Thesis Statement: Humanity should accept more the idea of using Genetically Modified Foods to fight
World Hunger.
People Around the world have come to believe that there is something sinister with genetic modification.
They don’t realize that humans have done genetic modifications even before we had technology. Many if
today’s crops are not even close to be like the ones that grew around Earth before humans started to
develop agriculture. This is because through selective breeding, early humans started to breed crops with
selective traits that they found favorable. This is a type of genetic modification. The only difference is that
technology allows us to shorten the wait, and build up the crop that we want to breed, with the traits that
we want. Through genetically modified foods (GMOs) we can fight many problems that humanity has
been confronting in the last century, such as world hunger or environmental protection.
In less developed countries 500,000 children go blind every year because of lack of Vitamin A. More than
half of this children don’t reach adulthood. Some scientists developed a GMO called “Golden Rice” that
produces its own vitamin A. Just one cup a day of this rice will save millions of lives. But, unfortunately
in many of the countries were this GMO has been implemented, there have been protests against it by
local traditional rice farmers, and have complicated the maintenance of the project in the area. This is a
clear case in which the population or the government of the area doesn’t realize the positive effect that
this GMO has on their community.
According to some studies done by Cambridge, it has been estimated that 40% of potential rice and corn
harvest are lost to pest and disease. Farmers in Third World countries are forced to abuse on the use of
pesticides in order to save their harvests, which will affect on the farmer’s health and even the consumers
of the harvest. It is estimated that 300,000 people in these countries die due to insecticide misuse and
exposure. GMOS have been modified to make them more resistant to insects and other pests and to
weather conditions. More resistance to harsh conditions means more productivity, which means a fall in
the prices of food, that will make it available to more people than before.
Food shortage is an increasing threat to human development. The world needs 11 million pounds a food
every day, and by 2050 this demand will have an increase of 70%. To cope with this demand, we have
two options: clearing more forest for agriculture, or we could do it on the same land we have now with
more sustainable and productive methods like GMOs. The first option is the one we’ve been
implementing in the last decades, and we’re paying the price of it with the deterioration of the ozone layer
and global. The other one is the one that will let us sustainably satisfy the future demand of humanity
without risking the environment.
Many people are against GMO’s because they consider the foods unnatural, but they don’t realize most of
GMOs are done by inserting viral DNA in the genome of the plant, to create resistance. In other words,
it’s just like vaccinating the plant. So, the question is: why is it considered unnatural to vaccinate your
food to protect it, while people vaccinate their bodies all the time? The National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering and Medicine did a study over 2-year period with and more than 900 publications based on
the last 20 years, and the conclusions were that commercially available GMOs pose no harm to human
health.
