Are GMOs helpful or harmful Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Are GMOs helpful or harmful - Essay Example This has resulted in many scientists coming up with the ways of increasing productivity of the already existing land. In fact, some ways of growing GMO include irrigation of arid areas and use of fertilizers. On top of that, there have been efforts to reclaim land from the seas and oceans. For example, dykes constructed in Netherlands for creation of more land necessary for horticulture farming. Despite the above suggestions, there has been starvation in some countries when they are strike by drought like in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Therefore, scientists have come up with the idea of growing crops that are genetically modified. The idea has been met with a lot of criticism despite being seen as the only viable solution to hunger elimination. GMOs can be either harmful or helpful according to various arguments and perspectives. They are helpful because of the following; there has been lack of enough traditional seed to be planted. This suggests that it will result to food shortage if the genetic foods are banned. The food shortage consequently results to increase of the cost of food which is already high. The high prices on the food are because of increase in demand and unfavorable weather changes. However, with genetic food, more food will be produced and the cost of food will instead go down. For instance, in US, the Agricultural Department has rein-stored the modified weed killer resistant sugar-beet because more than half of sugar produced in US has been genetically modified. There are also modified cotton and soya beans (Kilman and Tomson 10). Another benefit of genetic foods is that the crops are resistant to pests and viruses due to use of technology. Hence, food prices go down due to the continuous practice of large scale farming will be easy. For example in Europe, they have adopted genetic modification to reduce the high demand for wheat and avoid future shortages which can result to starvation (Pendrous 24). There has been