A topic that often comes up in my
house is genetically modified food. My sister has a kidney problem that my mom
is convinced is because of the genetic modification in food. Now, my fridge
looks like a farmers market. Any sort of chemically enhanced substance is gone,
including dairy. But, the effects of genetic modification of food are
relatively unknown at this point. The real question is, is genetically modified
food more harmful or helpful to society?
There
are two main benefits to genetically modified food. Crops can withstand more,
making them resistant to certain pests and natural causes of decay. This means
that more food can grow, which helps with the major issue of world hunger. The
more food there is, the more mouths we can feed (in theory). But, since
genetically modifying food is a relatively new practice, the FDA has no
genetically modified food safety testing requirements. Many people believe that
the genetic modifications are allowed because they have been through rigorous
testing. This is actually not true. Many of the ingredients on the back of food
labels are almost impossible to pronounce. This is what many anti genetically
modified food groups avoid. If you don’t know how to pronounce an ingredient,
you shouldn’t be eating it. If your food can go longer than a year looking the
same as the day it was made, you shouldn’t be eating it.
I
feel that this issue needs a lot more scientific research before being decided
on. From what I’ve read, the research mostly leads to correlations between genetically
modified foods and health risks rather than causations. I personally am in
between on this subject. I believe that it is unnatural for food like McDonald’s
hamburgers to have the lifespan they have, but also agree that some
modifications to food will overall help the issue of world hunger.
Sources:
http://chge.med.harvard.edu/topic/genetically-modified-foods
http://naturalrevolution.org/gmo-resources/the-good-bad-and-ugly-about-gmos/
Very interesting post! I believe that genetically modified foods have the potential to solve many hunger problems around the globe. The food is pest resistant, tastes better and has the correct amount of nutrients vital to the human body. Genetically modified food also provides us with certain foods all throughout the year where as the natural one would have been available only seasonally like strawberries etc. I do agree on your point about the lack of research on this subject. There is still a lot of innovation and research required on genetically modified food. Governments need to make new laws and regulations regarding its testing and safety standards. Unfortunately this technology is beneficial to so many people already that it would not be pragmatic to discard the technology completely. We need to approach this problem carefully and ensure that we do not cause harm to the general health of the population as this technology progresses further.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/are-biotech-foods-safe-to-eat
I completely agree that there are pros and cons to both sides. Yes, genetically modified foods increase the amount of people we can feed, and since world hunger is such a problem nowadays, this point is very appealing to people. However, I personally do not trust the health benefits behind genetically modified foods. My family loves their organic and natural foods, therefore, I think it is very important to know what we are eating before potentially harming our bodies.
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be particularly interesting because of your first hand experience with your family avoiding GMOs. I think it is concerning that we generally don't know what we are putting into our bodies and as a result we don't know about the potential damage we are doing to ourselves. I also feel that in the U.S. we are ill-informed about GMOs relative to other countries that banned them, particularly in Europe. With that in mind, I think it is very possible that people will begin to pay closer attention to what they are eating in the coming years.
ReplyDeleteHere's an article I found to be pretty comprehensive at discussing potential consequences of GMOs:
http://naturalrevolution.org/gmo-resources/the-good-bad-and-ugly-about-gmos/
I agree with the haziness of genetically modified foods. There is always the problem of meeting the amount of food for our growing population, but what are the risks of meeting such demands. Like you said the health risks and benefits to genetically modified food is still up in the air and hasn't been through proper testing. It is always a positive when we reap better crops because they were able to withstand harsher weather or fight off the pests but what about the live animals that we inject hormones with and feed them grains rather than grass? Is it really ethical to speed up their life spans and cram them into spaces where they can hardly move all for the sake of cheaper meat? But as these issues come out in the light more and more research is being done, people will start to think more and more about just what they put into their bodies.
ReplyDelete