The first time I heard about "genetically modified foods" was around 2011, a pastor from abroad mention it while giving an illustration during a sermon.
I understood what genetics, modification, and food means but I do not understand the connection between them. Being a curious boy, I began asking around but I didn't get a satisfying answer so I had to visit the cyber cafe to get answers.
I learned that genetically modified foods are crops or animals whose genes have been altered or modified to enhance things like the crop growth rate, resistance to pests and diseases, and others. It sounded like a good thing to me then but as I grew up, I began to understand more about genetic modification.
Crops are not the only things that can be genetically modified, cattle, poultry birds and even fish can be genetically modified.
As an adult, I began to imagine why we can't invest more in the natural farming process instead of investing heavily in genetically modifying our foods and I came up with conflicting answers. Investors in genetically modified foods production will tell you that they are doing it with the interest of people at heart which can be justified to an extent.
Food is one of the basic needs of man and the drastic increase in the world population is becoming an issue with the available food in circulation. Aside from the population, farming has become a nonentity occupation to many people who do not understand the importance of it.
A lot of people today will rather invest in oil and gas, and choose white-collar jobs than settle for farming. Global warming is another case, our impact on the ecosystem has affected the climate to an extent that growing certain food in some parts of the world has become difficult.
With all these things, genetically modified foods can be justified to an extent. To ensure that there is enough food in circulation, a lot of countries have embraced genetically modified farming and I admire governments in countries that are against the system.
Investors and the government are making quite a fortune from this system that's why it is hard to see government bodies preach about the disadvantage of genetically modified foods. They will tell you it is okay since it is serving its purpose and making them rich.
Despite the genuine reason for genetically modified food, I believe that the truth about it hasn't been told. Everything about nature is perfect, naturally grown orange has the accurate percentage of nutrients it has to give us, likewise fish and other foods which is not the same as genetically modified food.
Genetically modified food grows faster than usual and it would interest you to know that some of the chemicals used during the process might be harmful to the body system which we do not know but the people in power will keep mute about it since it is a win-win case for them.
Between the time when genetically modified food came into existence and now, the world has experienced an increase in diseases like cancer and others. Cancer in particular has taken the lives of millions of people across the globe, people run into debt trying to treat themselves but all is to no avail.
Who do you think is making the most out of these diseases? It takes thousands of dollars to get chemotherapy and drugs for cancer treatment, all this money is definitely going somewhere so it doesn't surprise me why the big names aren't saying anything about what the effect of genetically modified foods could be on the body.
There are lots of families who abstain from anything genetically modified because they know how dangerous it could be to their health.
I have a family member who traveled abroad, he loves chicken a lot and on his arrival to the US, he discovered some very cheap chicken and started eating more of them.
His blood pressure started rising and it was terrible that he landed in the hospital. He was lucky to meet a Nigerian doctor at the hospital, they greeted in their native language and gisted for a while. The doctor asked what kind of food he eats and at the mention of chicken, the doctor asked him if it was possible to buy chicken as cheap as that in Nigeria and he said no.
The doctor warned him against foods that aren't grown naturally and he had to look for where to get locally-grown chicken which cost him more money.
Anything not grown naturally will definitely have its side effects after consumption, you can imitate nature but we can't be as perfect as nature.
Instead of investing billions into developing genes and the modification process, why not tackle issues like food wastage, restoring balance to the ecosystem, and many others.
Controlling food wastage can increase the availability of food across the globe and this can be achieved easily if the governments get involved by providing the required amenities for even small scale farming.
Families should be encouraged to grow some of their foods, you can grow some vegetables and food crops, you can raise your birds for meat and eggs.
All these won't cost us anything and if we truly value our health, we will take these things seriously.
Our health should be a priority to us and I don't support the consumption of genetically modified foods. The post is not meant to convince you about what to consume or not, this is a choice we have to make for ourselves and I know we will choose what's best for us.
The weekend engagement challenge comes up every weekend on Hive. @Galenkp, the creator of the community gives various topics to choose from and it is always fun participating.