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Add to FavoritesGenetically modified organisms will benefit not only the world's poorest people, but everyone else as well. Already there are multiple results and expectations of loose bio-engineering that has produced, and will further produce, hybrid plants and animals. These hybrids, mainly created in plant species, have already done wonders for the world's food supply.
With the recent acceleration of bio-options, it is unfortunate that so many people around the world feel compelled to turn to the organic food line of thought and habit. There aren't many differences between the two except preparation, although many claim it to be healthier. The fact remains that though it was done through direct manipulation, many of those 'organic' plants are the result of genetic cross breeding of ages past. They are already modified plants. The only difference is the speed at which they are produced.
Currently, the largest crop necessity of the world is one of the primary focuses of genetic influencing. This crop is rice. The goal in the manipulation is producing a rice plant that survives both flooding and droughts, making it capable of producing without fail every year for the billions of people that rely on it. Hardier rice crops will greatly improve the quality of life for the world's poorest people that have a direct hand in growing it in the first place. Already the largest crop in the world, the ability to produce more at a possibly faster rate is more than welcomed. Besides that, crop rotation can be done at a much easier pace, because planted paddies are guaranteed to grow.
Additional strains of resistance-heightene d plants will also be developed with the ability for rapid growth, and many resist insects as well. Along with new types of animals, which require less nourishment to grow the same rate, people will find that their food supplies will only steadily increase. All of this will serve to supply a more constant source of food until the problems with water can be addressed as well. Once both water and the life that depends on it are managed equally, societies can start to move ahead.
As for the opposition to the genetically modified organisms - those people can choose to eat something else or grow their own foods. Just as long as the new foods don't have any negatives they carry with them, then there is no reason for just a few people to ruin progress for everyone.
Learn more about this author, Morgan Carlson.
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Disagree
The Biotech companies would like you to believe that this is true but it couldn't be further from the truth.
The genetically modified organism (GMO,) food seeds that the Biotech companies sell are not foods that are indigenous to third world nations, rather they are foods that are designed for export not local consumption. Moreover, the farming of GMO crops is not inexpensive which actually leads to an increase in hunger and starvation to these poorest of poor. The cycle of a family farmer growing indigenous food for his family and local people is broken and now the farmer is growing crops for cash to pay for food that is brought in from somewhere else at a higher cost. In the meantime the local people are not being nourished by those locally grown GMO foods.
Biotech companies implement a genetic engineering technique called "terminator" technology that renders a crop's seed sterile, making it impossible for farmers to save seed for replanting. Farmers not only cannot save seeds for planting the following year (even if they could, to do so would break their contract with the biotech company and the farmer would be subject to stiff financial penalties and/or litigation,) but they must also return year after year to the company to purchase expensive new seed. Half the world's farmers save seed to produce food that 1.4 billion people rely on for daily nutrition. This is nuts!
Biotech companies have only one thing on their agenda and that is to make money. The process, in which they do so in my opinion, is underhanded and quite frightening. They are seeking to "own" the world's food supply, and by infusing GMO crops into the supply, they are also contaminating it.
Hunger is a social and poverty problem due to unequal distribution of food on a global level. This is mainly a logistical problem not a shortage of food problem.
The United States has such a glut of food. We regularly dump food on a daily basis simply because we don't have a system to salvage this resource.
Right here in southern California, I volunteer for a non-profit organization, Food Finders, whose sole purpose is to rescue surplus food from grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, etc and distribute it to other non-profit social service agencies in the area. The number of pounds saved from being thrown out every year from this one agency is astounding. Since 1989 over 50 million pounds of surplus food to date has been distributed.
If we are serious about feeding the world's poor, then we should think about how we can distribute to them food we already have and address specific needs of those nations that are unable to grow their own food.
Learn more about this author, Maria Weston.
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