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Genetically modified food benefits
Negative effects of genetically modified organisms
Negative effects of genetically modified organisms
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What would it be like to eat a banana and receive a vaccine at the same time? What about obtaining your entire daily iron requirement from a cup of rice? Finally, wouldn’t it be amazing to have fruits and vegetables with a longer shelf life? No matter how futuristic these ideas seem, all of them and so many more are achievable or already have been achieved through production of genetically modified organisms or GMOs. With all of these great possibilities, including bettering the environment, improving the economy, and raising the standard of living for millions 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. To make GMOs a readily known source is to educate the general populous. Before one can truly understand the benefits of genetically modified organisms, he must understand exactly what they are. Also known as transgenic, genetically altered, or genetically engineered organisms, GMOs are organisms that have been altered in the laboratory to give them certain desired traits - like the infamous Round-Up Ready corn (Whitman 2). This product, produced by Monsanto, is resistance 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 the corn crops. There are currently two ways to create a crop like this: traditional breeding or genetic engineering. In traditional breeding, two organisms with the desired traits are bred in hopes that the offspring will also have that same trait. Unfortunately, this process is not very reliable and is very time consuming. Genetic engineering is quite th... ... middle of paper ... ...ril 2014. Pringle, Peter. Food, Inc: Mendel to Monasanto – The Promise and Perils of the Biotech Harvest New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print. “Pros, Cons of Modified Food.” Wired. Environment News Service. 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 21 April 2014. Shah, Anup. “Poverty Around The World.” Global Issues. N.p. 1 Mar. 2010. Web. 20 April 2014 “The pros and cons of GM foods.” Prauda. N.p. 15 June 2006. Web. 20 April 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. “U.S. Imports By Country of Origin.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Energy Information Administration. 29 June 2010. Web. 20 April 2014. Whitman, Deborah B. “Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?” ProQuest. Cambridge Information Group. April 2000. Web. 21 April 2014.
Maghari, Behrokh Mohajer, and Ali M. Ardekani. "Genetically Modified Foods And Social Concerns." Avicenna Journal Of Medical Biotechnology 3.3 (2011): 109-117. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Biello, David. "Genetically Modified Crop on the Loose and Evolving in U.S. Midwest." Scientific American Global RSS. Scientific American, 06 Aug. 2010. Web. 08 May 2014. .
Food is an essential part of everyday life without it one could not survive. Every day we make choices on what we put in to our bodies. There are countless varieties of food to choose from to meet the diverse tastes of the increasing population. Almost all food requires a label explaining the ingredients and the nutritional value allowing consumers to make informed decisions on what they are consuming. However, many may not be considering where that food is coming from or how it has been produced. Unfortunately, there is more to food than meets the eye. Since 1992, “ the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled, based on woefully limited data, that genetically modified foods were ‘substantially equivalent’ to their non-GM counterparts” (Why to Support Labeling). GM food advocates have promised to create more nutritious food that will be able to grow in harsh climate conditions and eventually put an end to world hunger in anticipation of the growing population. There is very little evidence to support these claims and study after study has proven just the opposite. GM crops are not only unsafe to consume, but their growing practices are harmful to the environment, and multinational corporations are putting farmers out of business.
Shah, Anup. “Poverty Facts and Stats.” Global Issues, Updated: 28 Mar. 2010. Accessed: 05 Apr. 2010.
Deal, Walter F., and Stephen L. Baird. “Genetically Modified Foods: A Growing Need.” Technology Teacher 62.7 (2003): 18. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.
The term GM foods or GMO (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques (Whitman, 2000). These plants have been modified in the laboratory to offer desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. Also, genetic engineering techniques have been applied to create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and accurately. For example, this is done by the geneticist isolating the gene responsible for drought tolerance and inserts it into another plant. The new genetically-modified plant will now have gained drought tolerance as well.
In this day and age, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have become a topic of large interest in the media. GMOs are defined as an organism whose genetic structure has been altered by incorporating a gene that will express a desirable trait (Dresbach et al. al. 2013). Often times, these traits that are selected are either beneficial to the consumer or producer. Currently, GMOs are being created at a higher rate than ever before and are being used in the foods that we eat.
How many of you hear the words “genetically modified food” and immediately think “BAD”? How many of you scorn the idea that genetically modified foods are useful? How many of you have been manipulated by the media to think that all biotechnology is evil? Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms that have been genetically spliced to achieve a certain trait. As the demand for a larger food supply is increasing due to population growth, the benefits that GMO foods provide are being hailed as the only solution to the food crisis. However, many people are making inadequately informed decisions, and are pushing them to the back shelf. I will inform you on why genetically modified organisms may be the only way to a stable, safe future for the less fortunate.
In conclusion, the application of genetically modified food has a lot of pros and cons. There is so much disagreement about the benefits and risks of GM because there are so many different views surrounding it. This issue is very important today because it will change our future. How would the world be when every single living creature will be in some aspect genetically modified? Would we be more resistant to illness? Or would we be weaker and more vulnerable to diseases? Would this be the beginning of the mutant era? Regardless of the answers to these questions, we will need to consider the implications of genetically modified foods.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a cause of continuous debate. What would be the purpose of producing genetically altered food? Many argue that GMOs could prove to be very beneficial, the use of GMOs could lead to advances in medicine, and agriculture, and they could also prevent famine in poor underdeveloped countries. Genetic modification offers many benefits: pest control, disease resistant crops, drought resistant crops, no use of insecticides, nutritional beneficial foods, and less contamination. This is only a short list of the many benefits offered by the used of GMOs. With so many benefits why are we opposed to such a miracle? (NERC 2005)
“Genetically modified foods are a "Pandora's box" of known and unknown risks to humans and the environment. They have been forced onto the American public by multinational biotech and agribusiness corporations without adequate oversight and regulation by the United States government (Driscoll, SallyMorley, David C).”Genetically Modified Food is food which has been chemically altered by scientists during the production process to give the food more nutrients, better appearance, and a longer shelf-life (Rich, Alex K.Warhol, Tom). The importance of this issue is that these GMO’s can actually have a negative effect in our society in general. It could mutate in a negative way and cause cancer or other diseases. Genetically modified food should be strictly controlled due to its various detrimental effects on the environment, human health, and potentially insect/animal effects.
Okigbo, R., Iwube, J., & Putheti, R. (2011). An extensive review on genetically modified (GM) foods
Scientists have been changing genomes of plants and animals by integrating new genes from a different species through genetic engineering, creating a genetically modified organism (GMO). Consumers in America have been eating GMOs since 1996, when they went on the market. There are benefits to genetically modifying crop plants, as it improves the crop quality and increases yield, affecting the economy and developing countries. But there are also negative effects from GMOs. Consumption of GMOs has various health effects on both body systems of animals and humans. GMOs also affect the environment, ecosystems and other animal species. The cons outweigh the pros in the case of GMOs.
Shah, Anup. "Poverty and the Environment." - Global Issues. N.p., 12 Feb. 2005. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are an organism, such as a plant, animal, or any microorganism, who’s had its DNA changed in different ways through genetic engineering that is not natural. It is an organism like every other organism, which produces thousands of proteins, but one or two of them are proteins that were chosen specifically by humans. It creates unstable combinations of plants, animal, bacterial, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. The majority of Americans in the US consume nearly 200 pounds of GMOs each year. 90% of US crops are genetically modified.