The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. Food and water are fundamental to life. Both have been key drivers in our evolution as hunter gatherers. In order to make availability of food products to all, Genetically Modified Food was developed to overcome the short comings of the available food.
What is Genetically Modified food?
The terms genetically-modified (GM) or genetically-engineered (GE) foods and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular bio-genetic techniques which have made possible the direct manipulation of the genetic makeup of organisms. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. The enhancement of desired traits has been traditionally done through breeding as conventional plant breeding methods can be time consuming and are often unpredictable. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, can produce plants with the accurate desired trait rapidly and with great accuracy, by combining genes from different organisms known as recombinant DNA technology. For example, plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain drought tolerance as well. Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used.
Criticisms against genetically modified food
Environmental activists, religious organizations, public interest groups, professional associations and other scientists and government officials have all raised concerns about GM foods, and criticized agribusiness for pursuing profit without concern for potential hazards, and the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversight. Most concerns about GM foods fall into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns.
1. Environmental hazards
Among the most debated concerns of GMO organisms is the gene transfer to non-target species. Crop plants engineered for herbicide tolerance and weeds will inevitably cross-breed, resulting e.g. in the transfer of the herbicide resistance genes from the crops into the weeds. These “super weeds” would then be herbicide tolerant as well. In Oregon, scientists found GM bacterium meant to break down wood chips, corn stalks and lumber wastes to produce ethanol – with the post-process waste to be used as compost – rendered the soil sterile. It killed essential soil nutrients, robbing the soil of nitrogen and killed nitrogen capturing fungi.
2. Human health risks
Many children in the US and Europe have developed life-threatening allergies to Genetically Modified peanuts.. There is a possibility that introducing a gene into a plant may create a new allergen or cause an allergic reaction in susceptible individuals. Some of the harmful side effects after taking genetically modified food are as as follows:
a. Near-deaths and Food Allergy Reactions
GM corn Research studies independently show that the Farm workers exposed to genetically-modified Bt sprays exhibited extensive allergic reactions.
GM potatoes - A study showed genetically-modified potatoes expressing cod genes were allergenic.
GM peas- A decade-long study of GM peas was abandoned when it was discovered that they caused allergic lung damage in mice.
b. Direct Cancer and Degenerative Disease Links: In 1993, FDA approved Monsanto’s genetically-modified rBGH, a genetically-altered growth hormone that could be then injected into dairy cows to enhance milk production even though scientists warned that this resulted in an increase of IGF-1 which is a very potent chemical hormone that has been linked to a 2 1/2 to 4 times higher risk of human colorectal and breast cancer. Prostate cancer risk is considered equally serious – in the 2,8.to 4 times range.
c. Viral and Bacterial Illness: Viruses can mix with genes of other viruses and retroviruses such as HIV. This can give rise to more deadly viruses – and at rates higher than previously thought.
d. Antibiotic Threat Via Milk: Cows injected with rBGH have a much higher level of udder infections. Since this hormone causes infections, farmers will use more antibiotics that may eventually end up in the dairy products we consume. Even worse, labels do not warn of this growth hormone so many do not realize what they are consuming. The unacceptable levels of antibiotic residues in the milk can cause allergic reactions and weaken the effects of other antibiotics due to a growth in resistant bacteria.
Increased Food Allergies: The loss of biodiversity in our food supply has grown in parallel with the increase in food allergies.“Pesticide foods” have genes that produce a toxic pesticide inside the food’s cells. The food is engineered to produce their own built in pesticide in every cell which produces a poison that splits open a bug’s stomach and kills them when the bug tries to eat the plant. This represents the first time “cell-interior toxicity” is being sold for human consumption.
Lowered Nutrition: A study showed that certain GM foods have lower levels of vital nutrients – especially phytoestrogen compounds thought to protect the body from heart disease and cancer.
Economic concerns:
Bringing a GM food to market is a lengthy and costly process, and agri-biotech companies have patented genetic engineering technologies and genetic modified plants. Patent violation is a big concern of agribusiness. Yet consumers are worried that patenting will raise the price of seeds thus threatening small scale farmers in their subsistence.
Until genetically modified foods can be proved harmless to any organism that consumes them, they should not be grown in nature or mixed into the food we buy. Consumers are shopping blind, having absolutely no guess as to what might really be in the food they are eating as there are no proper labels. With all of the prospective problems surrounding genetically modified food, there is no acceptable reason to be growing, manufacturing or selling GM ingredients, especially without acknowledging them where they exist.
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