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Genetically Modified Food and Traditional Crossbreeding Essay

Decent Essays

When hearing the letters GMO combined, a plethora of seemingly synonymous words could come to mind, for example, immoral or evil. Even though GMOs are looked at notoriously, they hold the potential to help many people in different ways in all aspects of life.
As will be focused on, consumers and farmers of different types of agriculture are quick to judge the gradual introduction of GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, into the food we consume daily. What a large portion of these consumers are not aware of, however, are the benefits and potential benefits that GMOs can present to society should they be approved everywhere the benefits of the organisms would be of colossal help.
Before a side is picked between whether GMOs are …show more content…

(Farm Wars)
As the graph above shows, the amount of consumers developing cancer after ingesting genetically modified corn and soy has increased from its date of approval. Illness is an increasing problem with GM foods. “Genes inserted into GM soy, for example, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria living inside us, and that the toxic insecticide produced by GM corn was found in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses.” (Institute for Responsible Technology) Not only have illnesses skyrocketed, but now side effects are developing that were non-existent until
GM foods were introduced. “. . . irrespective of the type of genes that are inserted, the very process of creating a GM plant can result in massive collateral damage that produces new toxins, allergens, carcinogens, and nutritional deficiencies.” (Institute for Responsible Technology)

Also linked to illness is the use of herbicide. Many GMOs are created to be tolerant to the herbicides used to protect the crops against weeds. When engineered this way, an extra 383 million tons of herbicide is used on the crops. Most of this herbicide is of a brand called
Roundup, which “. . . is linked with sterility, hormone disruption, birth defects, and cancer.”
(Institute for Responsible Technology) As proven, GMOs present many horrifying problems to consumers. When seeing the facts, many may wonder if there are benefits. If so, what are those benefits? When it

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