Down to GMOs
By: Chaitanya Kalathuru
What Are GMOs?
It is an organism whose genetic material is altered. Organism which have been modified include a variety of organisms such as bacteria, plants, fish, and mammals.
Drawbacks of GMOs on the Enviornment
Has many harsh effects towards the environment
- Studies show that GMOs are hazardous to rats; when soy and corn which were genetically modified were fed to animals it led to problems in the kidney and liver
- GMOs are transferring in unpredictable methods, and genes that were made from these GMOs could spread across animals which can cause changes in an animals genetics
- Genetically modified plants could breed with other plants which could cause new species to emerge, and this would cause problems for the animals who depend on plants
- GMOs could cause monoculture which is basically when one species of plants is dominant in a region and it would cause less biological diversity
- GMOs have caused more herbicides to be used and after a while the weeds become resistant to the herbicides causing them to be unstoppable
Drawbacks of GMOs on the Health
- GMOs have not been tested completely; the tests are usually 90 days and that is not sufficient time to prove if GMOs are good or bad for the human consumption
- Could cause allergies for people because GMOs contain novel proteins ad people could be allergic to one of the components of GMOs
- Sometimes, some GMOs could be safe while other could be not; each GMO has its own 50/50 chance of whether it is good or bad
Drawbacks of GMOs to Framers
- Some GMOs can be bad and farmers could be sued for the foods that they have grown
- Could cause monoculture and destroys biodiversity in a farm
- Some GMOs are expensive and some farmers can't afford them