Contamination & Economic Loss Many plants are pollinated by insects, birds or wind, allowing pollen from a GMO plant to move to neighboring fields or into the wild. This “genetic drift” illustrates the enormous difficulty in containing GMO technology.

List of Advantages of Genetically Modified Foods

• Insect Resistance. Some GMO foods have been modified to make them more resistant to insects and other pests.
• Stronger Crops.
• Larger Production.
• Environmental Protection.
• Extensive Protection for Crops.
• More Nutritious Foods.
• Decreased Use of Pesticides.
• More Income.

Genetically modified seed is slightly more expensive than conventional varieties, but costs much less to grow, so it has pushed up his profits.

Lowering the Price of Food Because they require fewer pesticides, land and water, GMOs help keep food production costs down resulting in lower prices for consumers. GM technology helps reduce the price of crops used for food, such as corn, soybeans and sugar beets by as much as 15-30%.

Domestic bananas have long since lost the seeds that allowed their wild ancestors to reproduce – if you eat a banana today, you’re eating a clone. Each banana plant is a genetic clone of a previous generation.

Scientists are using a mix of approaches to save the banana. A team in Australia has inserted a gene from wild bananas into the top commercial variety — known as the Cavendish — and are currently testing these modified bananas in field trials.

Top 10 Worst GMO Foods to Avoid Eating

• Corn One of the most prominent GMO foods, avoiding corn is a no-brainer.
• Soy Found in tofu, vegetarian products, soybean oil, soy flour, and numerous other products, soy is also modified to resist herbicides.
• Sugar Genetically-modified sugar beets were introduced to the U.S. market in 2009.

A few fresh fruits and vegetables are available in GMO varieties, including potatoes, summer squash, apples, and papayas. Although GMOs are in a lot of the foods we eat, most of the GMO crops grown in the United States are used for animal food.

Biofortification increases the nutritional value in crops. Golden rice is genetically modified in order to produce beta carotene, which is not normally produced in rice. Beta carotene is convereted into Vitamin A when metabolized by the human body.

In addition to France and Germany, other European countries that placed bans on the cultivation and sale of GMOs include Austria, Hungary, Greece, and Luxembourg.

GM foods currently available on the international market have passed safety assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.

One cause of European opposition to GMOs is that the advantage to agriculture and food production is often considered weak or non-existent, while the risks are considered substantial.

Five sets of ethical concerns have been raised about GM crops: potential harm to human health; potential damage to the environment; negative impact on traditional farming practice; excessive corporate dominance; and the ‘unnaturalness’ of the technology.

GE crops paired with their pesticide counterparts wreak havoc on the environment through: Increased herbicide use. Increase of herbicide-resistant weeds. The contamination of organic and conventional (non-GMO) crops.

One specific concern is the possibility for GMOs to negatively affect human health. This could result from differences in nutritional content, allergic response, or undesired side effects such as toxicity, organ damage, or gene transfer.

Why we are against GMOs

• Biodiversity. Where they are grown, GM crops occupy large surface areas and are linked to intensive monoculture systems that wipe out other crop and ecosystems.
• Toxic Crops, Toxic Land.
• Corporate Control.
• Threat to Small-Scale Farmers.
• Food Culture.
• Hunger.

One of the most often touted benefits of genetically engineered (GE) crops [more commonly referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs)] is that they are essential to feed the world’s growing population. If consumption trends continue, in order to feed that many people, we would need to grow one-third more food.

Genetically modified crops possessing genes from different species, could possibly relieve global food shortages. A few crop varieties, specially created through biotechnology, can improve yields, but biotechnology alone cannot solve the problem of hunger in the developing world.

About Genetically Engineered Foods Currently, up to 92% of U.S. corn is genetically engineered (GE), as are 94% of soybeans and 94% of cotton [1] (cottonseed oil is often used in food products).

In the United States there are 11 commercially available genetically modified crops in the United States: soybeans, corn (field and sweet), canola, cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, summer squash, papaya, apples and potatoes.

Genetically Engineered (GE) seeds were commercially introduced in the United States for major field crops in 1996, with adoption rates increasing rapidly in the years that followed. Currently, over 90 percent of U.S. corn, upland cotton, and soybeans are produced using GE varieties.

Most packaged foods contain ingredients derived from corn, soy, canola, and sugar beet — and the vast majority of those crops grown in North America are genetically modified.

Scientist often prefer the term ‘bioengineered’ to ‘GMO’, because it’s a little more specific. Typically, when people discuss GMO’s they’re referring to a specific type of genetic modification, where genes are added or silenced to change some important property of the crop.

In terms of acreage, the most commonly genetically modified crops are soybeans, corn, cotton, and canola as of 2019.

The top GM crop grown in 2015 was soybean (92.1 MHa), followed by maize (53.6 Mha), then cotton (24 Mha) and oilseed rape (canola) (8.5 Mha) (Figure 4).

Most soy grown in the United States is GMO soy. Most GMO soy is used for food for animals, predominantly poultry and livestock, and making soybean oil. It is also used as ingredients (lecithin, emulsifiers, and proteins) in processed foods. In 2018, GMO soybeans made up 94%7 of all soybeans planted.