A Brief Note On The Pros And Cons Of Genetically Modified Foods

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Did you know that over 90% of soy, cotton, canola, corn, and sugar beets sold in the United States have been genetically engineered. The most common thing that is different in the genetically engineered versions is they are resistant to to pests. They are either modified to produce a pesticide in their tissues or they are are modified to be resistant to a pesticide like Roundup. Other ways GM plants can be engineered is drought tolerance, disease resistance, be more nutritious, be resistant to hot and cold, and many other traits. Even though there are some pros to GMO 's there are also bad effects. Because of recent advance in technology, GM foods are easier than ever to create but do the negatives outweigh the benefits they can have? (Lallanilla) …show more content…
People that normally would not be allergic to the non GM food could be allergic to the genetically modified version because scientists insert genes from other organisms. The new gene in a crop like soy, produces a new protein that has never existed before. Since the farmers can spay more herbicide on GM crops, the increase in the chemical residues could cause health problems. “The only definitive test for allergies,” according to former FDA microbiologist Louis Pribyl, “is human consumption by affected peoples, which can have ethical considerations.” Do we really want to be the testers of the safety of GM food without knowing if we are even eating it. The UK is one of the few countries that does annual evaluations of food allergies. In 1999 soy allergies had gone up by 50% from the previous year. This happened soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK. Based on these results GM foods could be contributing the increasing number of allergies. …show more content…
Without bees we will not have any honey or pollination from them. Without pollination many most are not able to grow and reproduce. Farmers used 318 million pounds more pesticides since GM crops were introduced. All of the pesticides are bad for the environment because they kill both the bad and good insects. Since farmers can use a lot more pesticides than they could without GM crops, insects can become resistant to them creating super insects that can not be killed without a stronger pesticide that will cause even more damage to the environment and crops.

GM crops pose threats to the crops of nearby non-GMO farmers. Pollen can drift from the GM from to a nearby non-GMO crop and infecting it. This makes it even harder for farmers who try to make sure to do the right thing the make a profit. The farmers would not even know if their crop was infected because the only way to tell is chemical analysis. This means that farmers could be selling crops that they say are non-GMO but really aren 't. This could get the farmers in a lawsuit over false advertising and somehow someone found out or was genetically

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