GM FOOD-Benefits and Risks of Genetically Modified Foods

BETTER FOR ENVIRONMENT?

FOR

• GM crops can be engineered to become herbicide-tolerant. This means that farmers can spray chemicals to kill adjacent weeds without harming the crop itself. Growing these GM crops can save time, as farmers can mass-spray the whole area.
• GM crops can help reduce our agricultural footprint. Some GM plants, such as Bt brinjal, carry the gene for producing a natural insecticide. Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium that kills insect larvae. The Bt gene is isolated in a laboratory, then transferred into brinjal, giving it an inbuilt insect repellent. Advocates say this doesn’t affect the brinjal plant in any other way, which means farmers don’t need to spray pesticide on it.

AGAINST
There are concerns about GMOs creeping beyond the farm on which they’re grown. A 2003 Canadian study found that non-GM canola crops had been contaminated with a herbicide-resistant gene from nearby GM canola crops. Gene spreading from one GMO into other closely related species could put conventional crop farms at risk.
Herbicide-tolerant GM plants could cause the spread of GM “superweeds” that are resistant to chemicals, and could lead to increased use of poisons. The use of herbicide-tolerant GM crops had led to a significant increase in chemical use in the US, according to a 2009 report issued by The Organic Center, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Center for Food Safety.

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THE EFFECT ON ANIMALS

FOR

• Advocates say GM crops are great for animal feed, because they’re much cheaper. In fact, it’s estimated that about 90% of animal feed worldwide contain GM ingredients.
• They also say that in the future gene technology could be used to help animals, including those we eat, become more resistant to common disease.

AGAINST

• Lobbyists are concerned that GM feed given to livestock could cause unknown health issues in them. For examples, cows fed GM growth hormones could suffer problems with their growth or metabolism.
• Not only do we not fully understand the effects of GM feed on animals, we’ve yet to discover how it could affect humans after we, in turn, consume meat or milk from GM-fed livestock.