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Genetically Modified Food Ethical Issues

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Ethical issues of genetically modified crops
By Emily Diamant
Humans have been planting crops for thousands of centuries. But only recently, the idea of genetically modified crops and foods have come in. Today I will explain in this report the ethical issues to do with genetically modified crops and foods, and also the positive and negative aspects about how it affects people and the environment.
Genetically modified crops are organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering methods. The aim is to create a new organism by adding a new gene or trait to the old one. The most common examples of genetically modified crops include cotton, maize, rapeseed, soybean and yeast. These crops become food for people and other …show more content…

One of the positive effects genetically modified crops has on human health is that the addition of genes into crops such as rice and wheat can improve their nutritional value. An example of this is golden rice. Genetic modification of crops could also be used to create healthier foods, for example, it could reduce the amount of fat or caffeine in a certain food. Also, genetic engineering of crops could be used to remove some genes to do with allergies. The other side is, there is also the worry that new allergies could occur from the mixing of genes from two crops. There was once a case where scientists used a gene from the Brazil nut to increase Methionine in soya beans. This unexpectedly caused people allergic reactions who had known nut allergies. Which brings me to my next point, that there are many other negative ways genetically modified crops can affect humans. Because genetically modified crops has been available for such a short period of time, there is not much research on the long-term effects on human health. The greatest risk lies not in the effects that people have studied, but in those which they cannot predict at this point. Also, there are new proteins which have never been consumed by humans before which are now foods that people eat every day, and scientists and researchers do not yet know the long term effects this will have on human …show more content…

Firstly, one of the positive aspects is that there are possible benefits to agriculture through the development of the crops more immune to severe weather, disease and pests, which will reduce the chance of crop failure. Another benefit is that genetically engineered disease and pest resistance could decrease the demand for pesticides and other chemicals alike, thereby reducing the farmer’s vulnerability to toxins and the environmental load. Also, the potential extended shelf life of fruits and vegetables could reduce the total wastage related to storage and transportation. Unfortunately, there are consequences by using genetically modified crops. Damage to the environment is an ethical danger. We do not yet know the all of the long-term effects genetically modified crops will have on the environment because long-term studies like this take decades to complete. For example, we do not know the effects on insects or birds if they consume come in to contact with genetically modified crops. However, we do know a few. The DNA of plants may "escape" and find their way into other members of the species or other species. There would be a lot of problems caused if herbicide-resistant genes found their way into weeds. Another ethical issue to do with genetically modified crops is our ability to keep them in a particular area. There are worries that if these crops harm the

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