How Do Genetically Modified Foods Cause Hunger

There are many people all over Africa who go hungry every day. Many people come up

with different ways to help them with this problem of hunger; they go on mission trips, raise

money, or creating feeding programs in Africa. While these things do help them a lot it does not

seem to ever solve the problem of hunger. One of the best ways to help them, and to possibly

solve the hunger problem, is to help them help themselves. This could be as simple as getting

many of the farmers to farm genetically modified foods. African countries should start to use

genetically modified foods because they can improve the crop productivity, improve the

economy, and potentially create a healthier country.

One of the main purposes of genetically
modified foods is to increase crop productivity.

A major deficit of growing normal food in Africa is that there are often droughts because it is so

dry all the time. There have been many genetically modified plants that have recently been

designed to even grow in a time of drought. The American company Monsanto developed a

drought tolerant seed that they call Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) and is currently

being tested in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.
If it works as planned, it could feed around

21 million people in those counties. Another reason it is hard to grow much in Africa is because

of the many pests that ruin the crops. Scientists have created genetically modified plants

designed specifically to help prevent the pests from getting to them. Scientist can insert a

bacterium into a plant that will kill certain kinds of insects. Genetically modified foods could

certainly help the crop productivity in Africa.

Another reason Africa would benefit from growing genetically modified foods is that it

could improve the economy. Even though genetically modified foods may cost more to get, in

the long run it is much cheaper for the farmers who would no longer have to spend their money

on things such as pesticides and herbicides. An America farmer who has started using genetically

modified sugar beets saved 22 million dollars since switching. It is also estimated to save the

county of Burkina Faso over 100 million dollars a year after they started using genetically

modified crops. However for many of the counties that already do use genetically modified crops

it is very difficult to convince the people that the food which has been messed with is
actually

good for them, so many people don’t buy it. This is partly due to the fact that many European

countries do not allow them so the African people think they must be bad and refuse to buy

them. But we can be an example to them and show them that the food that has been messed with

is actually good. If everyone cooperates the genetically modified crops could definitely improve

the economy.

A third reason Africa should start using genetically modified food is because it could help

improve their health. It sadly doesn’t come as a shock to most people that about 223 million

Africans suffer from malnutrition; this is simply because they have less food to eat. As stated

before even just drought tolerant seed alone could feed as many as 21 million people. You may

be thinking that there are many health risks to genetically modified foods. However, the

genetically modified products have been tested for a variety of safety precautions, including

toxicity, allergies that may be caused, specific components thought to have nutritional or toxic

properties, the stability of the inserted gene, nutritional effects associated with genetic

modification, and any other unintended effects. So the genetically modified crops that would be

grown would have to be safe for everyone. Another reason they could be healthier is the fact that

they would have to use less pesticides, which actually can cause many health problems. A study

found that by growing genetically modified crops, farmers have been able to reduce the amount

of pesticides they used by 37 percent. Simply growing genetically modified plants could create a

healthier country altogether.

If African counties start to use genetically modified crops it could help to better improve

the country. The genetically modified crops could really improve the crop productivity,

especially in times of drought and by working against pests. They could also improve the

economy if the people agree to work with it and buy the crops. And it could also create much

healthier people to a country full of malnutrition. If we all work together we could help feed

Africa with genetically modified foods.