Wait, a GMwhat?
When genetically modified organisms (GMO) are brought up into conversation, many people don’t even know what it is. Jimmy Kimmel decided to send his camera crew out and ask people at a local farmer’s market to see if people had any knowledge on the GMO situation.
1. Affects
local communities
Many local
farmers and their farms are impacted by GMOs. Monsanto is a company that
produces GMO products and is despised by many. Monsanto is always in court
because they are battling local farmers that have biotech seeds on their land. However,
many farmers only have these seeds on their farm because they are involuntarily
put on their land from the wind.
2. Risk to health
According to the nonGMO project, GMOs are in 80% of processed foods. “There are no long-term studies demonstrating that GMOs are safe for humans and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not do its own safety testing of GMOs” (Bartolotto, par 4). Without any safety tests, we're putting food that isn't considered safe into our bodies.
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We are unconsciously eating GM foods constantly because the United States does not require by law for companies to label their products if they have GMOs. Japan, China, and all of Europe label their foods that contain GMOs so why doesn’t the U.S.? If every country is labeling and banning GMO products it seems that there’s something wrong with GM foods. Not labeling is misguiding and distracts us from making conscious food choices.
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3. Not cost effective
Many people think that GMOs are the
cure for world hunger because it is cheaper to produce and makes more food for
developing countries. Little do people know that millions of dollars are
invested in producing GMOs. When you hear about an organism being genetically
altered by biotechnology it doesn’t sound cheap it sounds like a mouthful.
That’s because it’s extremely expensive to hire scientist and purchase
equipment to produce GMO products.
If it
costs a lot of money to make something, then the price of the product is going
to be high too. Basically, it seems like we're paying less when we're actually
paying more for food that isn't even good for the body.
As you can
see, GMOs don’t help our farmers, well being, or our pockets. In the
words of Drake, we only live once so why should we live with GMOs.
GMOs…more like GM-no
Works citied
Bartolotto, Carole. “Why
Genetically Modified Foods Should Be Labeled.”
The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Oct. 2013.
Web. 06 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-bartolotto/why-genetically-modified-food_b_4039114.html>.
"The
Good, Bad and Ugly about GMOs - Natural Revolution." Natural Revolution.
N.p., 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
<http://naturalrevolution.org/the-good-bad-and-ugly-about-gmos/>.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who knew absolutely nothing about GMOs, I enjoyed learning the truth about them through your blog. It is apparent that many people are quick to make judgments about GMOs without even knowing what GMO stands for! I think you did a great job explaining GMOs while also showing how they really don’t benefit our society.
I think it is important that you began your blog using pathos. By starting with a humorous video, you effectively appeal to your audience and grab their attention. This video makes your audience want to continue reading your blog, so they can actually learn what a GMO is!
Although your use of pathos was an essential part of your blog, I think your most effective rhetorical strategy was your use of logos. After your video, you go straight to the facts by explaining that a “GMO is an organism whose genetic characteristics have been altered using techniques of genetic engineering” (para. 2). You continue to use facts from reliable sources, which also builds your credibility as a writer. After your audience reads your blog, they will be able to build their own opinion of GMOs based on your use of facts and statistics.
Overall, I think you achieved your rhetorical purpose, which was to inform your readers about GMOs and their negative impacts on our society. You were able to achieve your purpose by using facts and effective images.
My advice to you would be to include more information regarding the mislabeling of food. In paragraph 6, you briefly explain how the “United States does not require by law for companies to label their products” with GMOs. You demonstrate that “not labeling” food with GMOs is “misguiding,” but you fail to include information on how we can make a change and add proper labeling to our foods (para. 6). Maybe you could include a link to a website with more information on this and how to detect foods with GMOs. Otherwise, you did a great job presenting and explaining your information!
Emily, great job on your blog i thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Some of the points you brought up about GMO's i had never thought about, and it made me wonder what else is in the food that we are eating that we don't know about. Your use of pictures accurately described what your talking about and seemed to be even part of the conversation. You were able to reach out to your audience with use of logic and reasoning but you were able to do it in a comfortable, conversational way. You began to list why GMO’s are either bad or good and with this quote you said “Many people think that GMOs are the cure for world hunger because it is cheaper to produce and makes more food for developing countries.” The use of humor played a major role in your blog because I belive it was your way of reaching out to the audience in a way that you could get them to understand and actually listen. As the reader and audience I liked how you chunked up the information so that It was not so overbearing. Using short paragraphs and bullets really helped me while reading your Blog overall good job!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job on your post and it was both entertaining as well as informative. You used language that was easy to read for your intended audience and your overall argument flowed nicely with no points that seemed out of place. First of all your title was catchy as hell and it intrigued me to continue reading to figure out why you want us to say hell no to GMO's. You effectively used pathos by tapping into your audience's humor emotions. You did this by using the clip from Jimmy Kimmel's TV show which was not only relevant to your topic but also quite humorous. In addition to using pathos effectively I also believe that you effectively used ethos and logos. You used information that was given from credible sources to back up your claims and your visual aid of the GM corn provided valuable evidence that your audience could easily understand. My suggestions for improving the blog are limited because I believe that it is very well written. The only major thing that kind of threw me off was your two paragraphs about how GMO’s are not cost effective. Your argument on this subject might not make sense to your audience and there was no evidence provided to sway their opinion’s to your favor. There were also a few grammatical errors that I noticed. Overall I believe you did a good job and you deserve a good grade!
ReplyDelete