The Controversial Progression Of Genetically Modified Food

In order for a civilization to survive, there has to be a stable surplus of food present to feed the people of the society. Agriculture is constantly evolving and will continue to in the forthcoming years, but what will it turn into? In the twenty-first century, there has been the controversial progression of genetically modification organisms, which is the manipulation of genetic material of organism that can involved inserting genetic material from one organism to another. Some point of views perceive the production of food is either hijacked by corporations for their financial gain or created to increase crop yields substantially to feed the always-growing population of the world.

For one thing, the “Big 6” corporations such as Monsanto,

It has been pushed by scientists and major corporations because of what GM foods could do for the future. The “Big 6” perceived GM foods as beneficial to many countries because it, “offered the needed technology to produce nutritious foods, higher crop yields, and plants with less reliance on chemical pesticides and herbicides” (Badrie). Consumers and farmers have been made aware of the pros of GM foods, and farmers could thus, produce food at a faster and cheaper rate. This has pushed farmers to consider growing GM foods because they are always looking to evolve their agricultural technology. Farmers are always looking to improve the rate of how fast their food can be produced so they can make more money and also to provide for the huge world population. This in turn, could solve the world hunger epidemic. In poor communities, there is also a demand for food, so genetically modified could resolve that issue. If farmers in underdeveloped countries began to follow more technological advanced farmers, there could be an abundance of food to produce for the increasing population of the

Since those major corporations run the industry, farmers can sometimes be forced to grow genetically modified soybeans, “little mention there of the 250,000 poor farmers who took their own lives in the Indian cotton belt because they became indebted due to this “frontier technology” not delivering the results that the GMO industry has said it would. It is easy to thus conclude that if there is a ‘disgusting enemy’ it is the profiteering corporate-controlled terminator seed technology of the GMO industry that has resulted in mass suicides and the destruction of traditional farmer-controlled agricultural practices developed over thousands of years” (Todhunter). Thus, the production of GM foods have left farmers in debt, or worst case, cost them their lives. The GM corporations push farmers to utilize the technology, but neglect to tell them how much it actually costs to use it. Farmers have to pay for the seeds, which can not be used again after their harvest, so they have to purchase more GM seeds and any other pesticides that have to be used in order to yield the crops. The corporate interests is geared towards power and money, “even if everyone had enough money to play the game, the result would be global specialization and dependency, not universal food security” (Kneen). The transition to genetically modified organisms carries a big price tag that underdeveloped