GM Foods: Benefits & Controversies

GM Products: Benefits and Controversies

Benefits

Crops

Enhanced taste and quality
Reduced maturation time
Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides
New products and growing techniques

Animals

Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency
Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk
Improved animal health and diagnostic methods

Environment

"Friendly" bioherbicides and bioinsecticides
Conservation of soil, water, and energy
Bioprocessing for forestry products
Better natural waste management
More efficient processing

Society

Increased food security for growing population



Controversies

Safety

Potential human health impact: allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects Potential environmental impact: unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity

Access and Intellectual Property

Domination of world food production by a few companies
Increasing dependence on Industralized nations by developing countries
Biopiracy—foreign exploitation of natural resources

Ethics

Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values
Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
Stress for animal

Labeling

Not mandatory in some countries (e.g., United States)
Mixing GM crops with non-GM confounds labeling attempts

Society
New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries


http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml