I will first give a brief overview of the definition of GMO. GMO, also known as Genetically Modified Organisms are plants, animals, and microorganisms that are directly modified by scientists using genetic engineering techniques.
Formerly known by hybridization or multiplication to genetically modify organisms years ago, conventional mating or natural recombination methods will produce mixed results, randomly, or more simply understood, undesirable traits will appear that will appear on the organism. But now thanks to the development of science and biotechnology, scientists have been able to modify genes to achieve the traits and goals they desire.
Most GMOs are known to be applied to animals and plants to create genetically modified foods to the satisfy to demand of human life around the world. For an easier assessment and comparison i will give some of the impacts of GMOs on health of humans, environment, biodiversity.
Health of humans
- This method allows selectively splicing individual genes from one organism to another, applicable to organisms of different species.
- The biggest benefit that GM food brings to people is to increase the nutritional value and taste of food, creating many foods with new shapes and flavors. Take “Golden Rice” for a example, a type of rice that has been bred to contain more Beta Carotene than regular rice - which is converted to Vitamin A. Because most rice varieties contain very low amounts of Vitamin A.
Golden Rice: pexels
- With the same food, the same price, but the nutritional level increases, there will certainly be a lot of consumers choosing modified foods.When you consume GMO foods, there is a risk of allergies and drug resistance. Because a GMO food is a fusion of genes from one or more other species and the food you are eating, it is possible that the food contains genes from allergens.
Source: visualhunt
- We all know that there are many bad bacteria and beneficial bacteria in the human intestine, the fact that people eat genetically modified foods with antibiotic genes will kill the beneficial bacteria in the human gut, causing disorders.
Environment
- Currently, many GMO are created with the purpose of being resistant to insects, weeds, and drought, which greatly contributes to reducing the amount of pesticides and chemicals released into the human environment. Reduce air and water pollution.
- Ensure food security and lower food costs, reduce industrial activities in the world by increasing supply while reducing production costs. Thereby reducing the burning fuel that needs to be used in agricultural activities, preventing adverse impacts on climate change
Source: pixabay
- When planting genetically modified crops and they carry in them disease, insect, and weed resistance genes, thereby increasing crop yields for farmers. In addition, some genetically modified animals such as AquAdvantage salmon have a much shorter growth time than the original, which is 16-18 months until consumption instead of 3 years. This will reduce care costs, and human effort.
Source: visualhunt
Biodiversity
- Thanks to GMOs, humans can maintain and develop genetic diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms.These genetically modified foods can inadvertently harm other organisms. For example, transgenic maize plants (which have been genetically engineered with Bacillius thuringensis - the bacteria that kill monarch butterflies), pollen from wind-pollinated Sunflowers plants, and when monarch butterflies suck nectar from Sunflowers will be accidentally killed
Source: pixabay
- Another concern that few people pay attention to is the unintentional transfer of genes to other species. Genetically modified plants carrying herbicide resistance genes will inadvertently pollinate plants of the same species and different species, thus inadvertently leading to the unintentional spread of herbicide resistance genes to plant populations around the area.
Source: pixabay
- Plants carrying insect resistance genes can kill beneficial insects, leading to a loss of food chains for animals.
Thus, direct GMOs have the main purpose of allowing scientists to edit the genome of plants to create desired traits. namely, increase crop yield, resistance to pests and diseases, and reduce maintenance costs. care, reducing the growth time but ensuring the nutritional value unchanged or may be higher than the original. The United States and many other countries have also enacted labeling laws for modified foods so that users can freely choose, identify the origin and ingredients in the food they are consuming every day.
In my opinion, the choice to use or not to use GM foods will depend on the health situations, economic conditions, needs, and preferences of each person. When holding a genetically modified food, and seeing firsthand the shape, color, origin, culture process, consumers will easily decide to buy it or not.
I'm really looking forward to receiving everyone's personal views on this matter!