• Question: In your opinion, are GM (Genetically Modified) crops a good or bad idea? And why?

    Asked by to Sarah, Liz, Emilie on 5 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sarah Jose

      Sarah Jose answered on 5 Mar 2014:

      Crop plants have been bred for certain qualities, but sometimes they need to have different traits (like drought resistance or immunity to disease) that we can’t produce without help. It’s possible to add genetic information (DNA) into a plant that allows it to have these new qualities, which is called genetic modification.

      There are currently 7 billion people on Earth, and almost a billion of them do not get enough food. In the next 40 years, there will be another 3 billion mouths to feed as the population grows, but we don’t have any more land to grow food on.

      In my opinion, genetically modified crops will be an important part of our food production needs in the future because they will allow us to grow more food in areas where there is drought, crop diseases or insect pests.

      A lot of people think GM food can harm human health, but this is just not true! All GM plants are tested to make sure they are safe.

    • Photo: Emilie Combet

      Emilie Combet answered on 6 Mar 2014:

      GM crops have been one of the great scientific progress happening in the last decades. However, the public has never quite embraced the concept, maybe because of the scary press coverage at the time (and still now!).
      GM crops are produced in a way that they get “extra qualities” over a traditionally bred crop. This means that they are maybe going to be resistant to a bug, to grow with very little water, or even produce more of a specific nutrient.
      There is no evidence that GM crops are bad for human health. Some people think that they have not been around for long enough for us to measure their impact on health. Others think that they are a threat to the farming business. However, in the global context where food supply to a growing population is becoming a big concern, GM crops are an option that we cannot ignore, and should not dismiss. There is a lot of work to be done to make sure the public get the correct information to make up their mind too.

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