I opened my mouth in wonder. As I scrolled through the internet looking for natural remedies to bacterial reactions such as acne, I stumbled upon a post by MedicalNewsToday that said that most of the fruits and vegetables we were eating today had been genetically modified.
Source
I knew about the forced ripening of fruits by greedy merchants, I was also aware of the fact that most crops were grown with artificial fertilizer so that they could produce bigger and better. I grew up hearing about agricultural fowl, chickens that were incubated and fed with a different kind of feed so they could come out looking bigger and better for more profit.
Just when I thought I had seen it all, I stumbled upon that post on MedicalNewsToday titled, “Genetically modified food: what are the pros and cons?”
I couldn't believe my eyes.
“Favour, come and see this” My roommate was peeling the shells off roasted groundnuts and was putting the shelled ones into plastic bottles. I smiled when I caught her throwing one or two grains of groundnuts into her mouth as she unshelled the groundnuts.
She dusted her palms against each other and came over to where I was seated. She had some grains of the shelled groundnuts in her palm for me.
“You've finished eating the groundnuts, weldone” She smiled sheepishly then peeped into my phone to see if she could know the reason I called her.
“Do you know that they are now genetically modifying fruits and veggies abroad?”
She frowned.
“What does that even mean?”
“My dear, take this and read for yourself” She got my Android phone and began to scan through. I could see her lips moving even when there were no audible words coming from them.
“Ah….Treasure! No wonder apples barely have the sugary sweet taste we grew up knowing them to have” she suddenly exclaimed.
“Why? What is it?” I threw the last of the groundnuts into my mouth and scooted over to see what she was reading. She still read it aloud even when I was just beside her.
“Types of GMO foods
The following are the most common GMO crops produced and sold in the U.S.:
sugar beet, canola, corn, potato, summer squash, soybean, papaya, apple, alfalfa”
I shook my head, “And we import some of these foods down here to Nigeria. So we've been eating trash”
“What do you mean ‘some’? The only one I know we don't import is corn!”
“Favie relax,” I said laughing lightly, “I don't think Nigerians import potatoes. This is the sad reality of life though. We're too dependent as a nation so whatever they give to us, we take. Healthy or not”
Favour shook her head as if disagreeing with something I just said.
“Let's look at the disadvantages of these genetically modified foods”
We both crammed our heads around my phone, looking for where ‘cons’ was written, and when I saw it, I asked Favour to stop scrolling.
“Ehhen, I said it. It must cause cancer. Have these scientists not gone too far like this? We've barely seen a cure for cancer and they're busy doing things to enhance the cancer. What kind of wahala is all this one?” Favour asked bitterly.
I was also fed up with the entire discovery. Why couldn't these people, or scientists in general, just leave life the way God created it? Why did they always try to play smart and end up spoiling everything in the end?
I got my phone back from Favour and continued looking out for natural skin care remedies for acne and black spots, but Favour had not gotten over the article we just read.
“Instead of those people to channel that energy towards trying to understand the reason and cures for mental disorders for example, they are busy causing more problems for the world”
It was bad enough that they wanted to make everything perfect, but in my opinion, they were making things worse by paying attention to the aspects I considered unnecessary. Foods could grow on their own if properly taken care of. I could understand artificial fertilizers because of climate changes and other elemental factors but modifying the genetics? That was going too far.
Just like Favour said, there were so many aspects that needed their scientific ingenuity like the mental health she mentioned and even climate change reduction. After all, they began to mess with the ecosystem so they should channel energy into looking for how to fix it.
I shuddered at the thought of eating or using fruits that had been genetically modified and the possible effects it could have on my body. At the end of the day, I could only pray that God would help us because technology has taken a crude turn.
