Use of GMOs (1000 words)

Throughout history, for over 30,000 years, we have been selecting and
genetically modifying “good” traits that make animals or plants better and easily
cultivated. From classical breeding to genetically modifying organisms in the laboratory,
GMOs are slowly becoming realized as the endgame in the road of improvement of crop
and organisms. GMOs are the future, and the use of them will provide us even better
and more nutritional crops and products.

As the prevalence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) continues to rise in

the coming years, there has been an increasing public interest on knowing what they do
and information regarding the safety of these products. Concerns generally focus on
their effects on the environment and on the consumer, the possibility for GMOs to
negatively affect human health. As such scientists around the world have sought to test
the assertions of the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT) and others which
reported that rats fed a diet containing a GMO potato had virtually every organ system
adversely affected after just ten days of feeding.

To this end, many studies have found that when tested, many different types of
modifications in various crops have no plausible evidence that suggest that GMOs
cause organ toxicity or other adverse health effects. A research debunking this claim of
the IRT is a study carried out on a type of GMO potato that was genetically modified to
contain the bar gene, which is an enzyme that can detoxify herbicides and thus protect
the potato from herbicidal treatment. To see if this GMO potato would have any adverse
effects on the consumer, a group of scientist at the National Institute of Toxicological
Research in Seoul, Korea fed rats containing either GMO potato or non-GMO potato.
For each diet, they tracked male and female rats, and carefully analyzed their health
through a histopathological examination of tissues and organs after they died. The
examination showed no differences between the GMO-eating and non-GMO eating
animals. Researchers from South Dakota State University also aimed to discern
whether GMO crops affect fertility or embryos during gestation and once again used
rats. For the lifetime of not only one generation, but also three additional generations
the group monitored the toxic buildup overtime of GMO-eating rats. To this extent, the
group found no change in testicular health or litter sizes in any generation. Likewise,
ingestion by pregnant mothers had no effect in any of the stages of development of
offspring. Hundreds of studies have been made trying to make GMOs safer and more
reliable for human consumption and health, and through the years the technology has
advanced even further. The negative effects of this GMO products released to the
market are almost non-existent as they have undergone rigorous testing and peer
reviews. The GMOs available on the market are safe for human consumption and fears,
although not unfounded, are irrational and misinformed.
 The numbers of GMOs distributed in the market are a staggering amount, and
chances are, you’ve eaten GMO foods without even realizing it. In 2018 a section in
Agricultural Biotechnology by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) they stated
that around 92% of corn and 94% of soybeans grown in the US came from genetically
modified seeds. Many GMO crops, they also added, are used to make ingredients that
Americans eat such as cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil, soybean, and a few others. In
the Philippines the government has approved the use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn,
(Bt) talong/eggplant, and Golden Rice which was introduced to alleviate and as a way to
combat nutrient deficiency and malnutrition. Also in a database by the International
Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) there have been over
129 GMO crops that have been approved in Philippines. The distribution of GMOs are
continuing and increasing even more as discoveries are made, but the question
remains, are they a viable source of nutrition?

To answer the question of nutrition, let us discuss how these GMO crops are
made. Although complex, it generally follows a few basic steps: (1) Researchers identify
the genes they want; (2) Then they make copies of the genes in a lab; (3) Scientists
next insert the gene copies into the DNA of another plant’s cells; and (4) These modified
cells are then used to grow and cultivate a new plants which will then go through
various reviews and tests before being sold to farmers. GMOs are made better,
cheaper, and as an alternative and to quote Megan L. Norris, PhD. who is a biomedical
research at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, “GMOs are designed to be extra---
extra healthy, extra fast-growing, and extra resistant to weather or pests.” Alternative,
that is what GMOs are. They are an alternative to existing products and not the only
product to be, they are not a replacement but a variety. GMOs may have better pros
and lesser cons but that doesn’t mean that they are the only things that need to be
eaten. The question about nutrition is completely null and void. A person’s dietary aren’t
required to include GMOs. These crops, GMO or not, should be distributed in market
freely and fairly, sold to consumers in the market. GMOs may not have more nutritional
value but they are better in ways that may suite the environment someone is in, as such
why restrict their choices when an alternative completely solves their problems.

Changes are a natural course in the sciences. The changes GMOs have brought
are immense and they continue to grow their market size. Our future will be riddled with
GMOs and there is no stopping it. GMOs are becoming more and more mainstream,
and as they slowly trickle into our lives these products will continue to become even
better, more reliable, and safer. Modifying organisms to suite our needs have been
humanity’s take on playing God, and expect that it won’t stop. GMOs are the future of
genetics and the continued use of them will provide us even better products; it is a
change 30,000 years in the making and it has reached the tipping point.
Arguments made for GMOs are mainly focused on their cost-benefit, but people should
realize that GMOs are made to be a cheaper and better alternative to the current
mainstream product. Informing ourselves on their pros and cons will help in our decision
in which to choose, the GMO or the non-GMO. But, either way there is no stopping the
traction gained each year by GMOs; a major change is coming, not just in agricultural
biotechnology but in the entirety of biotechnology itself. Change whether we like it or not
are coming and the only choice we can make is acceptance and why wouldn’t we?