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DARK Act's Effect On Consumers

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The Effect of the DARK Act on Consumers GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are organisms that are injected with DNA from other organisms. This can be from a similar species or even from a completely different type of organism. According to Jeffrey Smith, a GMO expert and author, the attempted benefit of GMOs was to increase nutritional value and production, but “two main traits that have been added to date are herbicide tolerance and the ability of the plant to produce its own pesticide” (2006). The Food and Drug Administration currently has the control to label a food item containing GMOs but that is about to change. The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, or the DARK Act is an act that recently passed through the House of Representatives that would take away the laws for mandatory labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms. This can have massive effects on the consumers because they …show more content…

According to Jeffrey Smith, this process can cause the organisms to have unknown effects such as toxins, diseases, and nutritional problems (2006). Along with that, the health risks from consuming products containing GMOs are enough to turn people away. According to the American Academy of Environmental Science, “several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen, and gastrointestinal system”(2009). Finding out that GMOs caused all of these issues to animals, people will start to question the safety of the GM food products. This alone can scare the consumers and discourage them from purchasing products containing GMOs. However, that may no longer be a choice

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