7 everyday items that wouldn’t exist as we know them without GMOs

Thomson Reuters

Genetically modified organisms as we know them today have only been around for a few decades.

But in that time, we've taken to using them almost everywhere. Today, GMOs can be found in everything from the cotton in our T-shirts to the soda we sip at the movies.

Here are all the things that likely wouldn't look anything like they do today without some type of genetic modifications:

The corn we eat today has been modified with genes from living things that are not plants.

Corn, the most widely grown crop in the US, is currently modified in two key ways: either by adding genes from Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria, known as Bt, to make it resistant to corn-loving insects, or genes from Agrobacterium, which makes it resistant to the weedkiller Roundup. The insertion of bacterial DNA is what makes corn, and the others on this list, considered a "genetically modified organism."

Today, corn is used to make everything from the corn syrup found in soda and most candy to the sweet corn we eat on the cob. A whopping 92% of the corn we eat is genetically modified, according to the USDA.

In the 1990s, papayas in Hawaii faced extinction without the help of GMO technology.

Papayas in Hawaii were facing destruction from the Ringspot virus, a disease transmitted to the fruit by insects. To fix the problem, scientists added a harmless gene from the virus into the papaya's DNA, giving papayas immunity to the virus. Today, most papayas are produced in Hawaii, though some come from Texas, California, and Florida as well.

Roughly 77% of papayas made in Hawaii are GMO.

Soybeans were genetically modified around the same time as corn and other crops to resist herbicides like RoundUp.

Soy seems to be everywhere these days: From edamame and soy sauce to soy lecithin, which is used to help thicken things like salad dressing, it's almost unavoidable. Soybeans were genetically modified around the same time as corn and other crops to be resistant to herbicides.

According to the USDA, 94% of US soybeans are GMO.