The number of countries
growing GM crops has increased in recent years. The benefits and dangers of
genetically engineered food are the subject of intense debate. Supporters claim
it will feed the world and promote better health and ecological welfare. Detractors
have their doubts. Genetically modified (GM) food includes crops, vegetables and fruit that have been
created using genetic engineering methods. The principle aim with GM food is to
combine desirable genes from various species to create new genetically-altered
crosses with enhanced nutritional, productive and ecological value. This
differs from traditional breeding in that genetic transference between
unrelated species does not occur biologically in nature.
First and foremost, GM food
is resistance to pests. Crop
losses from insect pests can be staggering, resulting in devastating financial
loss for farmers and starvation in developing countries. Farmers typically use
many tons of chemical pesticides annually. Consumers do not wish to eat food
that has been treated with pesticides because of potential health hazards, and
run-off of agricultural wastes from excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers
can poison the water supply and cause harm to the environment. Growing GM foods
can help eliminate the application of chemical pesticides and reduce the cost
of bringing a crop to market.
Besides, it could potentially solve hunger. Many
people agree that there is not enough food in the world to feed everybody. As
genetically modified foods increase the yields of crops, more food is produced
by farmers. Of course, others argue that there is enough food to feed everyone,
but it is unequally distributed. Others argue the GM crops do not produce
higher yields.
Moreover, GM food provides
more nutrition than non-GM food. Malnutrition is common in third world countries where
impoverished peoples rely on a single crop such as rice for the main staple of
their diet. However, rice does not contain adequate amounts of all necessary
nutrients to prevent malnutrition. If rice could be genetically engineered to
contain additional vitamins and minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be
alleviated. For example, blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is a common
problem in third world countries. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Institute for Plant Sciences have created a strain of "golden"
rice containing an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A). Since
this rice was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a non-profit organization,
the Institute hopes to offer the golden rice seed free to any third world
country that requests it. Plans were underway to develop a golden rice that
also has increased iron content. However, the grant that funded the creation of
these two rice strains was not renewed, perhaps because of the vigorous anti-GM
food protesting in Europe, and so this nutritionally-enhanced rice may not come
to market at all.
However, GM food bring disadvantages to human. GM food. There is an
unknown effects on human health. There is a growing concern that introducing
foreign genes into food plants may have an unexpected and negative impact on
human health. A recent article published in Lancet examined the effects of GM
potatoes on the digestive tract in rats.
This study claimed that there were appreciable differences in the
intestines of rats fed GM potatoes and rats fed unmodified potatoes. Yet
critics say that this paper, like the monarch butterfly data, is flawed and
does not hold up to scientific scrutiny.
Moreover, the gene introduced into the potatoes was a snowdrop flower
lectin, a substance known to be toxic to mammals. The scientists who created
this variety of potato chose to use the lectin gene simply to test the
methodology, and these potatoes were never intended for human or animal
consumption.
On top of that,bringing a GM food to market is a lengthy and costly process,
and of course agri-biotech companies wish to ensure a profitable return on
their investment. Many new plant genetic engineering technologies and GM plants
have been patented, and patent infringement is a big concern of agribusiness.
Yet consumer advocates are worried that patenting these new plant varieties
will raise the price of seeds so high that small farmers and third world
countries will not be able to afford seeds for GM crops, thus widening the gap
between the wealthy and the poor. It is hoped that in a humanitarian gesture,
more companies and non-profits will follow the lead of the Rockefeller
Foundation and offer their products at reduced cost to impoverished nations.
Another concern is that crop plants engineered for
herbicide tolerance and weeds will cross-breed, resulting in the transfer of
the herbicide resistance genes from the crops into the weeds. These
"superweeds" would then be herbicide tolerant as well. Other
introduced genes may cross over into non-modified crops planted next to GM
crops. The possibility of interbreeding is shown by the defense of farmers
against lawsuits filed by Monsanto. The company has filed patent infringement
lawsuits against farmers who may have harvested GM crops. Monsanto claims that
the farmers obtained Monsanto-licensed GM seeds from an unknown source and did
not pay royalties to Monsanto. The farmers claim that their unmodified crops
were cross-pollinated from someone else's GM crops planted a field or two away.
More investigation is needed to resolve this issue.
In a nutshell, Genetically-modified foods have the potential to solve
many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and
preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon
chemical pesticides and herbicides. Yet there are many challenges ahead for
governments, especially in the areas of safety testing, regulation,
international policy and food labeling. Many people feel that genetic
engineering is the inevitable wave of the future and that we cannot afford to
ignore a technology that has such enormous potential benefits. However, we must
proceed with caution to avoid causing unintended harm to human health and the
environment as a result of our enthusiasm for this powerful technology.
written by
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