GMOs Week 3 assignment

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 GMOs: Does it Really Matter? Justine Howard Arizona Global Campus PHI 103: Informal Logic Sarah Babbit October 2, 2023

2 Introduction: One hot topic that society seems to not know how to feel, is about GMOs. Are they safe? Why are scientists even trying to alter the natural form? Most importantly, are the GMO versions of these fruits and vegetables even safe? GMOs have been in general grocery stores since the 1990’s, yet still even after thirty years within the society, there is still a lot of people that will refuse to purchase these items. The question that I will be researching is evaluating the logic behind the people that refuse to purchase these items and whether or not the logic is valid. Public Views through Social Media: GM Crops & Food evaluated the general opinion that was shared through social media platforms. In their study GM found that 54% of people were neutral on the subject. This shows that these people have probably heard the concerns of others, but chose not to completely let it sway their opinion to be strong on either side. Of the remaining 46%; 32% were negative opinions, and 14% were positive. These numbers were of no surprise because I am sure I generally see about the same amount of information if not more swayed to the negative on my own social media feeds. Generally since the inception of GMOs society has speculated that they did not want to alter the food supply due to this being something so commonly consumed. People felt that there was not enough research to prove that these could be considered safe over prolonged periods of time. Consumer Perspectives of GMOs focuses more on the European views on GMOs. GMOs are not commonly consumed in Europe. There is actually policies to increase chances of purchasing that these items are discounted at 50% below their non-GMO counterparts. Some countries are fine with accepting GMOs like Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Lithuania. While the Nordic countries produce skepticism of over 50% with Greece, Italy and Cyprus being the

3 highest levels of skepticism. The reason giving that consumers are just unsure as to if they can assess risks of new technologies. Overall there is no evidence on the views from those that disagree with a new food source. There seems to be a bandwagon fallacy present within the logic of some people just not trusting them due to there being a high amount of people that do not trust GMOs. The research from Consumer Perspectives shows that the overall opinion is to not favor GMO options in most European countries. The Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science did a unbiased overview of the subject. They reference that humans have been completing selective breeding for animals and plants to produce better yields/desired traits in livestock and harvests. Science has advanced in a way where they were able to guarantee certain results through the process of altering organisms and thus creating a GMO. This article does bring up that the general concern of the population that is skeptical, are only skeptical due to the fact that they believe there has not been enough research produced to guarantee that this is not affecting health. Although not every form of GMOs have been around for every thirty years, its pretty safe to say that the fruit and vegetable side of GMOs are safe due to the low level of risk with the alterations that are made. One could argue that the experimental organ transplants that have been completed since 2020 may show to have issues later in life, if it does not this would eliminate the need of an organ donor list, and would save a lot of lives in general. The organisms that are produced through these methods are tested rigorously for errors that may cause health issues prior to the item being released, and in general they should be able to be deemed as safe for consumption. Argument from Scholarly Source: 1.) GMOs undergo tests to ensure public safety before being released to the general public.

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4 2.) Cancer rates have risen the same in areas that do not consume GMOs, so it is safe to assume that GMOs are not the cause of this rise. 3.) GMOs could solve the issue of food production and supply food faster than natural harvest times. 4.) GMOs could save the meat market as many people are predicting that it will no longer be able to be available if something does not change. Conclusion: GMOs are safe and can be the key to solving many issues that will affect the society as a whole if an alternate solution is not developed. Evaluation of Argument: This argument is sound because the logic is following scientific research to determine that these GM products are deemed safe for consumption. The premises have all been proven to be true and the conclusion follows these premises. There could be more premises to provide more examples of why GMOs benefit society like increasing yields, and reducing disease. These added premises would create a stronger argument, but with the overall concern of safety being the subject, the argument still stands strong within itself. Although the topic is highly debated, the scientific research backing it proves it to be safe. There is no noticeable health factors that are being affected when compared to areas that do not consume GM products. Discussion of Research on this Topic: This subject had a lot of information that has been made public on it. There was multiple scholarly articles to choose from due to this being such a popular subject of interest, multiple parties have chosen to evaluate the subject. Overall of the naysayers is not sound. The nay- sayers logic falls under the slippery slope fallacy because they are just assuming that because

5 something has not been around for over a lifetime, that the repercussions just cannot be trusted. With this logic you can say that everything is not safe. Especially for results that have never been proven to be true, it is hard to get the argument to be sound in any way. Someone with this opinion could only fall back on speculation on possible effects with no logic following what drove them to this conclusion. It would be a constant loop of “GMOs are not safe, because they are GMOs.” This would be classified as begging the question. With begging the question logic the argument is simply repeating the conclusion as a premise, and never fully providing an argument for the reader to interrupt. Evaluation of Arguments from Non – Scholarly Sources: The Non-Scholarly source that I chose to evaluate provides information backed by scientific research and studies that are conducted on GM products before they are released to the public. This source is still a good source to follow because the information is cited and is credible. The FDA website provides this pamphlet as information to the public due to the high skepticism in public. This article shares important premises on the subject, and brings the fact that the logic from the ladder side of the argument is just simply begging the question, or the slippery slope logic. Conclusion: This assignment and class has helped me to realize that there are a lot of fallacies that are common in every day subjects. I will know now what types of arguments to look out for when determining if someone has a sound argument on a subject or not. I feel like the two fallacies discussed in this paper are the top two fallacies that I see day to day. Before becoming aware of these fallacies can prevent one from falling victim to a weak argument. Sometimes the presentation of the argument, especially in a band wagon scenario, can be

6 convincing if one is not careful to examine the premises that are being presented. Sometimes these fallacies require a conscious effort to not fall victim to, and I believe this is the case with GMOs. Research has shown that GMOs are considered safe, and the general public should become more accepting of them because they could potentially solve supply issues, increase vitamin content, as well as eliminating risk of disease.

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7 References: Boccia, F. (2016). Consumer Perspectives of GMO (5th ed., Vol. 46). Emerald. Genetically Modified Organisms . (2022). (Ser. Encyclopedia of Science). Salem Press. GMOS and Your Health - U.S. Food and Drug Administration . FDA. (n.d.). https://www.fda.gov/media/135280/download Shoi, M., Pitesky, M., & Gendreau, J. (n.d.). EBSCOhost Research Platform: EBSCO . EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com. https://www.ebsco.com/products/ebscohost- research-platform