There is a mixed reaction towards genetically modified (GM) foods in the scientific community, some deem it unsafe whilst others embraces its full potential to hopefully end world Hunger! Today we will discuss exactly what GM food is and why some people fear it!
What is GM?
For thousands of years humans have developed the art and science of agriculture. This made it easier to provide your family and village with food and it made the chances of survival per human higher, due to the lower risk of ending up other creature's food whilst hunting!
Humans started to select and breed with the species that created the most desired products, like a corn plant with the biggest yield or a cow producing the most milk. The farmers through the best genes together to create a next generation crop producing a better yield than the previous year!
This was a good practice because this cycle continued for years and years and truly turned the wildest animals into the calm and collected farm animals that we can see today or the modern vegetables and fruits with a pretty big yield! These proses were called selected breeding.
Chance plays a big role in selected breeding, because the types and intensity of mutation in each new generation of species is completely random! You do have better chances of getting the best results by breeding with the best genes but this process is with luck and takes ages to get the best crops or farm animals.
We have learned a lot about genetics in the last 100 years and found ways to directly change the genes of the species to get the desired results. This led to the new technique Genetical Modification. This technique is superior to selective breeding because it maximises the chances to get the desired result in the smaller amount of time!
Like I mentioned before the process of genetical modification is one in which the genetical material of a species is changed by directly introducing new genes into the species genetic material to alter it. This can be achieved through many techniques like CRISPER (But I am not going to elaborate on that.)
But why do some deem it unsafe?
The biggest fear is the unknown. GM food is a new concept and we could not test and conclude all the environmental or health impacts that it might have on earth. Most surveys have found that the food produced is not harmful towards humans or animals. According to the World Health Organization, newly produced crops are always tested for potential health threats. So GM foods will not poison human beings!
One of the biggest fears is cross contamination with other non GM plants. This might lead to new plants bearing unwanted traits that could put back thousands of years worth of breeding! Luckily there are techniques to combat this cross contamination, either by genetical modification (making plants sterile) or by plant techniques. Either way this is not a guaranteed prevention method!
This new plants may be designed to survive in a cold environment but farmers in a warmer climate might use it, causing damage to soil ecosystem. This type of environmental damages may also happen due to price, GM crops cost a tad bit more expensive but promise bigger yield! But some farmers might find some GM plants cheaper than those that are compatible for their environment thus buying GM that could be a threat to their countries natural ecosystem.
Lastly GM foods might destroy smaller farms. This is more of an economic fear rather than an environmental or health fear. The total cost of farming GM Crops is high, but the average cost per yield is lower. Thus, smaller farms can't afford GM crops and can't compete with the prices of yield with other bigger farms using GM foods. This will lead to closure of other farms or ownership passing to bigger farms.
Could it end world hunger.
It could help countries with harsh terrain to produce more and import less, thus leading to more economic growth and less international dependency of food security. The bigger crops and less resources seems to be the biggest plus point of GM foods. This could make it more affordable and easier to grow crops in poorer countries which leads to a bigger chance of giving food for everyone. It is important to note that it could bring prices down making it also more affordable to the government and poorer people in the country!
Currently GM foods is still too expensive to farm with and there is not as much region specific GM crops to maximise yield in every country. This is why we do not currently see the end of world hunger! But the creation of GM foods did help some countries to improve food security!
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