Genetically Modified Foods

The Case Against Genetically Modified Foods Being a farmer is probably one of the hardest professions in the world, largely because of the lack of control that farmers have over their results. They can work tirelessly and still have crops wiped out by inclement weather or insects and other pests. It’s a precarious way to make a living, and genetically modified foods (GMO) at first seemed like a solution to so many of the obstacles present when trying to grow a bountiful crop.

For example, GMO crops that are resistant to insects/pests can be achieved by adding a poisonous bacterium to the crops that incorporate a natural insect repellant, yet still safe for human consumption. These means that farmers don’t have to rely so heavily on toxic chemicals to repel bugs and it means the soil has to undergo less manipulation and can maintain its integrity better.

While these benefits for farmers are undeniable, GMO foods are at their core unnatural and unsafe for human consumption, creating mysterious illnesses and complications to human health. Copious data demonstrates that GMO foods are not fit for living organisms, neither plants nor animals. “Many scientific data indicate that animals fed by GM crops have been harmed or even died.

Rats exposed to transgenic potatoes or soya had abnormal young sperm; cows, goats, buffalo, pigs and other livestock grazing on Bt-maize, GM cottonseed and certain biotech corn showed complications including early deliveries, abortions, infertility and also many died” (Maghari & Ardekani, 2011). This scientific data makes a clear case for how reckless it is to allow human beings to consume these products. Similarly, the testing method to assess GMO foods is not comprehensive enough.

Many companies use inadequate means where the chemical analysis of the food isn’t compared completely to non-GMO foods, or there is an inappropriate use of statistics (Maghari & Ardekani, 2011). All studies assessing the safety of GMO foods need to use animals responsibly in order to determine the short and long term impacts of consuming these foods. Any other assessment is incomplete and cavalier. The more compelling point against GMO foods involves the danger of interfering with natural and the natural order.

GMO foods have given rise to super weeds and to anti-biotic resistant bacteria and other oddities of nature. More concerning, is the multi-faceted impact it can have on the human body and the complex and delicate human systems. For example, the viral DNA used in plants is not completely understood: “Most of the manipulated crops utilize the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S promoter (CaMV35S) to switch on the introduced gene.

There has been a lot of controversy concerning whether the highly infectious CaMV35S can be horizontally transferred and cause disease, carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, reactivation of dormant viruses andeven generation of new viruses” (Dona & Arvanitoyannis, 2008). Other concerns revolve around the potential movement of antibiotic resistant particles to the gastrointestinal tract and the potential absorption of genes to from the modified plant to the gut (Dona & Arvanitoyannis, 2008). These are deeply disturbing possibilities that could lead to the annihilation of the human race, if not held under tight control.

Counterclaims that support the use of GMO foods cite the millions of people who have eaten billions of GMO foods without a single issue. One of the major important benefits that GMO foods gives us is the ability to grow crops during the upheaval and uncertainty of climate change: “Climate change will make much of the world's arable land more difficult to farm.

GM crops, Zilberman says, could produce higher yields, grow in dry and salty land, withstand high and low temperatures, and tolerate insects, disease and herbicides” (Freedman, 2013). Just as compellingly, GMO foods have lowered the overall cost of food, making it more affordable. If more nations adopted it around the globe, world hunger would eventually be wiped out. In conclusion, as compelling as.