Preview

Genetically Modified Foods Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1289 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Genetically Modified Foods Research Paper
Genetic Modified food: Benefit or Detriment?

The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation
…show more content…
This means that the farmers will depend on the companies, and the production of agriculture products will be in some way monopolized. Only 1% of GM research is aimed at crops used by poor farmers in poor countries. It can cost up to 200 million dollars and 12 years to develop a GM crop, and that cost has to be recouped by selling to farmers who can pay for it. The price of the food will increase, poor countries will suffer the consequences, and the hunger will still be there (Hazards 1). A good example that proves this is Argentina. This country is in second place of GM production and is the only developing country producing genetically engineering crops on a large scale. All this production is exported to foreign countries while millions of Argentineans are suffering hunger. Instead of focusing on risky technologies, all that money used should be directed to giving poor people land, credit, resources, and markets so they can feed themselves and sell their surplus crops ("Feeding the World" 1). There are four multinationals that control the seed market. Monsanto, Syngenta Bayer CropScience, and Dupont, but about 91 % of all GM crops grown in the world are from Monstanto (Brown 1). This shows that GM crops are more likely to benefit rich corporations than poor

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Miss

    • 8881 Words
    • 29 Pages

    With changes from the cereal companies and informed consumers it is very likely that this upswing seen in the purchase of non-GMO can be described as a movement of the future of the food industry as well as the seed companies Psychological Effects Acceptance of GMO Some people believe that tampering with nature is intrinsically wrong, and others maintain that inserting plant genes in animals, or vice versa, is immoral. When it comes to genetically modified foods, those who feel strongly that the development of GMOs is against nature or religion have called for clear labeling rules so they can make informed selections when choosing which items to purchase. Respect for consumer choice and assumed risk is as important as having safeguards to prevent mixing of genetically modified products with non-genetically modified foods. In order to determine the requirements for such safeguards, there must be a definitive assessment of what constitutes a GMO and universal agreement on how products should be labeled.…

    • 8881 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever heard about the term of genetically-modified foods (GM foods)? Or have you ever seen this kind of foods, like GM tomatoes, in the market? GM foods are the foods that contain the genes transferred from other plant or non-plant organisms. It might be the most controversial topic in the world now. In the article “The False Promise of GMOs”, Joe Pedretti wrote about the argument about the GM foods.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Many opponents of genetically modified foods doubt the safety of those artificial foods. They are the products of people’s intelligence and creativeness, but compared to the eternal law of the nature, human knowledge is not always right. People make mistakes, and sometimes they do not notice about these mistakes until the problems arise. Though developers and manufacturers make sure that there are various advantages of consuming genetically modified foods, due to the potential genetic defects or problems in these foods, they may still damage humans' bodies and undermine the environment. Regarding their benefits such as variation of food choice and the decrease of the cost of food production, genetically modified foods do bring improvements to our…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been debates about GMO’s for decades. While farmers fight for their land and the continuance to produce, farmers were given the option to plant seeds that are genetically modified. The seeds in turn would grow more crops and last longer. The compulsion on the farmers to make ample crops and try to help world hunger would not just cost more for them, but it can also cause lack of trust between the suppliers and the consumers that in turn can lead to law suits, as well.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gmos Research Paper

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “We are what we eat.” Everyone has heard this famous quote or a variation of it, but what do we actually eat? Over the past years a new type of food called Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) has flooded the food market. This new type of food is designed to better resist the climate and to contain more vitamins and minerals for the consumer, yet the debate is still ongoing: are GMOs harmful or helpful? The following text will present both sides of the argument: the GMOs activists and the anti-GMOs activists’ views. Then I will explain why I support the GMOs activists.…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Over the past decade, there has been an outcry over the genetically modified (GM) food industry in America. Some believe that farmers are being forced to use only GM seeds instead of conventional ones. Others claim that GM seeds could have unforeseen effects on wildlife. Still most are criticizing our government’s food safety standards and feel there may be health risks on the people who consume GM foods. Concerns like these and many more regarding GM seeds and foods are being asked by many people. I’m going to discuss the truth about GM seeds and foods and open your eyes to the real effect this industry has on our farmers, the environment, and most of all, our health.…

    • 1725 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pro Gmo Research Paper

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages

    According to Elizabeth Weise of USA today, “in the United States today a huge proportion of the most commonly grown commodity crops are genetically engineered: 95% of the nation's sugar beets, 94% of the soybeans, 90% of the cotton and 88% of the feed corn, according to the 2011 International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications report” (2012). This shows how the United States is slowly moving more and more towards the usage of genetically engineered crops. This is due to the fact that scientist are able to enhance different parts of the crop in order to tailor it to specific needs such as ideal climate, the amount of water it needs to consume, or the amount of crop one seed makes. GMOs allow scientist to tinker with the DNA of a specific organism so that the crop can be made more effectively. Not only that, but when looking at the genetically modified seeds, the alterations made to its genomic sequence could garner better crop yields. This could produce a healthier crop as well as reduce the amount of crop failure. This could also lead to better nutritional value of food. By engineering such foods, scientist are able to enhance the amount of vitamins and minerals that are inside of the crop itself. This could yield the first batch of super foods that can help fight many different ailments (Mandel, 2015). The uses of GMOs are boundless as scientist can change…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In today’s day and age, it seems like technology is getting more advanced by the day. Because of this technology, many high income countries such as America now have the ability to mass produce food as well as to genetically modify it to enhance the size, flavor, and appearance. While mass production of food may sound like an easy solution to sustain the constantly increasing global population, many people do not appreciate how dependent food production is on technology, and are posing arguments against the mass production of food while searching for all natural, organic, and locally grown alternatives. In The Eater Reader, it is made very clear that feelings toward this use of technology are very mixed. Some of the authors such as Hannah Wallace and Jamey Lionette argue that foods that are not tampered with and infused with chemicals are healthier for us and worth the extra time and money, while authors such as Mary Lebeau and James McWilliams favor the heavy usage of technology, praising its convenience and positive impact on the environment. While arguments can be made on both sides of the spectrum, the usage of technology to mass produce and make genetically modified organisms (GMOs) seems the most realistic as it satisfies the desires of the majority of Americans, helps to protect the environment, and enables food producers to sustain the increasing global population.…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Genetically modified (GM) foods, introduced to the American Public in 1996, involves taking the genes of the DNA of one plant or animal and transferring them to another species creating a new organism. Justification for this scientific manipulation revealed promises to eliminate world hunger, make plants resistant to pests and disease, and produce healthier foods. Agribusiness giants, like Monsanto, Bayer, and Syngenta include some of the companies first to bring products to the market. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took the stance, that it is the food producer responsible for assuring food safety. Companies producing GM foods ultimately regulate themselves. These companies kept their research secret and not available for public scrutiny. Insufficient data illustrate the need for ongoing exploration by independent scientists to deem the products safe for human consumption. Jeffrey M. Smith discussed these issues in his book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Geneically Engineered Foods.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The controversial issue of genetically modified foods, commonly known as GM’s, has only gained the attention of millions, since it became a prominent and highly debated global issue. Genetically modified foods are created when the genes of an organism are engineered and modified to create a new or enhanced version of that organism. The process of using different genes from different sources to genetically modify foods led to public outcry and sometimes, praise. People in support of genetically modified foods claims it will enhance the quality of the food, improve the food’s resistance to pests and other harmful elements, lower food costs, and also increase food security for the future. However, those opposed to genetically modified foods claim…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gmo Foods Research Paper

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When shoppers are shopping in the grocery store they normally just grab and go, no longer does the American society look at the ingredients, however, what the average American doesn’t realize is what is in their food. GMOs or known as genetically modified organisms, in plain English this is saying that they are recreating (cloning) our foods that this society and many others eat without knowing it. GMOs don’t make sense. Some may say that, “What is the difference between GMO food and non-GMO food?” but what one may not know are the risk of the unnatural food that this is. Something that hasn’t been told to the public is that GMOs are our foods. GMOs are horribly saturated in chemicals, they are unknown in foods,…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It’s been said that humans are what they eat. The relationship humans have with food is unappreciated. Food is the fuel that keeps humans going, gives them the energy needed to be creative and productive; it is the building block of society, after all, it wasn’t until the Neolithic Era, when humans figured out a way to domesticate plants and animals, that any form of organized society formed. Even during the previous hunter-gatherer foraging era, humans were very connected to the food they ate; understanding where it came and having an idea of how it came to be was crucial to knowing what was vital to survive. In this time, food sources like grains, fruits, and vegetables were naturally abundant, whole. Humans could choose between many different types of nutritious food because there were thousands of varieties of species. Unfortunately, as populations grew and more civilized societies formed, various farming techniques were created, and a vast majority of these species became extinct to make way for the harvesting of a select few (Pringle). In the industrial era, societies around the world, especially western ones, emphasized the importance of technological advancements. With this pursuit of technology, nature became something to control rather than live with; an attempt at making life simpler, better. Breaching the gap between nature and technology is optimization. It is this obsession with optimization that most accurately characterizes contemporary America. Undoubtedly, it comes with great costs. As it turns out, optimization is a business, and a profitable one. Thus, the costs and effects of optimization are often hidden from the public by industrial leaders in an effort to maintain profits. They control the businesses they run and protect themselves by dumping millions of dollars into politics. Today, it seems that the gap between nature and technology has been breached with the propagation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The aliens that now fill…

    • 4564 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modified and engineered foods are highly debated yet often not clearly understood by the public. It can seem almost impossible to find trustworthy information on GM crops. Studies and scholarly articles can even elicit controversy. Many different terms can be tossed around, which is often confusing to someone not well versed in the vocabulary. We may hear, Genetically Engineered (GE) food or Genetically Modified Food (GMF) and although we may see the terms GM and GE used interchangeably, they are not one in the same. Genetic engineering refers to foods that have had their DNA altered by the insertion of genes from an unrelated species, to introduce new, desirable traits that would not otherwise happen in nature. Genetic…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pros & Cons of Gmos

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout history, scientific research and the exploration of new technologies have always been areas of extreme controversy and heated debate. This can be primarily attributed to the fact that they touch upon and affect many aspects of people’s lives, not to mention their direct interference with political, social and religious matters. One of the latest and most ferociously debated technologies, that the scientific community has offered humanity, is the technology of Genetically Modified Organisms and in particular genetically modified foods. A Genetically Modified food is crop plant modified in a laboratory using molecular biology techniques with the goal of producing an organism with specific traits for various reasons. It is therefore only logical, given its nature that such a practice would both raise some serious ethical and moral questions as well as propose very viable solutions to chronic problems the world faces today.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Drawbacks of GMO

    • 832 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Within recent years, genetic modified organism (GMO) has been the object of many policy and health care debates. The development of science and technology have critical role in improving human’s life. However, the negative side of technology intervention in all aspects of life is being proved more clearly day by day. Especially food safeties subject in which people pay the most their attention. So GMO what is a problem that does not only confirm the improvement of technology science but also show us the opposite sides of artificial product.…

    • 832 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays