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Essay : Should We Be Afraid Of Gmos?

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Should We Be Afraid of GMOs? Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, is an organism whose genetic makeup has been modified through genetic engineering. The organism's DNA is slightly altered to either make it bigger, healthier, or even more resilient. GMOs could combat many of the worlds problems like world hunger and the use of harmful chemicals. One benefit of GMOs is that plants are made to be more insect resistant. Cotton, which is the world's fifth largest crop in market value, loses 15% due to insects. A bacterium in the soil, known as Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt, kills insects when it is digested by them. This is due to a certain protein that the bacteria produces disrupting the insects digestive system. This bacteria is sold …show more content…

One is the obvious reason that it just produces more food. The other, less obvious reason, is that with the rising population, we will have less land to use for farming. Genetically modified plants could even be engineered for something as simple as tasting better. One argument against the use of GM plants could be the fact that through pollination the genes could transfer to other plants. While this could be a legitimate problem scientists have already thought about this. They have created a certain property called a “terminator gene” which causes the second generation of seeds to be sterile (Genetic Use 1). This would prevent the genetically modified plant from spreading through the environment or into different crops. Genetically modified plant seeds can be patented and require a license. If GM plants are found on a farmer's field without a license that farmer could be fined. While this could lead some people to worry about GMOs, the terminator gene within the seeds makes the argument invalid, because there will never be that large of an amount of seeds from other farmers genetically modified crops. Another reason GM plants are a good thing is because they could be genetically engineered to last longer, which could help with shipping food to places where food is less abundant. An example of this, comes from Calgene's Flavr Savr tomato, which was created in 1994, that ripened and decomposed slower than a normal tomato (Genetically Modified Food

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