What would it be like to eat a banana and receive a vaccine at the same time? What if you got your entire daily iron requirement from one cup of rice? Finally, wouldn't it be amazing to have fruits and vegetables with a longer shelf life? As futuristic as these ideas seem, they are all feasible, and many more, or have already been achieved through the production of genetically modified organisms or GMOs. With all these great possibilities including improving the environment, improving the economy and increasing the standard of living of millions of people around the world with negligible setbacks and opposition, how is it possible to say no to this science? The only thing stopping this science is the fact that many do not understand what it is about. Making GMOs an easily known source amounts to educating the general public. Before you can truly understand the benefits of genetically modified organisms, you need to understand exactly what they are. Also known as transgenic, genetically modified, or genetically modified organisms, GMOs are organisms that have been modified in a laboratory to give them certain desired characteristics – like the infamous Round-Up Ready corn (Whitman 2). This product, manufactured by Monsanto, is resistant to the herbicide Round Up. This means that farmers can spray high concentrations of this chemical on their fields to kill weeds and the herbicide will not harm corn crops. There are currently two ways to create such a crop: traditional breeding or genetic engineering. In traditional breeding, two organisms with desired traits are crossed in the hope that the offspring will also have that same trait. Unfortunately, this process is not very reliable and takes a long time. Genetic engineering is quite middle of paper......ril 2014.Pringle, Peter. Food, Inc: Mendel to Monasanto – The Promise and Perils of Biotech Harvesting New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print. “Advantages, disadvantages of modified foods”. Wired. Environmental Information Service. January 1, 2001. Web. April 21, 2014.Shah, Anup. “Poverty in the world”. Global problems. Np March 1, 2010. Web. April 20, 2014“The advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified foods. » Prauda. Np June 15, 2006. Web. April 20, 2014. Thompson, Jennifer A. Seeds for the Future: The Impact of Genetically Modified Crops on the Environment. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2006. Print. “US Imports by Country of Origin.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Energy Information Administration. June 29, 2010. the web. April 20, 2014. Whitman, Deborah B. “Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful? ProQuest. Cambridge Information Group. April 2000. The web. April 21 2014.