Pros And Cons Of GMO

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A genetically modified organism or a GMO is classified as “an organism whose genetic material has been modified, especially by genetic engineering.”( http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/GMO ). GMOs are created by removing a gene from one organism purposely and moved or changed in order to improve or change another organism in the laboratory. There are two different ways of genetically modifying organisms, first is a called “Selective Breeding”, in which a plant with the desired trait is bred to produce more plants with that trait. The second way is through engineering by removing the desired gene from plant A and transferring that gene into plant B. Plants that are created in this manner are referred to as trans-genetic plants. This type of genetic engineering is generally preformed on crops in order to create insect and herbicide resistant. This type of production of GMO’s is not a new concept in the scientific community. For example, the genes from intestines of pigs are inserted into bacteria that then produce insulin that is purified and used (http://www.bt.ucsd.edu/gmo.html http://findourcommonground.com/food-facts/gmo-foods/).
Although both practices of genetic modification exist in the world today, they each have their benefits and drawbacks. In the breeding process plants will often exchange large, unregulated chunks of their genome, which leads to both useful and unwanted traits in the offspring Certain traits that these plants can pass on to their offspring are sometimes unsafe such as diseases that happen when certain genes cross. Breeding is also a very expensive and time consuming way to modify plant genes due to the fact that breeders sometimes have to cross many plants over many different generation to reach th...

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...be reclaimed. Genetically modified crops have cost the United States approximately $12 billion in agriculture, sales, and trans-genetic contamination (Kaye-Blake, W., O'Connell, A., & Lamb, C. (December 07, 2007). Potential market segments for genetically modified food: Results from cluster analysis. Agribusiness, 23,4, 567-582.).
The creation of genetically modified organisms is something that the world is just discovering and still attempting to explore its options and opportunities. Genetic modification is a useful tool in the fight to end world hunger, however, this tool is not yet fully developed and the long term affects of it are largely unknown. As this business continues to grow and become more prominent in the world’s food supply, genetic modification will become more common and more information will be known about the affects and the supply.

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