A Little Backstory...
As far back as I can remember, there has always been a garden in my backyard. It was filled with various types of food that ranged from ripe tomatoes, zucchinis, and cucumbers to crisp romaine lettuce and peppers. Each year the chore of picking out vegetables and maintaining the garden fell onto me and my parents. To me, the food that’s grown in my parent’s garden tastes better than produce I would buy from the grocery store. However, my family and I have never been opposed to buying fruits and vegetables at the store if it’s proven more convenient than waiting for the food at home to ripen. Even then, fresh vegetables from the garden are probably the only foods I have ever had that are considered organic. Everything else I buy is from the grocery store and has had some type of genetic modification, but I didn't realize this until recently.
I remember one night a couple years ago, my parents invited some friends over for dinner to celebrate the first food picked from the garden. Before we sat down for dinner, someone asked if everything at the table was organic because it is the only type of food they would eat. They went on to say that my family should only eat organic food because it’s much healthier than conventional farming. I was confused by their comments because I didn’t understand why it should matter or why one style of farming would be better than the other. While I had always thought that the food from the garden was delicious, I never considered how much healthier it was opposed to food I'd buy from the grocery store. I was also confused by their comments because they told me their concerns about GMOs originated from reports heard on the news and popular news sites. This troubled me as I wondered if the information they were receiving is correct and if the negative public opinion about genetically modified food is due to the way the media frames information and if the media is biased towards topics such as GMOs.
I remember one night a couple years ago, my parents invited some friends over for dinner to celebrate the first food picked from the garden. Before we sat down for dinner, someone asked if everything at the table was organic because it is the only type of food they would eat. They went on to say that my family should only eat organic food because it’s much healthier than conventional farming. I was confused by their comments because I didn’t understand why it should matter or why one style of farming would be better than the other. While I had always thought that the food from the garden was delicious, I never considered how much healthier it was opposed to food I'd buy from the grocery store. I was also confused by their comments because they told me their concerns about GMOs originated from reports heard on the news and popular news sites. This troubled me as I wondered if the information they were receiving is correct and if the negative public opinion about genetically modified food is due to the way the media frames information and if the media is biased towards topics such as GMOs.