Advantages of Genetically Modified Foods

By: Want To Know It

A few days ago, I wrote a post titled ‘what are GM foods‘. Today, I am going to look at all the advantages of growing genetically modified foods.

Advantages (Pros) of Genetically Modified (GM) Foods:

• Saves the use of toxic chemicals. GM crops can be made resistant to pests, so pesticides do not need to be sprayed on them. This is also better on the environment!
• Prevents wasted crops. If pests cannot eat the crops, nothing goes to waste. Therefore, farmers make more money!
• It could potentially solve hunger. Many people agree that there is not enough food in the world to feed everybody. As genetically modified foods increase the yields of crops, more food is produced by farmers. Of course, others argue that there is enough food to feed everyone, but it is unequally distributed. Others argue the GM crops do not produce higher yields.
• We can begin to grow foods in different conditions. For instance, strawberries can be genetically engineered to grow in frosts. Other foods that grow in cold climates could be engineered to grow in hot climates (such as Africa where much of the continent does not have enough food).
• Some foods can be genetically modifies to contain higher amounts of important vitamins and minerals. Vitamin A deficiencies cause blindness. In Africa, 500,000 go blind each year. If rice can be modified to contain more vitamin A, the amount of people going blind will decrease.
• As more research is done the technology is bound to improve. Scientists are already considering genetic modification to make fish, nuts and plants grow faster.

Despite these advantages, many people refuse to eat genetically modified foods over concerns that it could be dangerous to their health. There is still no detailed study about the long term effects of eating genetically modified foods. There are also issues such as whether scientists should play God and whether biotechnology companies (the people that made the GM seeds) should have control over food supply (they could choose not to sell the seeds to certain people or countries).

Other Pros/Cons Topics:

Advantages of Biofuels

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power

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