Pros and Cons of GMOs
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are foods that have been altered to produce a desired effect meant to benefit people in some way. While they have undergone testing and have been declared safe, there are still some serious drawbacks to the products. We stand by these beliefs. But if you don't want to take our opinion, look at the facts below and see for yourself whether you really think it's worth it to use GMOs.
Pros
Pros
- Better food quality and taste: Genetically modification allows scientist to change the taste of food. Examples are making corn sweeter, peppers spicier, pears taste more like apples and allowing fruit and vegetables to have a longer shelf-life. Studies on tomatoes have even showed that people prefer the genetically modified tomato over the non-genetically modified one.
- Fewer animal health problems: Genetic modification can result in animals that are resistant to diseases and can better withstand typical factory farm conditions.
- More efficient production of food: These modifications allow corn, one of the cheapest and most widely grown crops in the US to be grown even faster and without the use of many pesticides, which makes a lot of sense to the struggling farmer and also the wealthy farmer who wants to make even more. (below)
Cons
- Superbugs are created: The goal of pesticides is to kill all the bugs on the plants; however, there will at one point be a small percentage that survives and is immune to that pesticide. Over time, the bugs on the plants develop immunities too entire varieties of pesticides and pass these traits onto their offspring, which will eventually lead to a whole colony of pesticide-immune "superbugs".
- Cross-Pollination: Pollination between plants cannot always be monitored perfectly, which can sometimes lead to cross-pollination (basically breeding) between non-GMO plants and GMOs. This will lead to disputes when the farms sell their products to the markets, some of which will not accept GMOs. Then the conflict between whether an organic plant who may have cross-pollinated with a GM plant can be sold as organic or not.
- Health issues for animals and humans: While the FDA stated that there was no substantial difference, the long-term effect could be a development of allergies, toxins, or even new diseases. While tested on mice/rats, GMOs gave them liver problems from toxins, this may also show a danger to people as well. Also, GMOs led to sterility, death, and disease in the livestock of many European farmers.
- Small and large farm competition: Small farms are much more efficient in creating crops because they make much more food in the same space as a large corporate farm does. But due to the large corporate farms, the small ones are being beat out.
- No reuse of GM seeds: Due to the contract between companies who make the GM seeds and farmers, farmers are not allowed to use seeds from those of GMOs. Therefore, GMO growers must continually buy seeds, which in the end may not always be profitable.