3 billion people living on this planet, which means in less than 50 years, world population is expected to increase by 3 billion. Providing food for these people will mean massive changes in the production, distribution, and stability of food products (ISAAA). In order to solve this problem, scientists come up with the idea about Genetically Modified Organisms-GMO's. Genetic modification helps not only to produce more food on same amount of, but also can enable food production on lands that are traditionally deemed unsuitable. There are a lot of significant benefits of GMO foods, such as insect resistance, environment protection, and more nutrition foods. Even though GMO's have their benefits, they also have some negative consequences such as the chemicals used to genetically modify. These chemicals can be very expensive, create dust clouds and more importantly, diminish the effect of antibiotic medications to human body.
According to Brown University, "GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) have new genes from other organisms added to their existing genes, which means scientists take bits of DNA from different kinds of organisms and attempt to splice them together to get a new, better product" (Joshua). These experimental combinations of genes from different species that cannot occur in nature are modified in the laboratory to enhance characteristics such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content which has been a hot topic ever since their introduction in 1980. Soy, canola, cotton and corn are the most commonly heard of, but few know about the others such as: papayas, sugar beets, potatoes, flax, tomatoes, radicchio and even yellow summer squash. .
GMO foods have a great advantage in protecting our environment. According to the research from Oklahoma State University, the increase of GMO crops and animals often requires fewer chemicals and may help to reduce environmental pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and soil erosion.