The application of genetic engineering to agricultural products, creating GM food, is one of the most controversial scientific debate over the past few decades. (Grunert et al. 2003, Moschini 2008)
GM Foods are food that have been genetically altered by inserting a gene from one cell into another via bioengineering techniques such as DNA recombination and gene cloning (New Scientist, 1993)
In the following paragraphs, whether GM food benefits the world and whether opposition to this technology is based on fear and lack of knowledge will be discussed.
I will argue for the view that GM food benefits the world. There are two reasons to support my stance.
(1)Adoption and Acceptance of GM Crops for Farmers
First of all, GM crops
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As there is more than 600 studies form many renowned research institutions, which prove the extensive safety of GM food. Furthermore, many scientists have pointed out that those scientific research that proves GM food is harmful has great flaws in the design of the experiment and the result is not accurate and fair to reflect the actual situation of GM food.
Despite the fact that scientific evidence has once again proved GM food does benefit our world, the bulk of the wild debate is still centered around the fear and the lack of knowledge about GM technology, in which the concerns of GM food causing human health problems are usually baseless. It shows that science no later matters in this case: people’s fear and illiteracy have masked their objectivity towards GM food. The fear of genetic modification is rooted in the fact that the technology is complicated and hard to understand.
Several studies have stated that people with a higher education attainment tend to have a higher acceptance of GM food (Hossain et al. 2003, House et al. 2004, Hwang et al. 2005) ; vice versa Mucci et al.
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Empirical estimates suggest that losses are weighted about twice as much as gains, which indicates that the benefits of GM foods are often overestimated and devalued in contrast to the potential downsides. This phenomenon, called loss aversion, also means that even the perception of a potential loss, no matter how factually unfounded, has strong emotional pull. Therefore, the way humans assess risk, claiming that GM crops improve yields doesn’t sound like a strong reason to support them, but even the slightest chance they could cause disease is more than enough reason to fear