The Greatest Challenge For Sustainable Development Goals

More than 1 billion people in the world right now are suffering from hunger. Food security is “the access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life,” as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. There are four points to food security, which are “availability, access, utilization, and stability.” When one or even all these points are missing, it is described as food insecurity. The rise of food prices in 2008 shocked and affected millions of people, many of whom were very poor. Because of the rise of food prices, there were protests and hunger was put at the top of the list, although it did not stay there. Science has to understand how to deal with hunger as the problem grows. Using scientific research and changing policies can have a huge impact on the issue of hunger. Population is

World hunger is a very serious issue in today’s world, that is very stunning in a world full of resources and food to feed the hungry. World hunger affects millions around the world. There are 795 million malnutritioned people around the world today. The good news is that hunger is a problem that can be solved. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone. Today’s knowledge, and willing people can just be enough to solve the main issue of world hunger.

When you hear the word "food" what does it make you think of? Does it make you think of hunting over grueling terrain for hours, sometimes days at a time? Does it make you think of forriging through leaves and bushes for nuts or roots? Unless you have been living as a wolf, these are probably not what you think of when you hear the word "food". Today, food is easier than ever to procure, as it should be. Thanks to thousands of years of advancements, food is nowhere near as hard to come by. We are still working towards a world where hunger is not a problem, and this problem is being solved through the practice of creating GMOs, or Genetically Modified Organisms. These are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated

One of the many pressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is zero hunger which aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. Hunger has struck so many lives throughout the world, but the struggle with hunger has progressed considerably over the past fifteen years(UN Sustainable Development). Worldwide, hunger has dwindled increasingly from 15 percent in 2002-2004 to only 11 percent according to the 2014-2016 figures. There are certain places that

In contrast, the counter argument claims that GMOs are unsafe for human consumption. However, GMOs actually improve human health by reducing the amount of pesticides needed for successful crop production. With the use of GMOs in crop production, the amount of pesticide and herbicide application has decreased. To resume, successful crop production is essential to a farmer’s success, which could be why over 18 million farmers throughout the world utilize GMOs. The successful production of crops can be achieved by genetically modifying crops with resistance against insects, weeds, and other threats. Resistance to different stressors has reduced pesticide applications by 8.1 percent. Additionally, crops that are modified to be resistant to specific

Worldwide hunger affects almost one billion people throughout the world. (“Nutrition”) Malnutrition that is caused by hunger is the main killer of people who

Monsanto is an American agrochemical corporation which manufactures pesticides and GMO crops. One of the most well recognized herbicides is Monsanto’s Roundup, which contains the carcinogen glyphosate. To prevent from killing the crops when farmers apply Roundup to their fields, Monsanto invented GMO versions of many staple crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton which resist Roundup. Like the weeds, these GMO crops still absorb glyphosate, however the crops are able to stay alive through changes in their genetic makeup which make them herbicide resistant. The herbicide tolerance of certain crops has been adopted because it, “simplifies weed control to the use of a single herbicide and a flexible and easy management strategy” (Labrada, 2003), as well as decreasing the cost of weed control programs. As a result, Monsanto bought out most small farms and now owns 80% of the U.S. market share of corn and 93% of the U.S. market share of soy, which are then sold to modern food processing. Upwards of 75% of the processed food on American supermarket shelves contain genetically engineered ingredients. Not only are Americans consuming massive amounts of GMOs, which pose a huge health risk themselves, they are also consuming massive amounts of glyphosate, a chemical known to cause cancer and birth defects (Kruger, 2014). If society stopped consuming carcinogens, the cancer epidemic will be

GMOs increase herbicide use. Most GM crops are engineered to be “herbicide tolerant”―the deadly weed killer. Between 1996 and 2008, US farmers sprayed an extra 383 million pounds of herbicide on GMOs (Cherry). Overuse of Roundup results in “superweeds,”

“We forget that we humans are animals, inextricably connected to the world and everything in it. In the rush to bring GMO food to the world because it was good for us, nobody had asked the question whether it would be good for the world.” ― Kenneth Eade, An Involuntary Spy. “In the year 1988 Scientists inserted genes into soybeans, ultimately creating what would become the most common GMO: glyphosate-tolerant soybeans. Making a crop that was resistant to herbicide made it much easier, and cheaper, for farmers to control weeds while producing high yields. Soon, other GMO seeds were developed — including potato, cotton, rice, sugar beets, sugarcane, and tomatoes — with the intention of making these crops resistant to insects, antibiotics, diseases,

One of our challenges today is figuring out how to address the dilemma of feeding our growing six billion population on Earth. GM crops are resistant to drought, insects, and pesticides which makes the crops grow bigger and better. They yield a higher amount of food per acre. Opponents of GM products believe that this sort of resistance, especially towards pesticides, is a very bad thing. They say we’re harming the good insects and that there’s a possibility for the crops to become immune to the herbicides meaning that both the crop and the people would suffer greatly. Although it is true that there is a possibility for crops to become immune to the herbicide, the scientists are working hard by integrating advances in both technology and genetics as a whole. There is no other way of meeting the needs of worldwide

In more recent years, the use of genetically modified (GM) crops to exploit engineered resistance to the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) has become "… one of the most quickly

One of the concerns with GM crops and food production is the effects it will have on the environment. Developing pesticide production and resistance to certain herbicides are one of the things researchers on focusing on. These developments will help farmers with food production. They will be able to use less chemicals and grow crops in unfavorable conditions (Losey, 1999). .

In the past ten years the world population exceeded six billion people with most of the growth occurring in the poorest, least developed countries in the world. The rapidly increasing population and the quickly declining amount of land are relative and the rate at which hunger is increasing rises with each passing year. We cannot afford to continue to expand our world population at such an alarming rate, for already we are suffering the consequences. Hunger has been a problem for our world for thousands of years. But now that we have the technology and knowledge to stamp it out, time is running short.

In in an interview done by Live Science Anne Yonkers said "We should be using the precautionary principle with GMOs, and assume that GMOs have to be demonstrated to be good rather than assume that they are good.” (Yonkers 5), modified crops accelerated the evolution in weeds at an incredible rate making them develop resistance faster. A common weed called Palmer that grows near soybeans evolved to be resistance to glyphosate an active ingredient in many weed killers such as Roundup. Do to how resistance this strain is it has spread to more than seventy-six countries and that is just the palmer weed; twenty-four other glyphosate resistant weeds have appeared in eight-teen different countries as well. Some farmers lose more than half their yield and while forcing others to go bankrupt cause of the massive money loss. With malnutrition being a very real problem can modified food be a possible solution?

Many varieties of genetically engineered crops have been designed to decrease the need for chemicals, particularly pesticides. Herbicide-tolerant varieties are among the most widely used type of genetically-modified crop, which enables farmers to use a single herbicide to eradicate weeds rather than rely on a cocktail of pesticides and herbicides. Eliminating weeds in this fashion also decreases the need for soil tillage, which can negatively impact soil ecology. (Ford,