "FDA evaluates the safety of food produced by new GE crops before it enters the market. This is a voluntary program and FDA has evaluated 150 genetically engineered foods since the program began. These evaluations are publicly available on the FDA website, www.fda.gov". This convinced me because it gave me the link to the FDA and its public which I know it's guaranteed safe. This article made me realize that with actual legit information,  it could change my mind. 

Summary #3

    In this video, people from around the world are being asked about GMOs. They give out the definition of a GMO. Some people have different opinions about GMOs, one stated: "believe GMOs are a great technology to help us not only improve global food security but also help us save the environment"(0:59 - 1:04). People state the health risks of GMOs which are "cancer and allergic reaction"(1:11). People discuss the problems with labeling, they want it to be clear on the label packaging that the food is a GMO product, so people can avoid it. GMO foods have an increase in nutrients which can help people who can't afford the food buy GMO foods, which are cheaper. I disagree when people stated that it can cause cancer because there is no proof of how it causes cancer, so I believe GMOs are safe for us. I do agree when somebody stated, "America should know if they're eating a GMO they do need to be labeled clearly..."(2:05-2:08). This convinced me because I feel like it should be fair for the people who don't trust GMO food, to know if it's a GMO food or no. Looking at this video didn't convince me that it's dangerous, but it seems to me it's more on the safe side. 

Reflection:

    For this project, the way I figured out the types of genres, I remembered what I learned from Dr. Mangram's class which is media. I looked at what people use on a daily bases, which is social media, but social media is a source of media. For example, people use books, newspapers, social media, television, etc to communicate with others. I chose the graphic novel because I like seeing how creative people get when telling facts about our food on different panels. A graphic novel will get people more engaged in the reading because it has pictures and small text. Another genre I chose is an article because it contains good information on the text, but it's less engaging unless you are more of a reader. Lastly, I chose a youtube video about GMOs because people love watching videos and it's the easiest source of a genre that will keep someone engaged the whole time. In this project, I didn't know where my mind was. I couldn't decide if GMOs are safe or not. This made me do research where I took time out of my day to see what has more valuable information and has helped me come to one side which is that GMOs are safe to consume. To conclude this project made me question my ideas at first, but made me realize that factual information can make you shape your ideas.

Sources:

Graphic Novel: http://punpurina.weebly.com/gmo-comic-strip.html

Article: https://gmo.uconn.edu/topics/gmos-and-human-health/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waOehY0kPWk