Benefits of Genetically Modified Corn

The world population has topped six billion people and is predicted to double in the next fifty years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come (Burghart). Genetically Modified (GM) corn is extremely beneficial to both farmers and consumers. Genetic engineering is a laboratory technique used by scientists to change the DNA of living organisms. GM corn can benefit farmers by decreasing costs and increasing crop yields. The new super corn can benefit consumers by producing healthier, more nutritious, and more organic corn. Genetic engineers believe that science breakthroughs, like this one, will solve the worldwide dilemma of starvation and hunger.

Farmers began primitive genetic breeding many years ago by selecting seeds from their best plants, replanting them, and gradually improving the quality of successive generations. (Johnson and Raven 238) Science has come along way since that time. Scientists have developed corn that is resistant to insects. Crops that are resistant to insects and do not need to be sprayed with pesticides, many of which can harm the environment, are safer (Johnson and Raven 238). They are safer because the harmful chemicals used to spray the crops will not be introduced into the environment. Biotechnology seems confusing and complicated on the outside, but is actually quite simple.

Biotechnology allows the transfer of only one or a few desirable genes from one organism to another. This precise science allows plant breeders to develop crops with specific beneficial traits and without undesirable traits (Monsanto Agricultural Biotechnology). The function and structure of DNA from different organisms is essentially the same. It is simply a site that gives instructions and directs cells to make proteins that are the basis of life. Whether the DNA is from a microorganism, a plant, an animal, or human, it is made from the same materials (Monsanto Agricultural Biotechnology).

A researcher's first step is to "cut" or remove a gene segment, representing a desirable trait, from a chain of DNA using enzyme "scissors" to cut an opening into the plasmid, the ring of DNA often found in bacteria outside the cell. The researcher then "pastes" the gene segment into the plasmid. Because the cut ends of both the plasmid and the gene are chemically "sticky" they attach to each other. To complete the process, researchers use another enzyme to paste the new one in place.