The risk to the environment. About 72% of the U.S genetically modified crops are modified to withstand certain types of herbicides, but the weeds that intended to be killed by this herbicide are becoming bigger and stronger. So, to kill this superweeds resistant strains, more quantities of pesticides are needed to kill the weeds. In the U.S, these superweeds are resistant to Roundup herbicide have taken over ten million acres of farmland. One of the worst herbicide resistant superweeds, Palmer pigweed, had infested a million acres in North Carolina and half million in Georgia. More herbicides are needed to eradicate these superweeds and modify crops to be resistant to other herbicides which linked to reproductive developmental effects, cancer, endocrine disruption, liver and kidney damage (GOM Inside, 2012).
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As a result of rising debts in India, every three minutes a farmer commits suicide and this phenomenon has been rising since the 1970 and GM seeds appear to play a role. Cotton cultivation is well known for millennia among Indian farmers where they save their own cotton seeds from plants. When the hybrid seeds were introduced to the market in the 1970s, the farmers start to use them and had increased the yields, but this kind of seeds cannot be saved, so they need to buy them each year. The hybrid seeds require more costly herbicides which the Indian farmers cannot afford and therefore farmer suicides started in 1997. The suicide rate kept going up regardless a new herbicide resistant cotton seeds were arrived in 2002 with high yields and earning promises. These new seeds need more water than hybrid seeds and more fertilizers, so they need more expenses which the farmers cannot afford to. Their problems get more complicated when the rain failed to come and new kinds of pets destroyed the cotton crops (GOM Inside,
As a result of rising debts in India, every three minutes a farmer commits suicide and this phenomenon has been rising since the 1970 and GM seeds appear to play a role. Cotton cultivation is well known for millennia among Indian farmers where they save their own cotton seeds from plants. When the hybrid seeds were introduced to the market in the 1970s, the farmers start to use them and had increased the yields, but this kind of seeds cannot be saved, so they need to buy them each year. The hybrid seeds require more costly herbicides which the Indian farmers cannot afford and therefore farmer suicides started in 1997. The suicide rate kept going up regardless a new herbicide resistant cotton seeds were arrived in 2002 with high yields and earning promises. These new seeds need more water than hybrid seeds and more fertilizers, so they need more expenses which the farmers cannot afford to. Their problems get more complicated when the rain failed to come and new kinds of pets destroyed the cotton crops (GOM Inside,