GM Foods

Genetically modified food is becoming more and more available in our markets and we might be consuming it without knowing it. Firstly, GM food is about inserting some chosen genes from some plants or even animals into other plants to provide them with some attributes in order to be more resistant to diseases.

Those who support the issue say that we can solve the worlds hunger problems through producing higher yields of all kinds of crops which are more healthy, more resistant to insects and diseases, more plentiful and more importantly use much less amounts of herbicides and pesticides which, per se, presents many medical and environmental problems to both farmers and consumers.

On the other hand, critics and opponents to GM food claim that it might generate new serious diseases, or lead to congenital problems in our offspring or developmental abnormalities in our children. It could destroy wildlife, evolving new strains of insects and superweeds that resist herbicides. Some of them say that the antibiotic resistant genes can cross from our food to our stomach, possibly making antibiotics ineffective. They assure that our problem is not the scarcity of food itself, but it is the maldistribution of food.

Lastly, I support those who say that many people are undecided about GM food and they can't make up their minds until more tests have been conducted on for example, the effects of GM crops on human health. The debate should be widened beyond GM to look at how we regulate and produce our food and how we tackle health problems through diet.

Abduallah ElHammali
IELTS Preparation