What is genetically modified food?
Genetically Modified, or GM, food are food crops that have been genetically engineered to improve certain traits. These traits often include nutritional value, total crop yield, and resistance to certain pests. The types of GM crops currently being grown today include corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans. Although people don't often think about, GM food is all around us. For example, the common sweetner high fructose corn syrup uses genetically modified chemicals in its refinement.
How is genetically modified food created?
Before modern scientific advancements, the only way one could modify a plant's DNA was through selective breeding. This practice is still used today, but the use of genetic engineering is starting to gain popularity. Genetic engineering technology is very advanced and complex. Basically it involves going into a plant's DNA and replacing an unfavorable gene with the desired gene. Hopefully the gene will take and the DNA will be reproduced in the plant's cells, thus causing a new more genetically desirable plant.
Where is genetically modified food?
GM food is practically everywhere! According to the Human Genome Project website 53% of all GM food crops are grown in the United States, while the remaining percentage is distributed across industrial nations within South America, North America, and Asia. The rate of land devoted to growing GM foods in industrial nations is expected to taper off, but the use of GM foods within developing nations is projected to increase. This is probably due to GM foods being higher yield, thus providing more food for those who are desperately in need.
Why is genetically modified food grown?
The main reason GM food has become so prevalent is money. These crops have been engineered to be high yield and resistant to pests. This means that there is more harvest to be sold and consumed, thus providing more profits. Also using GM crops that bypass the maladies that effect a harvest, such as disease or infestation, makes the process of growing the food more efficient.
Also there is a more socially conscious motive to using GM foods. Since GM crops often produce more product per acre, there is an opportunity to feed more people with less land. In the age of global poverty and increasing world population, food supplies are a big question. GM foods may provide the answer.
Frankenfood or the Green Revolution?: The Great Debate
There is conflict about the use of GM foods in today's society. Those who espouse the use of GM foods list its benefits such as:
- Improved taste and nutritional value.
- Higher crop yield.
- "Environmentally friendly" bioherbicides and biopesticides.
The other side of the argument lists a number of drawbacks to the use of GM foods:
- It goes against the natural process of nature.
- Potential health impacts such as allergens.
- Environmental impacts such as decreased biodiversity, cross pollination with other species, and its unknown effects on other organisms within the ecosystem.
