Every single day we enjoy having meals but, many of the things we eat have been genetically modified. Undoubtedly, many people believe that growing genetically modified crops is damaging mankind's way of life but growing genetically modified crops might just be the way to improve our lives. Let’s examine the evidence.
First, what is a GMO? A genetically modified organism or GMO is an organism or crop that has had its characteristics changed through genetic engineering of their DNA. But, why would it benefit us to genetically modify crops?
GM crops could improve our health by hand-picking vitamin-rich crops and intertwining them with DNA of a common food such as rice. As a result, people in dire need of vitamins such as vitamin c would get it in only one spoonful of that rice.
However, GM crops raise a potential threat. What would happen if someone were to accidentally or intentionally insert a gene that is harmful to humans in a common fruit that would be distributed in stores? Without a doubt, this would be a very big atrocious problem but to ensure that this does not happen we would need to check every genetically modified food for hazards.
On the other hand, GM crops would help humans by reducing food wastage and ensuring that the status of all of the crops is in prime condition resulting in less food being disposed of. Every year many crops are lost due to insect infestation. But with GMOs, we will be able to genetically engineer genes from insect repellent plants such as marigolds and add them to crops causing the insect to die if it ate the plant. The same method could also be used to receive thriving crops no matter where we live. Farmers throw away an estimated 40 to 50 percent of their crops due to the environmental conditions or undesirable flavour such as bitterness. Thanks to GMO technology, scientists combine sweet genes from crops with bitter ones, making them tastier and as a result, reducing the amount farmers throw away. This can also, address shortages in places where food is scarce. Also, scientists predict that by the year 2050 there will be a need for food for over 10 million people.
Furthermore, global warming is a huge problem that will affect humanity if people do not do something about it. Unfortunately, humans are creating more CO2 than plants can process, so by creating a genetically enhanced plant that takes in a large amount of CO2 society could stop global warming for good. In conclusion, the advantages of genetically modified crops outweigh the disadvantages to society. Therefore, with careful management and enforcement of laws GMO’s can benefit mankind and reduce human impact on the environment.
