Advantages and Disadvantages of Genetically Modified Crops (GMOS)
85Definition of Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs)
Before I go more in depth about the pros and cons of genetically modified crops, let me first give a definition of what genetically modified crops are.
Genetically modified crops (often abbreviated as GMOs) are simply crops, whose genetical material has been modified. There are two ways to do this:
- Traditional selection and breeding (much like breeding animals),
- Modern, scientific modification of the crops.
In this article, my strengths and weaknesses of genetically modified crops list will deal with the second, the scientific effects and applications.
Process of Genetically Modifying Crops
As the scope of this article is not to describe the detailed process of how GMOs are modified, I will just very briefly describe it.
First and foremost the genetic material of the two or more crops whose genetic property or properties will be mixed has to be fully mapped. The phrase "genetic mapping" means to have a full and exhaustive recorded knowledge of the genes, and the sequence of genes of the genetically mapped organism(s).
When each of the genes (and their functions) of the particular crops have been identified, they are then separated in a science lab. These genes are then cloned and injected into the sequence of genes embryonic form (sometimes to stem cells) of the recipient crop. Finally the seed of the modified crop is planted and grown in greenhouses through traditional methods.
Disadvantages of GMOs
- Harm to other organisms. For example genes and their effect included in a crop may turn out to be poisonous to insects (monarch butterfly poisoned by GMO corns).
Advantages of GMOs
- More informed customers, because they need to make more informed decisions in regard to nutrition, agriculture and science.
- Taste of GMOs are not as good or "natural".
- Less pesticide is needed to be used due to insect pest resistant plants.
- Cross-pollination with traditional, organic plants. Cross pollination can occur at quite large distances. New genes may also be included in the offspring of the traditional, organic crops miles away. This makes it difficult to distinguish which crop field is organic, and which is not, posing a problem to the proper labeling of non-GMO food products.
- More economically friendly as pesticides do not go into the air, soil, and water (especially freshwater supplies). Their production hazards to the environment also decreases.
- Decrease in costs of growing and farming, due to the reduced use of pesticides.
- Spread of new, more resistant "super weeds
- Higher crop yields.
- Spread of new, more resistant "super pests".
- Farmers have more income, which they could spend on such things as, for example, the education of their children.
- Major trading countries that obtain most of the benefit from the production and trade of genetically modified crops. This might cause more geopolitical conflicts.
- Less deforestation needed to feed the worlds growing population (UN projections say that the world population will reach 8.15 billion compared to 6.18 billion in year 2000). This decreases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which in turn slows global warming.
- New trade, tariff and quota issues may arise between countries, regions.
- Decrease in food prices due to lower costs and higher yield. As people in poor countries spend over half of their income on food alone, lower food prices mean an automatic reduction of poverty.
- Critics say GMOs may cause health problems.
- Less starvation in the world due to decreased food prices.
- More nutritious. This has been proven and tested many times.
- As the USA is the biggest producer of GMO crops, their exports may rouse more anti-American feeling, due to “Americanization” worldwide.
- Possible damages to the environment.
- Rigorous testing of ALL GMO crops and products. This makes GMOs much safer than organic (the traditional) crops.
- Possible greed of GMO manufacturing firms.
- Unharmonized test-, and safety standards around the world.
- ALL GMOs that are sold in the market, due to the strict tests. If the slightest chance of health hazard, a GMO is NOT allowed to enter the markets.
- GMOs are made because it is possible to make them, not because consumers feel their need.
- Strict and very complex standards that GMOs have to fully meet.
- More thoroughly understood crops due to the rigorous testing.
- Possible creation of new kinds of weapons; genetic food and beverage weapons.
- Scientific development of agriculture, health and related sciences due to the better understanding of the products. For example, the development of new medicines.
- Additional costs of labeling whether products are GMOs or not. This might increase costs of foods.
- Creation of “super foods” due to better knowledge. Super foods are types of food that are cheap to produce, grow fast in large quantities, highly nutritious.
- Widening corporate size gaps between food producing giants and smaller ones. This might cause a consolidation in the market: fewer competitors increase the risk of oligopolies, which might increase food prices.
- Larger companies might have more political power. They might be able to influence safety and health standards (example: less stringent regulations, standards and requirements).
- New products. For examples, scientist identified the gene responsible for caffeine in coffee beans; by excluding this gene, decaffeinated coffee beans can be grown naturally.
- Reduction of sicknesses and illnesses, as GMO crops are more nutritious. Vitamins and minerals can be provided to children and to people, where they were inaccessible before (i.e.: the world’s poorest and/or most secluded areas).
- Activists’ increased ability to boycott and influence food market, food retailing, and food prices.
- Unforeseen risks and dangers due to the complexity of nature.
- Allergies may become more intense, and also, new allergy types may develop.
- Developments of new kinds of crops that can be grown at extreme climates, for example, dry or freezing environments (like deserts). For example, scientist developed a type of tomato that grows in salty soil.
- Reduction of world starvation due to increased production.
- Discrepancies in information flow. GMO producers stress the benefits, but are reluctant to talk about risks and dangers.
What are Genetically Modified Foods?
Identifying Organic Foods
Fertilizers in Conventional vs. Organic Foods
- As more crops (plants) can be grown and at more places, this decreases global warming through the increase of oxygen in the environment, decreasing the proportion of carbon dioxide. Two British economists note in a study that GM crops have also made significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 10 million tonnes. This is equivalent to removing five million cars from the road every year. In effect this means that people would have to choose between growing GMOs and giving up their vehicles.
- Many Nobel Prize winners and prominent scientists support genetically modified crop research and production.
- Enhancement of the taste of food.
- Enhancement of the quality of food.
- Beside humans, livestock and animals are also beneficiaries to the higher nutritious value of GMO crops. They have an increased resistance, productivity, and hardiness.
- Enhancement of the smell of food.
- Decrease of maturation time of the plants, so they can be harvested sooner and more often during the year.
- With time, possible customization of food to meet personal preferences.
- Enhancement of the size of food.
Growth Hormones in Conventional vs. Organic Foods
- Higher resistance to diseases.
- Less processing needed in factories.
- Less factory additives needed.
- GMO crops last longer. This decreases the amount of wasted crops and foods.
- Reduced energy needs to produce GMO crops.
Antibiotics in Conventional vs. Organic Foods
- Less machinery requirements.
- Due to reduced costs of production, prices can be further reduced.
- Production of friendly bioherbicides and bioinsecticides through genetic engineering.
- Genetically modified plant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Genetic engineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Transgenesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Home Page . Home Page
- U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page
Home Page for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
What's your oppinion about GMOs
See results without voting- Less labor requirements.
- Experts estimate more than 1 trillion meals containing ingredients from biotech crops have been consumed over the last decade with no reliable documentation of any food safety issues for people or animals.
- Genetically modified foods and crops are recognized by experts and regulatory authorities worldwide as being as safe as crops and foods.
- People who are opposed to GMOs are not the farmers themselves, but people who can afford to buy food.
- The needs of some consumers for GMO-free products lead to non-GMO labeling issues.
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glyphosate environmentalists friend or fraud ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup
ohh man im dead:(
biased arguments
The opinion poll is inherently misleading, I support the research of GMOs but the consumption of said products is premature and currently detrimental to the health of people and animals.
Completely biased article! Just in format alone it looks biased, despite what is said, go back to tech-writing school.
oh so what can i do to prevent the spreading of G.M.O
so there are more benefit than its disadvantages but this invention of gmo its also not good for our health so i consider it as an bad substances.
So if you are a good person you must prevent the spreading of gmo because maybe in the future many people will die in this gmo.
I for one do not think that the taste of GMO products are superior to a fresh actual variety of the fruit. GMO's tend to just be ...slightly off flavor wise. And as for the nutritional value; I do not understand how "GMO crops are more nutritious and good for you" when the bacteria that they cross-strand with the veggie DNA to 'beef up' the defenses and antibiotics... only it has backfired, and is causing mass outbreaks. Like these recent staff infection mutated- something that could have been cured with simple normal antibiotics thirty someodd years ago before all this nonesense of fucking with our food's genetic coding.
the wording is SO biased!! The pros of this article are repetitive and it hardly does justice to the disadvantages. The best you can come up with is risk of food developed as weapons? What? Instead, how about risks of monocultures? It is lacking a lot of big issues. Not scientific.
I for one do not think that the taste of GMO products are superior to a fresh actual variety of the fruit. GMO's tend to just be ...slightly off flavor wise. And as for the nutritional value; I do not understand how "GMO crops are more nutritious and good for you" when the bacteria that they cross-strand with the veggie DNA to 'beef up' the defenses and antibiotics... only it has backfired, and is causing mass outbreaks. Like these recent staff infection mutated- something that could have been cured with simple normal antibiotics thirty someodd years ago before all this nonesense of fucking with our food's genetic coding.
L 3 months ago
the wording is SO biased!! The pros of this article are repetitive and it hardly does justice to the disadvantages. The best you can come up with is risk of food developed as weapons? What? Instead, how about risks of monocultures? It is lacking a lot of big issues. Not scientific.
I have ti say I disagree with the poster above. I think that the disadvantages have been rather overstated. Points like "more expensive because of more labelling" and "could lead people to invent weapons from them" are rather spurious to say the least!
I think it's fine for us in the west to sit and make things up about GM and sing the praises about organic food. However, where GM is likely to be most beneficial; the developing world, our constant pressure to stop GM spreading could cost lives. We don't want to be resposible for agricultural imperialism.
If you want to be "scientific" then paste a few scientific journals of GM studies. Metanalyses in particular.
If we modified rice to contain vitamin A, for instance, we could save around 100,000 people in the third world from going blind each year. Think about that before your next outburst of scientifically unfounded outrage about GM.
Personally after reading up on GMO, I think that is ok. Comparing the pros and cons the pros seem more effective than any of the cons. The disadvantages seem like they’re just superstitious people and are basing their accusations on pure opinions with no proof at all to confirm anything.
The advantages are repetitive.
I think Monsanto and the other big companies messing with millions of years of evolution are just playing God, which has never worked well for anyone. Besides, the use of GMOs hasn't reduced the amount of fertilizer and pesticides we use at all. And even if these modified plants were better, isn't it just begging for a massive bioterrorist attack?
We need to think long term. Mass-produced soybeans might be good for feeding us now, but it is depleting the soil. And corn to feed livestock is great for cheap meat, but it is causing terrible health problems, in people and the animals.
As a closing thought, there is a GM type of salmon that can eat corn. How would a wild salmon ever get corn to eat? Can anything that different from what nature intended really be good for us?
GO EAT A DICK YOU GODAMN HIPPIES!!!
GMC ARE FEEDING THE WORLD, INCLUDING THE STARVING IN AFRICA AND INDIA!!!
I REPEAT, GO EAT A DICK YOU GODAMN HIPPIES!!!
Lt. Hippyh8er: please use proper language.
I admit, I am more lenient towards supporting GMO, than being against it.
ok i'm guessing Genetically Modified organism but anyways...
Jess:
GMO is simply "Genetically Modified".
i suppose they dont hurt
nice article man and Jess every body knows that
Hey should I use Csanad for citation? when did u publish this? thanks
If scientists could completely understand GMO and perfect it, i feel that it could really prove the solution to many global problems. GMO will also eventually become necassary due to the growing population. Is it possible to perfect it?
Just because Monsanto puts herbicide INTO the DNA of plants to prevent pests from ruining their crops, as well as SPRAYING these pseudo crops (they aren't food as nature intended) with even more pesticides, then sure, no repercussions, right? Are you people that deluded?
It's already been PROVEN that gmo-fed sheep, pigs, have had higher rates of miscarriages, intestinal problems, and death amongst those who have ingested these poisons. Are our gastrointestinal tracts all that different? Are we so invincible to poisons? It also has been proven that lab mice, fed these gmo "foods" have had mutations in their litters, even with second generation mice doing weird things like having hair growth IN THEIR MOUTHS. Would you like to wake up to THAT or other nightmares like these?
GMOs are POISONS and were only allowed to exist because supreme court judge clarence thomas (a former monsanto attorney, by the way) pushed to OK the patenting of dna. SOOOOOOOOOOO, there goes the green light for monsanto to experiment on life to poison other life.
Are you still thinking gmos are a good idea???????? Humans have rarely ever IF EVER, come up with anything better than nature offers us. If anything, the hand of humans have messed up quite a lot. LET'S GET OFF THIS DOWNWARD SPIRAL, FOLKS. Grown your own (and hope the chemical trail planes don't poison your area; that's another topic you all can look up) and DEMAND THE LABELING OF GMOs in FOODS.
FROM MY LAST NOTE, I WOULD LIKE TO ADD.......
DEMAND LABELING OF GMO "FOODS" and then AVOID BUYING THEM, unless you don't mind being part of monsanto's experiment. For those who don't know, monsanto is the company who put into our society things like DDT, PCBs, Roundup killer spray, agent orange that they used in Viet Nam, as well as experimented on US soldiers without their knowledge. ARE YOU GOING TO TRUST A CORPORATION LIKE THAT WITH WHAT YOU EAT???????????? Support locally grown food, organically grown products (what you can afford), look at what you do eat and pick healthier choices while eliminating processed foods with tons of additives and food colorings and "natural flavors", high fructose corn syrup and other fake sugars like aspartame-poison, nutrasweet, equal, etc. gmos have already been detected in so-called natural cereals like kashi (they sold out to big corp., so with that goes food quality, unfortunately in many cases. Know what you are eating and remember that your health is your wealth. Keep it as healthy as you can.
I beleive people need to become informed for any advances in genetically modified food. There are some peopel that only talk based on little snipets they heard, not the whole story. Their ignorance can be rather annoying because they don't know what they talk about.
There are others who do thier research, learn about all the technical terms and understand what the issue is. These people are better to listen to becauase they understand what they are saying.
I beleive that genetically modified food can help because it will allow more produce yeild without taking up as much space and time. Due to this, we can feed more peopel, which will help since the population is increasing rapidly. In order for a copromise, labels should be placed on food that is genetically modified. Then it is up to the consumer on what they put in thier body. The labels will also help give information, as long as the company complies. If the company doesn't, well that's a legal matter.
I believe that genetically modified food should be researched more to enable further advances that will help the population and economy.
i am also against in GM foods.
look without GMCs some people would be worse off.
Lets get that cleared up
I support GMF
If some of you out there really think that "organic" food is the best option instead of conventional practices or GMO's...wow! You have been most definitely mis-led...just because it says organic doesn't me that it doesn't have a chemical put on it or fertilizer...and actually, some of the said "organic" chemicals are way worse for you than the chemicals we have today on the market...There is a place for GM crops...Look at the population explosion in the world...How the hell are we supposed to feed all of those people with fewer farmers and fewer acres? If you have the answer to that you have it figured out way better than I do or anyone else in the world does.
Also the monarch butterfly thing with the "killer pollen" was quietly disproven some years ago... They force fed the caterpillars BT pollen; it's actually avoided when found on milkweed leaves.
And the supersede thing is just bad. Crops are bad weeds, and making them resist pests or herbicides inst going to let them rule the world. Kudzu is organic, and if I was to pick a candidate for " most likely to kill us all" it would be that stuff if we allowed it to spread further than it already has. Same with cape ivy. Panic if it's organic
Superweed*
Also crops themselves are terrible monocultures if we expect to feed people. You till fourth species of grass to plant one; regardless if it's some organic, natural, rare, etc. type of grain.
And even if it's organic, the second you move plants to markets, those nutrients leave the soil, and you need organic, polluting Argentinean nitrates to bring it back, among other things.
And copper sulphate is bad. Bad. Its organic, and it actually slowly kills the plants it protects; ei apples from root fungus. And it doesn't leave the soil.
There would be plenty of food in the world if 80% of it was not going to feed livestock. To eat that 2nd hand protein, we are using up most of our grain, corn, fish and water to feed the livestock and then get only a fraction of the nutrition back out as food. Plus a bunch of waste product. The world has enough food, we are just wasting it.
I disagree with GMO hahahahahaha
so easy
Advantage: Enhancement of the taste of food.
Disadvantage: Taste of GMOs are not as good or "natural".
how are gmos healthier than organic? gmos have antibiotics in them to keep away germs...what if you keep eating gmos and your body finally becomes immune to them? then you get sick, buy some antibiotics and exect it to work and then there is no useful result because your body is resistant to anitibiotics!! gmos also have the potential of giving you cancer. once the chemicals enter your blood and build up, they can go to any part of your body and ruin it. stick to organic food...its safer
by the way, the advantages are redundant and mostly based off opinion
organic and natural food taste WAY better
GM foods actually arn't feeding the poor either. In fact, its making it more impossible. The reason being that GM foods are pricey, and it enlarges the line between the rich and poor. Where as the poor cannot afford the food more.
This is the U.S. so we all have are opinions and choices and should continue to be entitled to them. However, the last time I checked it is not the corporate right wing that are keeping children in third world countries from going blind eating vitamin enriched A rice, instead they continue to monopolize the market and continue to put American farmers out of business. If you are to lazy to research this just start by watching Food Inc. It is the democratic hippies and smaller agencies that contribute the most to third world country aid. So go install another gun rack on your rust bucket!
Why are people SOOOO STUPID??? GMO's are completely safe and there is NO SIGNIFACNET EVIDENCE about everything people say against them! Look at the BIOLOGY.
OH NO! How DARE people make foods MORE NUTRITIOUS! SCIENTISTS ARE OBVIOUSLY TRYING TO HURT EVERYBODY.
I hope those dumb enough to believe GMO's are bad can undertsnad my use of sarcasm.
SO GOOD.EXELLENT
I FAVOUR GMO. ADVANTAGES ARE MORE IMPRESSING THAN DISADVANTAGES.POINTS ARE VERY CLEAR.MORE ADVANCED THAN MANY OTHER ARTICLES I SEARCHED.VERY USEFUL FOR MY ASSINGMENT
First of all I thank the author for publishing such a nice article.I am a student of class 12 and the project which I have selected for biology is "genetically modified organisms".I have searched many other related sites for the same.but all the data which I got were vague but your article gave me a crystal cleared idea about the advantages and disadvantage of GMOs.I am sure that with this article I can complete my project successfully.I hope that this article will be useful in the same way as for me,for my friends and other students of the same age.
So I request you to publish more articles on different topics for students like me.It would be kind of you if you do as above for our benefit.If you publish it in a point wise presentation it will be useful for better understanding and to get a clear cut idea.It is only by such articles that we can complete our assignments successfully.
If I type more you may think I am exaggerating.So now I am concluding my words by once again thanking you
"HOPING FOR MORE SUCH ARTICLES.............,
JEWEL is signing out "
111jh1vji1hui1 2 years ago
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