Genetically Modified Foods do more good than harm.

My opponent failed to mention a value to evaluate the arguments of both sides, therefore my criterion will stand for the duration of this debate, and cannot be refuted, or else we won't have a criterion. Standard The criterion for our debate is lives. Whoever preserves the environment and the people wins this debate GMO Food OPP Genetically Modified Food Does More Good Than Harm Criterion: Our criterion is the well being of the people and the environment, whoever can sustain stability of the people as well as the ecosystem, wins. CONTENTIONS:` C1: GM foods have extreme potential danger. Genetically modified foods can be very dangerous, especially because we have done enough studies on them that say they are dangerous. As M.D. David Brownstein says, "Genetically modified foods may look and feel the same as conventional foods, but they are drastically and harmfully different. These types of foods have been altered by taking the genetic material (DNA) from one species and transferring it into another in order to obtain a desired trait. The FDA does not require any safety testing or any labeling of GM foods, and introducing new genes into a fruit or vegetable may very well be creating unknown results such as new toxins, new bacteria, new allergens, and new diseases." An example of this is herbicides. Different herbicides have been developed rapidly because of GM Foods. According to a comprehensive, 16-year review of chemical use in conjunction with the advent of GMOs in 1996, researchers from Washington State University"s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources found that herbicide use has increased by an astounding 527 millions pounds since GMOs were first introduced. To make matters worse, Roundup, the chemical of choice for many GMOs, has been found to persist in soils, waterways, and other environmental nooks and crannies, and sometimes it even ends up contaminating water supplies. And this chemical, Roundup, is bad. In fact, the cancer-research arm of the World Health Organization announced that glyphosate, the world"s most widely used herbicide, is probably carcinogenic to humans. The chemical is an ingredient in Roundup, and is becoming more popular with the increasing market share of crops that are genetically engineered to be tolerant to the herbicide. This means that something spreading because of genetically modified foods has a high chance of causing cancer, Judge. C2: Genetically Modified foods hurt and kill many animal species. GMOs are responsible for killing off and hurting bees, bats, butterflies, and other pollinators, whose bodies are unable to handle the onslaught of altered DNA and chemicals that are characteristic of GMO technologies. This can lead to animals in their natural habitats being killed off because they are pollinating; doing their job. An example of this is the honey bee. Honey bees rely on corn as a major protein source. At least 94 percent of the 92 million acres of corn planted across the U.S. this year will have been treated with neonicotinoid, an incesticide. GM corn and neonicotinoid go hand-in-hand, and corn farmers have a very hard time finding seed that is not genetically engineered and treated with neonicotinoids. The worst part is that this insecticide is known to synergize with certain fungicides to increase toxicity to honey bees up to 1,000-fold. This leads to something called Colony Collapse Disorder, where almost all of the worker bees in a colony simply leave and disappear, and then the colony starts to collapse, thus the name. (Pesticide Action Network of North America, 6/30/11) In the past six years, more than 10 million beehives have been wiped out from colony collapse disorder. This destruction has serious implications on worldwide ecology and economy. Of the 100 crop species responsible for providing 90% of food worldwide, 71 are dependent on bee pollination, according to UN estimates. It's difficult to pinpoint the financial implications of this destruction, but the international body says pollination is worth between $37billion and $91 billion, annually. (The Guardian, July 30th.) So Judge, this is just a single example of how GM Foods not only lead to the death these species, but how that also has extreme repercussions of the economy as well. C3: GM Foods hurt the food supply. According to PSRAST, or Physicians and Scientists for the Responsible Application of Science and Technology, The presence of Roundup, Bt bacteria, and other GMO by products in our water and soil are extremely bad. Let me give you a breakdown of what happens. In one gram of productive soil there is a complex web that can exceed over 100 million microorganisms that may represent over 1000 species. Together they are responsible for the cycle of decomposing and restructuring organic material so that it will be accessible to growing plants. It is also responsible for the nitrogen and water-retaining properties as well as for other factors of great importance for soil fertility. When the GMO byproducts mentioned before are in our soil, they destroy these bacteria. This can destroy huge areas of soil, which leads to even less plants growing, and thus much less food. Judge, we may have more food for a very small amount of time, but, in the long run, our food supply will be ruined by these GMO by products.