Benefits Of Genetically Modified Food

What is genetically modified (GM) food? These are foods whose DNA have been artificially altered in some way to produce foods with unique qualities not found in nature. For example, onions that don’t make you cry when they are cut. Whenever you go to the grocery store or eat a restaurant, chances are you’re eating GM food without even knowing it. It’s in the ingredients we buy and fed to the animals we get our food from. What you may also be unaware of are the health and safety concerns, along with the lack of labeling identifying GM products. What’s more disconcerting is GM crops have the potential to change our ecosystem forever. This is a social issue that affects us all, because we all have to eat.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines genetically modified foods as: “foods [that are] derived from organisms whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified in a way that does not occur naturally, e.g. through the introduction of a gene from a different organism” (WHO, year). GM foods are constructed and distributed because there is some perceived advantage either to the producer or consumer. For a GM food to be of theoretical benefit to the consumer and society as a whole, it should: increase crop yields due to the introduced resistance to pests and disease, enhance the nutritional

Genetically modified crops are an incredibly important issue that everyone should be aware of since it is something we are exposed to at a daily basis. Genetically modified crops also known as GM crops or Biotech crops has been one of the most heated debates of issues within our society. The debate about the safety, concerns and disadvantages of GM crops have raged since the mid 1990 's but this is due to the lack of knowledge of the general public. Many people are unaware of what the GM crops actually are and what they offer. Genetically modified crops are plants that are used in the agriculture and have been modified to initiate a new trait to plants that does not happen naturally in the species. These plants are modified using genetic engineering techniques to enhance desired traits. GM crops are made when genes of commercial interest are transferred from one organism to another.() There are many methods used for the production of GM crops but the two primary used for plant insertion are gene guns and agrobacterium tumefaciens. There are also three types of modifications which are transgenic, cisgenic, and subgenic plants. However, there are a number of issues that surround this controversial topic such as environmental, health, and economic concerns. Even though there are some worrying facts about GM crops people don 't realize the advantages or the ways it has helped humans as well as animals. There are many reasons why GM crops are proven

Upwards of 75% of food grown in the United States is genetically modified. Meaning that there DNA has been changed to help a specific purpose. There has been a lot of controversy over GMO production. In Europe, GMOs have heavy restrictions or outright bans depending on the country; as of October 3rd, 19 countries have out right banned the cultivation of GMO products. GMO productions should have stricter restrictions with the U.S. government because the health consequences are largely unknown, GMO products are unlabeled and they pose a threat to farmers in their fight against large companies.

There is a general scientific agreement that food from genetically modified crops is not inherently riskier to human health than conventional food, but should be tested on a case-by-case basis.[138][139][140][141] No reports of ill effects have been proven in the human population from ingesting GM food.[138][142][143][144] Although labeling of GMO products in the marketplace is required in many countries, it is not required in the United States and no distinction between marketed GMO and non-GMO foods is recognized by the US FDA. In a May 2014 article

According to Library of Congress (n.d) compared to other countries, regulation of GMOs in the US is relatively favourable to their development. GMOs are an economically important component of the biotechnology industry, which now plays a significant role in the US economy. For example, the US is the world’s leading producer of genetically modified crops. This explains, why Monsanto Company makes more emphasis on improving their biotechnology and teach it to future generations, while EU establishes a strict monitoring of GM products for marketing in regard to the requirement of mandatory labelling rules. On the other hand, in the United States the issue of GMOs are promoted as a benefit for the population and the environment, while in the European Union, biotechnology has been viewed as a new process that requires large regulators by the European Food Safety Authority. It would be the reason because Syngenta's report is focusing on issues related to make crops more efficient and to help farmers meet new emissions requirements, to produce more food while reducing their environmental footprint.

However, these risks are purely speculative: 81 separate studies costing approximately $65 million have been conducted by the European Commission alone and have shown no evidence of any risk linked to GM foods (1). Indeed, the U.S. has concluded that the risk of GM crops is minimal. As a result, in the U.S., genetically altered crops accounted for 93% of planted soybeans and cotton and 86% of corn in 2009. (2). Considering the success and benefits of GM crops in America, developing countries have followed suit. In 2009, India planted 84,000 square kilometers of genetically modified cotton, and Brazil planted 214,000 square kilometers of GM soybeans, a 26% increase from the year before (3). Like the U.S., these countries conducted a risk-benefit analysis and concluded that the economic, health, and food surplus benefits of GM crops offset the unproven risks (4). Thus, agricultural biotechnology is being implemented in farming techniques throughout the world.

As the spread of commercialized genetically modified foods (GMF) products rise, the number of people exposed to genetically modified foods incline globally. The term genetically modified foods can be used interchangeably with transgenic foods, genetically engineered crops (GE) and Recombinant DNA technology and therefore defined as the enhancement of foods in which a gene of interest from one organism is extracted and inserted into the target organisms. (1) The genes of interest may be cells from bacteria, insects, animals, plants or viruses. Although the controversial idea seems fairly new genetically engineered crops were introduced as early as the 90s without the knowledge of most consumers. The United States leads as the top producer

“70 percent of our corn farmland and 93 percent of soy farmland are planted with crops genetically engineered to resist pests and herbicides and increase crop yields. 60% of all the processed foods in the United States are genetically modified; a shocking statistic has the concern of many Americans. However, most people are uninformed about the beneficial impact that genetically modified food has on their diet. GM is the use of molecular biology technology to modify the inherited structure of organisms. Genetically engineered crops increase nutrients, drought tolerance, provide more food for growing populations, and resists diseases and pesticides. Genetically engineered foods are crucial to the improvement of economy, agriculture, society, and health choices. The creation of GM foods was one of the most significant breakthroughs in food industry. Genetically modifying foods is a key component that is harmless for the enrichment of our foods.

GMFs, short for genetically modified foods, are a product of genetic engineering that makes a DNA sequence in an organism favorable and improved. GMFs impact the world in a plethora of ways including socioeconomic and cultural ways in our local community and the individual opinions of many people. These mutated foods have not only caused numerous advantages, but additionally have caused many disadvantages that can hurt not only the local community but the global community as a whole. While dealing with genetically engineering, scientists must be tentative by its utilization since many individuals have different opinions on it. Genetically modified foods have an important significance to this world altogether.

Genetic engineering is a controversial, powerful and the uprising topic in the field of biology. Genetic engineering is also refereed as recombinant DNA technology as it includes the alteration of genes in living organisms to get the results that favour human kind (NewScientist, 2006). The technology is used in agriculture, medicine and food sciences. Various kinds of genetic alterations are possible which include the inserting of genes of one specie to another to get the required traits and the unwanted traits can be removed by excluding the gene of that specific trait (Efsa, 2015). Transgenic organism produced in the

Genetically processed food are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially changed in a laboratory through genetic engineering. Science creates different combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. Genetically processed foods come from a branch of Food Science that seeks improvement for foods and food production. Genetically processed foods also tie in with industrial fermentation, cross breeding, plant cultures and genetic engineering. Genetic processed food all started in 1980 but has grew since then; genetic processed food have grew drastically. Many people have been have concerns about genetically processed foods; they are mostly concerned with the effects that these foods may have on their health, environment and more. Additionally there are disadvantages of genetically processed foods. Most people do not consider genetically processed foods to be safe. In more than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are big restriction on genetically processed foods. In the U.S., the government has approved genetically process food because studies shows they make a big profit from their sale. On the other hand, some Americans are taking matters into their own hands and choosing to opt out of the eating these food.

In addition, with the lack of regulatory measures taken by the FDA towards the GMO industries have shown a clear reason why GMO should be ban from the United State. In the article A Trip Around the Food

Society have been altering the genetic properties of organisms for centuries, over  all the standard of procreation techniques with the use of radiation and chemicals to generate random mutations, some of them turn out to be useful, for example Genetic Modified (GM) Foods. What is Genetically Modified (GM) Foods? GM foods are foods that are derived from organisms that have been genetically engineered. Also they are called genetically engineered (GE) or transgenic crops that are generally made of a genetic marker. GMO have an extensive  history. In reality, they have been around for thousands of years. So as it may be the conflict over their safety should not  be about even if they are safe for humans to consume or rather how they will impact long term. Even though Genetically Modified Foods (GMF) would increase food costs, these can improve yields for farmers, provide nutritional benefits, and help to alleviate the increasing global population of third world countries.

Did you know that the use of genetically modified foods is becoming more and more common all the time? It is even estimated that around 60-70 percent of all processed foods on the shelves today, contain GMO ingredients (Erdosh & Lusted, 2014, “Genetically Engineered Food…” section). Dr. Smith, a professor at Cornell believes that “the controversy over genetic engineering arises because the general population has little understanding of plant breeding and the process involved (Hibma, 2015, para. 9).” However, GMOs come with many advantages and these advantages are ones that anyone can look into themselves if they have questions. Some of the advantages include the fact that these crops have a stronger insect resistance, farmers can produce a larger crop, and these foods can provide greater health benefits.