Why are GMOs Considered Useful?
Medical Benefits of GMOs
A medical use for GMO’s involves a goat that has an anticlotting agent in its milk. After purifying the anticlotting protein from the transgenic goat’s milk, the protein drug helps people with clotting diseases, and in 2009 the FDA approved this genetically modified animal for production of this anticlotting protein drug. Another medicinal use of GMO’s is the hepatitis vaccine which is made from genetically modified yeast. GMOs have the possibility of lowering diseases in developing countries, they could put the vaccine into a food so that vaccination would be easier and less expensive than the large campaigns there are now. Another issue in the world is that annually 3 million people die due to diseases that could have been stopped, and most of them are in the developing world. Genetically modified plant or medicine technology could help this problem by creating organisms that could cure these diseases.
Uses in Animals
- Developing GMOs
- Animals are genetically modified to have certain traits that people find advantageous or desirable, such as producing better, being a certain color or size, or having different behavioral traits.
- They are used to make domesticated animals which are used as pets or farm animals.
- Genetically modified fish in fish farming are commonly used in the United States.
Genetically Modified Plants
In the United States genetically modified crops such as potatoes, sugar beets, canola, corn, soy, and cotton are commonly used. Also in the United States approximately 70% of processed foods have at least one genetically modified ingredient in them. Some approved GMOs include herbicide tolerant soybeans, insect resistant corn, canola with altered fatty acid composition, and virus resistant plums.
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Global Issues
While there are a number of concerns associated with GMOs, there are also aspects of GMOs that could solve multiple global issues. Since the world population is continuously increasing, there is a need for more food. GMOs can grow quickly, which could therefore help limit the number of people who suffer from starvation.
GMOs could be altered to make plants contain more nutrition. The Golden Rice Project puts beta-carotene into rice to give it Vitamin A, and people plan to grow this and give it free to farmers so it can lower the number of deaths caused by too little Vitamin A. There are over 250 million preschool children who are subject to Vitamin A deficiency and one third of all children deaths under the age of 5 could be stopped with access to some form of food that contains Vitamin A. If there were more GMOs like this rice, it could save many lives by giving people the nutrition they need. |