The Advantages and Disadvantages of Genetically Modified Food

• GM crops are more productive and have a larger yield.

• Offer more nutritional value and better flavor.

• A possibility that they could eliminate allergy-causing properties in some foods.

• Inbuilt resistance to pests, weeds and disease.

• More capable of thriving in regions with poor soil or adverse climates.

• More environment friendly as they require less herbicides and pesticides.

• Foods are more resistant and stay ripe for longer so they can be shipped long distances or kept on shop shelves for longer periods.

• As more GM crops can be grown on relatively small parcels of land, GM crops are an answer to feeding growing world populations.

They further add that -

• GM foods are safe. Changing a few genes here and there does not make a crop toxic or dangerous.

• The meddling with nature argument made against GM foods doesn't hold water. There are many things that human beings have transformed to serve their purpose. Why pick on this?

• Scientists can choose which genes to manipulate, but they don't yet know where in the DNA to precisely insert these genes and they have no way of controlling gene expression. Genes don't work in isolation, changing a few could change the whole picture, with unpredictable and different effects under different circumstances.

• It is not correct to tout genetically modified food without evaluating the risks sufficiently. Or at least proving conclusively that there are no risks.

• Many GM companies don't label their foods as being GM foods. There is concern about a GM bias affecting business. But not labeling is wrong and unfair to the consumers who should have the right to know what they are buying and indeed to decide whether they want to buy GM food or not. Even if health safety factors are not an issue, some people might have moral or religious objections. They should not have to eat GM food if they don't want to.

• GM food will end food diversity if everyone starts growing the same standardized crops.

• Herbicide-resistant and pesticide-resistant crops could give rise to super-weeds and super-pests that would need newer, stronger chemicals to destroy them.

• GM crops could cross-pollinate with nearby non-GM plants and create ecological problems. If this were to happen with GM foods containing vaccines, antibiotics, contraceptives and so on, it would very well turn into a human health nightmare.

• The claim of ending world hunger with GM food is a false claim. World hunger is not caused by shortage of food production, but by sheer mismanagement, and lack of access to food brought about by various social, financial and political causes.

• The GM technology companies patent their crops and also engineer crops so that harvested grain germs are incapable of developing. This is not empowering to impoverished Third World farmers, who cannot save seeds for replanting and have to buy expensive seeds from the companies every time. The new technology also interferes with their traditional agricultural ways which may be more suited to their conditions.

• Instead of going for GM food, why not focus more on improving organic agricultural practices?

There are many more questions about genetically modified food that can only be answered through time, research and experience.