Why are GMOs Disliked?
Health Concern
The United States doesn’t require GMOs to be labeled, so people worry that if they have an allergy they could eat something that was genetically modified and may contain a substance that they are allergic to, but there have also been no reported cases of an allergic reaction caused by a GMO. There are unknown effects of altering an organism and people fear that it could change the metabolism or growth rate of it. People also fear that the medicines could get into our food with the use of GMOs.
Environmental Concerns
If cross pollination occurred, plants that were not supposed to be altered could turn into GMOs and disrupt the biodiversity of the world. It would be difficult to stop cross pollination from occurring since the plants would have to be completely separated from each other so not even the wind could cause the pollen of two organisms to mix. Another concern is that the genetically modified plants could become like weeds and spread widely and it could be hard to control or stop. Some people fear that when we start growing the plants in their genetically modified form there will no longer be the original form since usually they aren’t grown as much as they previously had been. This is a fear since the original form could have a cure to a disease that may arise, but the cure could be gone, replaced by a GMO. A solution is, if the original type of the organism was bred with the already genetically modified version then that GMO could be both resistant to the potential disease and still have it’s changed characteristic. An example is salt resistant rice, which could keep its resistance to salt, but also be resistant to a potential disease.
Ethical Conflicts
There are religious concerns, as some people feel that it may not be right to alter a plant or animal by adding in foreign substances, they say it is too much like “playing god”. Since people want the right to choose, they want labels on foods that have been genetically modified. People want further research on GMOs since the testing already done is limited and it is believed more should be done before the use of GMOs have grown too large. A smaller fear is that private companies will say they own a GMO that they created and make it harder for the public to buy them by making them expensive.
Genetically Modified Plants that Caused Controversy
The public may hear a story that could change their opinion on GMOs negatively. An example of something that made the public more aware of GMO’s is that of Starlink. It was a type of corn that used Cry9c, which was capable of making its own pesticidal protein. It was supposed to be only used for animal feed, but in 2000 it was found in human food. This betrayed the public’s trust and is one of the reasons people now fear them.
One GMO that caused a lot of controversy was Bt corn which has a protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is a naturally occurring soil bacterium. Bt is used as a substitute to spraying insecticides. People believed that the Bt corn was harming a few insects including the monarch caterpillar. However, it turned out the harm of monarch caterpillars was very low. The corn was supposed to make farmers have to use less insecticides.
One GMO that caused a lot of controversy was Bt corn which has a protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is a naturally occurring soil bacterium. Bt is used as a substitute to spraying insecticides. People believed that the Bt corn was harming a few insects including the monarch caterpillar. However, it turned out the harm of monarch caterpillars was very low. The corn was supposed to make farmers have to use less insecticides.