The Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods

Should genetically engineered food be grown and sold?

Recently more and more foods that we buy from the supermarket are involved in the manipulation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) also known as genetic engineering or gene technology. but should genetic engineered food be sold to us the consumers even if we don’t know that it has been altered? Like every issue genetic engineering has its good points and it’s bad points. It is good for financial reasons, it would create more jobs, it could create better quality foods for lower prices and help solve world hunger but in the long run it could turn out a disaster, causing pollution, killing crops, animals or even us, is it such a good idea to play with gods creations? Only you could decide.

A lot of scientists believe that genetic engineering is a revolutionary brake through. With the use of gene technology it is possible to create a ‘perfect’ organism. Useful characteristics can be transferred from one species to another, this includes animals with plants and vice a versa. As a result it is possible to make foods with high resistance to whether, temperature, pesticides, etc. therefore crop quality and amount grown would increase. Another area of genetic technology involves inserting genes into plants to make them immune to common viruses, this could increase the crop production. If the crop production could be increased, food would become cheaper and easier to obtain. For economical reasons gene technology is better for the producers and consumers. The producers wouldn’t have to throw some crops away due to disease and weather damage, and we the consumers would get better quality foods for a smaller price.

More food could be created with the use of genetically engineering therefore solving some of the world hunger problem. The world has a population of 5.8 billion today. A lot of those people are starving because there is either not enough food in the area as it is too hard to grow or because the food is too expensive. Imagine growing vegetables in the dessert or having a crop that produces near perfect fruit at lower price. Gene technology could produce enough foods for everyone.

Genetic engineered food should be grown and sold in SA as it would create more jobs. Because a lot more scientists would be needed to modify DNA, therefore more institutions would need to be created to modify DNA, therefore construction workers would need to be hired, more people would need to learn about gene technology therefore more teachers would need to be hired to teach students.