Genetically Modified Food Is The Future
Despite the opinion of an incredible amount of people all around the world, GMO’s (which stand for Genetically Modified Organisms) crops and food sources, which is that they are bad, unregulated, hazardous, unreliable, and dangerous, but they are not like this, GM (Genetically Modified) food is not a risk for humans and it is, in fact, beneficial for humans.
One of the primary concerns or arguments that are given about why GM food is hazardous for humans is that it hasn’t been studied enough due to be a technique newly discovered. This is not true, in fact, humanity has been manipulating the genes of crops for thousands of years. For example, wheat (which is the major used type of crop) is a hybrid of many different species. The non-GM wheat is not able to survive on its own because it is incapable of dispersing its seeds. Besides, plant breeders have tampered with the genetic makeup of crops and spread crops that where only viable on small fertile places on the Middle East to all around the world.
Genetic Modification is one of the few technologies that are studied since their implementation; in the 1970’s, Researches set up voluntary regulation that were incorporated by different governments throughout the world. Today, modified crops are being subjected to thousands of different field tests. The food that comes from these crops need to go through an even more rigorous testing. It is also possible, by using biotechnology, to modify the crops in order to make them generate resistance to different types of pests, this would mean that there is a reduction in the use of pesticides which could provide harmful for the crop and/ or the land.
GM crops are also better than the un-modified ones. There is an average 60% reduction in damaged crops (84% with the most advance modification techniques) while the quantity of nutrition doesn’t diminish. In corn crops there exists a sort of chemical called mycotoxins which s a poisonous chemical that is carried to the crop by insect’s attack, however GM corn crops have shown a reduction on the contamination from this chemical, especially on developed countries.
Genetically Modified crops also have an advantage for the future, by 2050 the population on earth is estimated to increase to more than 9 Billion, which would make traditional crops inefficient when trying to provide enough sustenance to such an exorbitant amount of people; some researches stated than in order for there to be enough food to feed this amount of people, food production would have to be doubled or even tripled, however this increased amount of people require land and space for them to inhabit which would decrease the available farmland, but with the use of biotechnology it is possible to increase the yields in order to acquire more food by using less land.
As it can be concluded, Genetically Modified crops are an advantage for mankind and they are something that has been done through generations, they provide a ray of hope for an overpopulated word. And the reason for the aversion that some people have towards them is due to misinformation, skepticism, fear (since one thing that man has always feared is change). And though concerns are something natural to the human nature, they shouldn’t prevail on the mind when there’s no enough facts to support those concerns.
As it can be observed on all the previous statements, Genetically Modified crops have existed, probably, since the dawn of mankind, on todays new and more advance techniques there are safe measures that are being taken not only by companies but also by governments and Health Organizations.
