GMO Labeling and Evolution Theories

Genetically Modified Food Labeling

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) should be labeled. For example, genetically engineered soybeans have DNA from bacteria and viruses spliced into their DNA to help them tolerate weed killers such as Roundup. This genetic feat creates a whole new species of plant that would have never occurred in nature. Soybeans, corn, canola, cotton, and sugar beets are common GMO crops. Products such as oil, high fructose corn syrup, and sugar are created from these crops and added to processed foods. We should have these foods labeled because people want to have transparency in their food supply. Consider Washington's Initiative 522 to label genetically engineered foods.

Theories of Evolution

Creationism

Creationism maintains that species that exist today were created by God exactly as they are now and that they have not changed throughout the history of the Earth. Creationism dominated scientific thought in the West from the birth of Christianity until the 18th century. Important supporters include Linnaeus and Cuvier.

Catastrophism

Cuvier proposed this theory, suggesting that since the Earth's creation, there have been many catastrophes, such as the Biblical Flood. According to him, fossils were remains of species which had been wiped out in those catastrophes.

Evolutionism

Evolutionism is the theory that all species came from other species by means of transformation.

Uniformitarianism

Uniformitarianism was proposed by Charles Lyell in 1830. It states that the events of the Earth's remote past were caused by forces identical to those which operate today, and that changes in nature took place slowly, gradually, and continuously—a hypothesis known as gradualism—and were not caused by catastrophes.

Lamarck's Theory

In 1809, Lamarck proposed the inheritance of acquired traits. There are three main points:

• Spontaneous generation is the mechanism that creates the simplest forms of life.
• All organisms have an internal impulse.
• The function creates the organ.

Darwin's Postulates

Darwin stated that:

• The world is not static; it is constantly changing.
• The process of change is gradual and continuous.
• Similar organisms are related and descended from a common ancestor.
• Evolutionary change is the result of natural selection.

Darwin explained natural selection based on these facts:

• Individuals have variations which are produced randomly.
• In the fight for existence, only the fittest survive.
• In this fight for existence, only those with favorable variations survive, and they have adapted to the environment.
• The fittest individuals leave more descendants.