Audience Description Post: GMOs

1) The typical audience member would be adults living in the United States, since GMOs have been broadcasted across various news media outlets. I would say the age is 18-adulthood, since children often are not concerned with what they are eating and eat whatever their parents give them. Adulthood is when people generally start worrying about what they are consuming and how it is affecting their health. I would say parents of children is the biggest audience group because they are especially concerned with the food they are feeding their growing children. My audience is diverse in demographic terms because it can be people of any race, age, place of residence, etc.

2) A representative detail about my imagined reader that helps me understand who they are is that they were taught, either by their family or the media, to fear laboratories and science. They may not fully understand how modern science in terms of food production can coincide with health. They want to feed their kids only the best and safest food, because their kids are their pride and joy.

3) Principles that we share

• A love of food 
• The desire to only feed ourselves healthy and safe food that does not compromise our health 

4) Principles that we do not share:

• The knowledge that GMOs are actually proven to have benefits and can even be healthier than naturally grown food, and have bigger yields when being grown 
• Not only do they have health benefits, they have been shown to be better for the environment and keep food production costs low, which saves the consumers money 

5) The principles listed above do not represent insurmountable obstacles to people accepting my argument. I think these principles can be backed up with scientific facts and arguments that are convincing and lessen the confusion and fear on this issue. 

6) I will find common ground with this reader in the fact that everyone wants only the best for themselves and their children. Food is a very prevalent topic in society because it is a necessity, and we all want to feed ourselves high quality food that has no negative side effects or are harmful. 

7) I think an issue I will need to explicitly reject is if they say that all GMOs are harmful and should never be consumed. There are positives and negatives to everything, but the positives of GMOs outweigh the negatives and are a legitimate food source option. 

8) I will explicitly acknowledge and respond to possible objections the audience might raise at the start of my open letter. I think it is important to acknowledge the objections, and then counteract them with facts that show how these objections are unreasonable or not true. This will set the tone for the rest of the letter and what exactly my stance is.