The False Promise Of Gm Foods By Joe Pedretti

Have you ever heard about the term of genetically-modified foods (GM foods)? Or have you ever seen this kind of foods, like GM tomatoes, in the market? GM foods are the foods that contain the genes transferred from other plant or non-plant organisms. It might be the most controversial topic in the world now. In the article “The False Promise of GMOs”, Joe Pedretti wrote about the argument about the GM foods. The producers of the GM foods, like Monsanto Company, think people should popularize the GM foods, because they are the solution of global hunger. However, some scientists claim that GM foods are dangerous and we should be careful about them. In my view, GM foods have the unpredictable hazard to environment and human health. We should listen
to those scientists to slow down the popularization of GM foods or even ban them. GM foods have the unpredictable hazard to the environment.
Because GM foods have the new traits, they may survive in the extreme conditions, thus they may become the new threat to other plants. According to Pedretti, In Canada, the farmers found the “roundup ready” canola become a pest in other crops and in native areas because of its herbicide resistance. Those farmers called them “superweed”. This is only one example among many others. The GM foods always have the pesticide and herbicide resistance and climate change tolerance. As a result, some of GM crops have strong vitality and they can spread out their genes by wind or insects. They can invade the areas of other plants and they can kill some kinds of beneficial insects. At that time, the ecosystem will be unbalanced and the environment will be destroyed and people will gain no benefit from that situation. In order to prevent the situation from deteriorating, we should stop popularize the GM foods and stop grow GM
plants. In addition, GM foods may cause dangerous consequences for human health. Until now, no scientist has proved the GM foods are totally safe for human. As the genes from different kinds of plants or even from animals combine together, toxic substances may form. These toxic substances can trigger the horrible allergies to human. One the disease breakout, scientists will spend lots of time on searching the methods of treatment. But genetically-modify is the new technology and no one can figure out what will happen out of expectation. If the unintended things happened and new viral and pathogens with antibiotic resistance are bred, it will be a tremendous disaster to human. As Deborah B. Whitman mentioned in the article “Genetically-modified foods: Harmful or Helpful?” released April 2000, “Many children in the US and Europe have developed life-threatening allergies to peanuts and other foods.” Maybe peanut is just a beginning. If people so not take the actions to stop the increasing of the happening rate of allergies, something more horrible will happen. So, in order to avoiding these things, it is better for people to ban the GM foods. However, the producers of GM foods claim that GM foods are the can solve the worldwide hunger and we should keep growing GM plants.
They say that the GM crops can produce more food while consume less natural resources. This is true but actually, the GM seeds are really expensive. As a result, only the farmers in developed countries and small part of farmers in developing countries can approach and afford those seeds. Most of the farmers in the hunger areas are hard to get genetically-modify technology. Even if all the farmers around the world have the chance to plant GM crops, the GM plants still need special fertilizers and expensive chemical additive to maintain growing. Thus, it is very hard to popularize GM food globally. In order to solve the global hunger, we need to think about other solutions like protect the cultivated land and develop the techniques of pest control instead of developing GM foods. After all, growing GM food is not the only way to get rid off global
hunger. Now you know what are the truths of GM foods. Will you still buy the GM food from market? I believe no one want our environment become worse or get sick by GM foods. GM foods can destroy the ecosystem and cause horrible health problems to human. Perhaps, it will cause more serious unexpected consequences. On the other hand, it is very complex and expensive to grow the GM foods. So why are we still popularize GM foods. Before GM foods are proved safe to human and the transit of the genes is controllable, it is better to stop the spread of GM foods.