genetically modified foods - boon or bane

8/16/2019 Genetically Modified Foods - Boon or Bane

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Genetically Modified Foods –Boon or Bane

In this era of Globalisation, a large mass of human population sleeps hungry every

day. Food crisis is one of the biggest problems prevailing in the world today, which calls for

help for better and more food. For years, scientists have studied, researched and

experimented on various living organisms trying to find a solution to the problem of food.

Mutation and evolution are two such processes which although occur naturally, have been

used by scientists with an intention to gradually shape and modify the plants around them,

making them more resistant to pests and also improve productivity, nutritional values and

taste. These methods led to the innovation of the Genetically Modified Food or GMF.

!", which is considered as the ‘#lueprint of $ife’, is a ‘double%helix’structured

molecule which looks like a twisted ladder connected by base pairs. &arts of the !"

contain genes which are specific se'uences that code for different proteins through the

process of transcription and translation. These proteins are responsible for the specific

traits in an organism. Mutation is a natural process by which the Gene se'uences in the

!" is altered and a new trait is introduced in the organism.

GMF uses a very simple idea of altering the gene se'uence in the !" to code for

proteins to gain desirable traits in plants. This process of Mutating a plant is in the field of

genetic engineering. Gene transfer technology is simply a sophisticated version of a cut%

and%paste operation of desirable genes. (nce the desired gene is identified in the native

organism)s genome, it can be cut out, transferred to the target plant, and pasted into its

genome. The gene can be transferred to the target genome through several methods. This

genome replicates and grows into a plant with the specific traits present in it.


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&apayas in the *awaiian islands had a very big problem of the &+- &apaya

+ing%pot -irus/ disease that caused the fruits to deform and caused the plant to not

produce food at all. To solve the problem, researchers tried mutating a papaya plant with

an &+- resistant gene so that the plant would be able produce the anti%bodies on its own

and would also be able to fight against the virus itself. cientists removed the &+- gene

from the &+- spreading organism and replaced it with a &+- resistant gene. "s soon

as the resistant gene had entered the plant body, &apaya plants were able to produce

proteins to protect them from the virus.

(ur ability to manipulate plants by introducing new genes promises innovative

solutions to many real%world food problems. (ne such problem could be, 0

1For a broken down farmer, for whom paying for pesticides to keep his plants healthy is

going through the roof, GMFs can be the perfect solution. cientists have developed

plants with genes of high pest resistivity that protect the plants from pests thereby reducing

the amount of money spent on pesticides1. Therefore, in this case GMFs can prove to be a

good solution the farmers and further the world as a whole.

These methods give humans the power to destroy, modify or create any trait or

characteristic in an organism as per their own needs. (ne of the most common examples

is the GMF Tomato which grows faster, is believed to be pest%resistant and produces 2uicy

red tomatoes throughout the year.


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The GMFs can prove to be helpful in some situations but skeptics argue that they

cannot survive in the long run. 1Mutation and evolution are both natural processes which

are now been accelerated to a large extent through artificial mutations by scientists

worldwide. !ature is a balanced combination of all the elements that exist within or with it.

3henever an action is done which disturbs the natural balance, nature tries to alter other

things to balance itself again. 1 keptics argue against GMFs using this point and claim

that artificial mutations can become a threat to humanity as well as all other species on

4arth as the mutation of other animals and plants can one day change humans also.

3hen we eat food, the mutated protein in the organism would enter our body ultimately

mutating us. 4ven if it is not able to affect us, humans would still become carriers of the

proteins making it sure that one day humans would have a different shape. 4vidence has

been found in the 5 and parts of "frica where it has been scientifically proven that the

pesticides developed inside a GMF, are also activated in the bowel and intestines of

humans and other animals when consumed. These pesticides cause many gastro%

intestinal problems in humans causing extreme pain and sometimes even death. The

number of cases of gastro%intestinal have increased many folds after the introduction of

GMFs in the 6778

"ll that nature has in itself, is for some good. keptics argue that mutating plants

might make them pest resistant but it would create more bigger problems. Mutating plants

and crops would replace their natural immunity to the artificial immunity. If in the future a

virus appears whose only cure is in an un%mutated species of a plant, the mutated variety

will not be able to survive and even if it does, it would become a carrier of the virus and

affect us indirectly.


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In India, farmer suicide rates have been constantly rising and some skeptics blame

GMFs to be the reason behind the suicide. "s per "lakananda !ag, author of a

documentary on Indian farmers’suicides, the farmers take loan from the money lenders

and banks with an expectation of getting higher yields but end up committing suicide due

to poor yields. #T cotton has not been as successful in India as expected initially as has

been in news for farmers suicide.

ue to all these negative drawbacks to the GM(s, I believe that GM(s can be

considered as a threat to all life on earth not only for its negative health syndrome, but also

for the economy of a country. "ccording to a famous consumer activist and advocate

against genetically modified foods 9effery M mith, 1GMFs are no better than the ordinary

organic food produce. It has no extra nutritional values, does not grow faster and also not

much productive. GMFs have not fulfilled any promises that it had promised.1 "ccording to

this it can be concluded that countries are basically paying more for nothing extra. This

affects the economy of a country and due to this many countries like +ussia, France and

Germany have banned GMFs to be produced in their countries.


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"ll the facts mentioned above are the evidence of the fact that Genetically modified

foods are not very advanced types of foods to be considered far much better than the

organic variety of food produce. They only pose to stand as another threat to all life on

earth and a threat to the economy of various countries in the world. &ersonally I believe

that there are many other solutions to global problems such as hunger crisis. "dvanced

farming techni'ues such as *ydroponics can prove to be a better solution to the problem.

*ydroponics is a science of agriculture in which plants are grown on a bed of water and no

soil is used. This method has proved to multiply the amount produce many folds and also

makes the plant highly resistant to pests. "lso, the produce is 6::; organic and contains

no proteins which might affect the future generation. Therefore, it can be said that GM(s

are a bane to the world more than a boon.

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