GMO crops face a lot of criticism, but the facts are that they are more environmentally friendly than traditional crops, they have higher and more stable yields than traditional crops, and are safe to consume. Some critics claim that GMO crops are unsafe and offer no significant advantages over traditional ones. This however, is not true. GMO crops are as safe as and more effective than traditional crops in every way.
GMO crops are identical to traditional crops except, the GMOs have had a small amount of DNA added. This small change in a crop’s DNA causes the expression of a trait that scientist believe to be advantageous. Common genetic modifications are herbicide resistance, pesticide production, and virus resistance.
Herbicide resistance allows farmers to use a broad spectrum…
They state that either the herbicides sprayed on GMO’s are more dangerous or that the insecticides produced by the plants are dangerous. Neither of these statements hold up upon examination.
Glyphosate is the most common herbicide sprayed on GMO crops. It has a very low acute toxicity; with a median lethal dose of 10,000mg/kg, or over one and three quarters pounds of glyphosate for an average weight human. Furthermore, both independent and EU investigations showed no evidence of ill health effects in humans under normal conditions. Herbicide is designed to kill plants not people. If herbicide doesnt hurt people, do the crops that produce insecticides hurt people?
Insect resistant or Bt crops produce a groups of protoxins known as the cry protoxins or Bt toxins. The Bt toxins have insecticidal effects on pests attempting to eat the crops. The toxins have been proven to be nontoxic in humans and other nontarget species both when applied as a spray and as a GMO. First, the Bt toxins were proven to be safe by the EPA in the 1970’s as a spray and later in the 1990’s the GMO crop version was proven to be safe by the…