May 17 2016

How Safe Are The Genetically Modified Crops?

Genetically engineered crops have been around for quite some time and they are considered to be harmful to human beings and it causes many side effects. Recent studies have shown that these crops are not only safe for humans and animal and also they do not cause cancer, obesity, kidney disease etc. National Academies of Science recently released a detailed report listing out the benefits.

Initial ground work on this report started about two years ago and the research was conducted by more than 50 scientists and researches from various fields such as agriculture, engineering and medicine. The observation was result of more than 900 studies and covers data that has been available for more than 20 years. Which means the research was done ever since the first genetically modified crop was introduced.

These crops were beneficial in terms of saving money for the farmers in United States. But the yield from these crops were not much. The pest infestation was also lowered in some areas but in other areas cultivating these crops lead to herbicide resistant weed growth. Also, no evidence has been collected to prove that the GE crops affect the population of butterflies.

The review that was conducted was thorough and systematic. It took into consideration many of the issues that are commonly raised about the genetically modified crops.

The genetic material of these plants was artificially modified so that they have the characteristics that the other crops might not possess. Two of the most important characteristics were the ability to resist pests and withstand the effects of the herbicides that are used.

In order to understand whether the crops are safe for humans or not, the disease reports from various states in United State and Canada were compared against the countries where the consumption of such plants are less. It was observed that there was no correlation between the two. There was also no impact on the long-term pattern of consuming genetically modified foods.



Posted May 17, 2016 by Chuck Hankey in category "National

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