Non-GMO Food is more Beneficial to Society than GMO Food

I. GMOs Make Better Crops Thousands of lives and millions of dollars are lost every year to crops lost because of disease and extreme weather (i. e. cold and hot spells, droughts, floods, etc. .. ). GMO crops have been formulated to be more resilient to diseases than traditional crops. Further, tolerant genes can be implanted in plants to make them more resilient to extreme weather. For example, an antifreeze gene has been formulated to make crops more tolerant to cold: "With this antifreeze gene, these plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally would kill unmodified seedlings. "[1][2][3]In addition, because the world population as surpassed seven billion and is projected to continue to skyrocket for at least the next half century, more crops will have to be grown - and that means that crops will need to be grown in more unfavorable locations; locations that would have previously been considered unusable. "Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in formerly inhospitable places. "[1][4][5]Third, due to widespread malnutrition and disease, there is a need for crops that provide more nutrients to people. Genetic engineering can help solve this problem. Take, for example, rice: "If rice could be genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins and minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be alleviated. For example, blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is a common problem in third world countries. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Institute for Plant Sciences have created a strain of "golden" rice containing an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A). " A similar experiment with iron in rice has been discussed. In addition to adding nutrients, GMOs could be used to reduce the amount of dangerous materials in crops, such as arsenic. [1][6][7]Finally, medicine used for vaccinations could be made edible: "Potatoes have been modified to produce edible vaccines against E. coli bacteria which cause diarrhoea. This would allow cheap and easy distribution of the vaccine. ""Researchers are working to develop edible vaccines in tomatoes and potatoes. These vaccines will be much easier to ship, store and administer than traditional injectable vaccines. "[1][8][9][10]Overall, "Genetic engineering has allowed scientists to develop crops that consume less water, grow in harsh environments and produce less carbon dioxide. Put another way, these technological advances have made it possible to produce cheaper food in greater quantities and in a more sustainable fashion. "[11]II. GMOs Help the Environment Pesticides and herbicides have always been a problem for the danger they pose on the environment around them. Growing GM foods such as B. t. corn can help eliminate the application of chemical pesticides and reduce the cost of bringing a crop to market. For example, "Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resistant to one very powerful herbicide could help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed. For example, Monsanto has created a strain of soybeans genetically modified to be not affected by their herbicide product Roundup. A farmer grows these soybeans which then only require one application of weed-killer instead of multiple applications, reducing production cost and limiting the dangers of agricultural waste run-off. "[1][12][13]This is a story showing that these hypothetical benefits have actually been observed in the field: "Half the cotton grown in China in 2002 was genetically modified to produce a substance that is poisonous to the cotton bollworm, a pest that devastates many cotton crops. Farmers had previously applied the toxin directly by spraying the crops. The benefits of the ‘Bt cotton’ are a reduction in pesticide use, an increase in yields and profits, and health benefits for farm workers who often apply pesticides without protective clothing. "[10]Also, GMOs aren't limited to crops. Genetic engineering can also be used to help stop the pollution problem: " Not all GM plants are grown as crops. Soil and groundwater pollution continues to be a problem in all parts of the world. Plants such as poplar trees have been genetically engineered to clean up heavy metal pollution from contaminated soil. "[1][14]Overall, GMOs can help reduce the amount of dangerous materials in the environment, not just by reducing the amount of pesticides and herbicides that need to be sprayed, but they can also be used to clean up a dirty environment. In addition to the environmental benefit, these two things can reduce a farmer's cost and increase the amount of arable land, thereby increasing crop production and farmer profits. Conclusion "'The resilience we need for the future will be delivered by smart plant breeding – and that’s all GM is,' Freeman told farmers at a speech in Norfolk. Even Bill Gates has argued that GMOs could help solve world hunger, calling upon other billionaires to invest in biotech companies. 'By spending a relatively little amount of money on proven solutions, we can help poor farmers feed themselves,' Gates stated in his fourth annual letter, released in January 2012. "[15]Sources [1]: . http://www.csa.com...[2]: Transgenic Approaches to Combat Fusarium Head Blight in Wheat and Barley (Crop Science, Vol 41, No 3, pp 628-627, Jun 2001). [3]: Type II fish antifreeze protein accumulation in transgenic tobacco does not confer frost resistance (Transgenic Research, Vol 8, No 2, pp 105-117, Apr 1999) . [4]: Transgenic salt-tolerant tomato plants accumulate salt in foliage but not in fruit (Nature Biotechnology, Vol 19, No 8, pp 765-768, Aug 2001). [5]: Peroxidase activity of desiccation-tolerant loblolly pine somatic embryos (In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology Plant, Vol 36, No 6, pp. 488-491, Dec 2000)[6]: Genetic engineering towards carotene biosynthesis in endosperm. [7]: . http://blogs.discovermagazine.com...[8]: Medical molecular farming: production of antibodies, biopharmaceuticals and edible vaccines in plants (Trends in Plant Science, Vol 6, No 5, pp 219-226, May 2001). [9]: Oral immunization with hepatitis B surface antigen expressed in transgenic plants (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Vol 98, No 20, pp. 11539-11544, Sep 2001). [10]: . http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org...[11]: . http://www.policymic.com...[12]: Insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis protect corn from corn rootworms (Nature Biotechnology, Vol 19, No 7, pp 668-672, Jul 2001). [13]: . http://www.guardian.co.uk...[14]: Phytodetoxification of hazardous organomercurials by genetically engineered plants (Nature Biotechnology, Vol 18, No 2, pp. 213-217, Feb 2000) . [15]: . http://www.forbes.com...;