GMOS (Genetically Modified Organisms) is the result of extracting DNA and genes from a specific organism and transfering it into another organism, creating a new enhanced organism. Many scientists and researchers around the world believe that GMOs have benifited society, but at the same time, research has also shown the negative sides that GMOs can cause on the worlds agriculture.
GM foods were first introduced in 1996 and soon after, reasearchers started to see numberous health problems in people. One of these studies shows that Americans with chronic illnesses(a persistent or long lasting disease that comes with time) increased from 7% to 13% within less than 10 years time. These studies let the media believe that although GM foods are much easier to manufacture and have many other advantages, they also have many risks which can lead to the increase of health problems. But the truth is, although many scientists see a change in people’s health, there has been no data showing that GMOs have a direct effect towards the health issues that people have been having.
Because of this, researchers began to do more research in GMOs on other negative affects it can have on society besides health issues. One issue in particular is GMO contamination. GMO contamination is when the genetically modified products affect non GM products organic products. One of the ways GMO contamination can occur is when seeds of a GM plants pollinate, they travel and can cross pollinate with organic organisms. Many believe that when GMO contamination occurs, it disrupts the gene pool, and this is a big deal to many people because after it is contaminated, there is no way to clean it. This directly affects the people. farmers in particular, as some of these farmers only grow organic vegetables.
One case of GMO contamination is when two neighboring farmers, one that produces GM foods, and another that grows organic foods, get their crops mixed up. The GM plants can pollinate and cross with the non gm plants of the neighboring farmer, and this ruins the farmers crops. A farmer named Steve got his vegetables contaminated by a neighboring farmer and proceeded by sueing them. Although GMO contamination is not a big problem for most people, it can definitely affect individuals such as farmers, and cause conflict, as seen above.
GM plants and crops are engineered to be more tolerant to herbicide which forces farmers to use additional, stronger herbicides to eliminate unwanted GM plants. In 2008, farmers in the US had sprayed an extra 383 million pounds of herbicide on GM plants. This harms the environment greatly as they harm birds, insects, the soil, and the ecosystem as a whole. For example, the crops sprayed with herbicide eliminated most habitat for monarch butterflies, which their population had gone down a whole 50% in the US.
The additional herbicide used also caused the GM foods to have higher toxicity in them which can increase the risk of cancer, as well as hormone disruption. The increase of herbicide use on the ‘stronger’ GM crops not only harms the environment and ecosystem, but may also have a slight effect of the health of the consumer.
Despite some of the negative effects that GMOs can bring, there are many positives. Many important foods such as com cannot reproduce without human aid (farmers) but GMOs are made in large numbers and increase the workload required from humans. For example, GM animals can be made to grow faster than the average animal, which decreases the amount of time and resources spent to shelter that animal.
The GM animals meat also has far higher resistance to diseases than normal animals. When animals have higher resistances to diseases, this eliminates many of the health risks of consuming meat, as well as reducing the amount of diseases caused from animals. A study has shown that there has been a significant decrease in diseases found in GM animals which reduced the amount of animal-caused diseases in humans.
GM products have also significantly benefited human health, for example, scientists have also improved the quality of milk in animals such as cows and goats. Goats in particular, produce a special anticoagulant in their milk which has a major benefit which reduces the probability of blood clots in humans during things like surgery. A study has shown that, “One genetically modified goat can produce the quantity of anticoagulant in a year equivalent to that obtained from 90,000 blood donations.” (Transgenic Organisms Article) This has substantially benefited human health and reduced the number of deaths during surgery. (The sale of GMOs have also greatly increased the world’s overall economy, they bring in 100 billion dollars a year)
In conclusion, despite both the positive and negative effects GMOs can bring, GMO definitely has a significant effect on todays agriculture. They benefited the economy (The sale of GMOs have also greatly increased the world’s overall economy, they bring in 100 billion dollars a year) health care, and much more.
