Monday, May 3, 2010

Genetically Modified Food


Genetically Modified Crops, or "GM" Crops as they have come to be known, bring both a blessing and a burden to the consumers. Basically, a GM crop is one that have been bred in a lab to have specific traits to make them better, both economically and physically for humans. In the article "Courts Force U.S. Reckoning With Dominance of GM Crops" they discuss how the Sugar beat industry on the west coast is suffering from the introduction of GM seed. Organic growers are concerned because the GM seed is being blown by the wind in every direction. This provides a problem because if the GM and organic seed mix together, the Organic seed will never be the same. It will have trace elements of the GM crop inside it at all times, rendering the growers crop non-organic. However the article "GM sugar beets hit by California court ruling" argues that the Genetically Modified crop is better than organic, and that the growers who get GM Crops in their field should pay for the seed. I feel that while GM crops serve good purposes around the world, and are helping solve world hunger, this is a battle they should stay away from. A grower has the right to plant what he wants to plant and should not be forced into buying something he does not want to plant. The growers who plant this GM crop should also be responsible for the seed they plant and where they plant it. It is hard to control the wind but they need to keep the seed from contaminating the organic crops. If this were to happen worldwide with every crop. sure we would have high yield rates and nearly rid the world of hunger, but there would be nothing natural about the food we eat. The natural plants that our ancestors survived off of would be gone, the natural flora of the world would be extinct and replaced with a new, scientifically engineered relative. This to me is like replacing humans with robots, sure they may be better in some ways, but the natural evolution that has made what we know today will all be destroyed.

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