The GMO Controversy

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Iyla Kwon '27

In defiance of the laws of nature, man can now manipulate crops and other organisms to suit people’s tastes, giving birth to genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Since GMOs were first unveiled to the world, there have been years of controversy. Despite this, GMOs have limitless potential to increase crop yields and reduce pesticide usage, while the concerns about the hazards or side effects of GMOs are generally either overblown or not fully ascertained.

The most prominent advantage of GMOs is increased crop production in terms of both quantity and quality. The manipulation of growth speeds in crops enables rapid cultivation and multiple harvests per season, yielding great increases in productivity. Statistics from 1996 to 2020 show significant economic benefits, with the income of farms using GMO crops rising by 261.3 billion dollars, primarily due to the increase in yield. Looking beyond economics, a considerable uplift in crop cultivation is necessary to meet future global food demand. With the global population predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, GMOs’ enhanced yields will be key to ensuring sufficient food production to meet the demand from burgeoning populations, especially in Africa and South Asia. GMOs could also open the door to farming in new agricultural zones through the development of salt, drought, and cold-resistant plants, boosting yields in the areas that need them the most.

In addition to boosting yields, GMOs are beneficial because, by engineering them to be resistant to specific pests, GMOs can fight off pest infestations without intervention from farmers. Insect-resistant (IR) GMO crops, created using Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) genes, have indeed led to significant reductions in pesticide use. By decreasing the application of pesticides on crops, farmers and the broader agricultural industry can ameliorate some of the environmental harm that farming causes, such as runoff and the poisoning of non-target species. From 1996 to 2018, IR crops saved 331 million kilograms of insecticide, leading to a 34.2% improvement in environmental impact quotient. Hence, the reduction in agrochemical usage shows the irreplaceable benefits GMOs offer to both agriculture and the environment.

Despite the advantageous aspects of GMOs, safety concerns linger. GMO crops could have altered nutritional contents, or cause allergic responses or other undesired side effects. GMOs created with genes from highly allergenic species such as nuts might be eaten by unaware consumers, believing they are safe, thus triggering allergic reactions. In 1996, a transgenic soybean, created with additional Brazil nut genes to boost methionine content, could have caused a fatal reaction if someone with a severe nut allergy had eaten it. Additionally, in California, a woman went into anaphylactic shock after eating tacos containing StarLink GMO corn. Although activists blamed the GMO corn, no conclusive evidence was found that the corn caused the reaction. Given these possible risks of serious problems, including fatalities, adequate safeguards should be put in place to ensure that GMO crops do not contain genes from potential allergens.

In conclusion, GMOs have the potential to greatly boost agricultural output while reducing the utilization of pesticides on crops. There are concerns about the risk of side effects, such as allergies, being caused by GMOs, but these are currently unproven and appear solvable through regulations. Given that, I argue that GMOs have significant value for our long-term food supply.

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