Gentically Modified Food

Genetically Modified Foods

The modern technologies have opened many gates for us to improve our lifestyle. The infrastructure has evolved and is rapidly expanding in many countries. As the city grows, the food production decreases as the agricultural lands are used to expand the city. Scientists have found a new technology with which they can modify food and food products and add any desired trait by altering the gene with any other organism with such a gene. Such crops are called Genetically Modified Foods (GMF).

Long time ago genetic modification was done differently. It was done by growing two types of crops together and when they cross pollinate, they acquire the trait. This method was slow and risky because the traits weren't controlled. The crop would acquire some other trait instead of the one required. Many yields were destroyed to get the desired trait. There were also many limitations in terms of variety of traits as there could be only genes from other plants but now the days have changed. Now GM is done under control. Now GM crops yield better and more favorable crops. Scientists now insert only the required trait and avoiding wastage of crops.

Other than that, GMF also have traits which could be very helpful to some farmers of the developing countries. GM crops have a faster yield which means more food production and more profits as the final product of GM crops are cheaper than regular crops as there is no need of any pesticide or herbicide because the crops have it in their genes. For example a genetic modified (GM) tomato is developed with the gene of a tropical fish to make it stand extreme temperatures. Or an orange tree seed made that yields a fruit within a year whereas an unmodified one takes at least 20 years to make a fruit. These orange trees grow faster and help the farmer earn more. Also some GM crops have increased nutrients and minerals like the ‘golden rice' which is a name given to a rice which has increased rate of Vitamin A, because in India many people rely on the rice for the nutrition required for all day long. Not only that, there are also other discoveries made of different types of GM crops which have a wide variety of traits added to them like sweeter sweet potatoes and many different types of things. For such crops, there are many tests made to prove them safe to eat. But not test is successful; some GM crops proven unsafe and banned in some countries.

Countries like India have no apparent reason to launch GMF because there is already a lot of food production and there is enough agricultural land for the production of food required for the country. If GM crops are introduced, it will affect the export of crops as India is still considered ‘GM free' because legally there are no genetically modified foods in the shelves of India and many countries buys the food crops from India. If GM crops are launched, export will be affected.