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Gm foods are foods that have been genetically modified to produce more desirable qualities, like a surplus of a certain vitamin, or larger produce.
Today, I will be debating whether GM foods should be widely used, or if they should be left in the lab.
Gm foods have only recently been developed in the 1970s, although thousands of years ago, methods like cross breeding were in place. Today’s strawberries are a result of that.
Due to their recent development scientists do not know if GM foods are even safe. There is widespread fear that it can cause mutations in humans and cancers, and gm plants can put an ecosystem in disequilibrium, by making one type of crop more abundant, can cause species who rely on this crop to increase in number, other crops die out, and animals relying on other crops die out as well. It could become an invasive species if introduced to the natural environment. So far, gm crops have been kept in the lab farms. They may also cause antibiotic resistance.
On the other hand, the various benefits are abundant. The human population is at 8 billion and, and at the rate our supplies are being squandered, we need solutions and fast. Not just fast and easy solutions, but long term sustainable ones, exactly like GM crops with these, there will be no need to destroy rainforests for farm land, and farmers whose yields have suffered from extensive droughts will hopefully find it less of a problem, if GM foods lessen the reliance of greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change. Millions of children and people will have better futures if they are able to eat nutritious food regularly, and gm crops which are dominant in a certain nutrient will definitely help this. gm foods help the farmers be less reliant on herbicides and pesticides, which are very bad for the earth. to have a good yield. As for meats, climate change would also be reduced if many people ate lab grown meats, as the reason cows are bad for the environment is because they produce immense amounts of methane, and that again contributes to climate change. Gm foods also have a longer shelf life, which can reduce food waste, as the food will stay fresher for longer. This also means that they are easier to transport from one place to another, an essential piece of knowledge for natural disaster aid.
Medicines can also be transferred in the GM foods, vaccines as well, which could change the entire way we medicinally treat people, and also helps people who are afraid of needles.