Papa why is the same food at different prices?

Luke and his dad were at their local supermarket and Luke had to complete a project about genetically modified foods and organisms. Luke was curious to find the same food costing two different prices and there were no differences. To which Luke asked, "Papa why is the same food at different prices?" His dad, a history teacher, did not know how to answer this but instead guided him to a database with trustworthy information.

He first wrote a claim about what a GMO is and the problems that arise with it. He also found out the United States Food and Drug Administration played a big role in this health concern. He wanted to know more about this topic and continued to research.

He first looked up what the FDA does and found out they are "responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation." (From the FDA Website)

He needed some hard evidence to back up his claim. After researching for a while he found something interesting. In this case Jeffrey Burkhardt wrote for the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy that  scientists from Monsanto Corp created recombinant BST, or rBST, from inserting DNA of BST into E. Coli. This was then inserted into dairy cows which then could produce 40% more milk. But this is not all milk and cookies, cows do get sick from rBGH and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves of it. Humans aren’t the only ones directly affected, cows get sick from being treated with rBST which then could make us sick.

"Wow!" Exclaimed Luke. He continued to read the article and discovered that Burkhardt also found a case study of GMOs for human consumption created a public storm. Starlink created a GMO that was originally proved for human consumption but when tested by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, they concluded that Starlink may be digestion-resistant and cause allergies in humans so they halted further production. Despite the EPA prohibiting this, in 2000 Starlink was found in the Taco Bell taco shells and it is unknown how Starlink was used. Could there be GMOs in foods that we eat that are not labeled so?

Hmmm.. maybe if products were throughoughly inspected for GMOs none of this would happen!

Luke was beginning to see the big picture, he did not feel like this was a project was uninteresting anymore. He wanted to take a stand for what is right.