Food For Thought!

Nowadays science has taken over the world, everything we do includes a technological innovation. From medicine to computers, everything is being changed and improved, especially on daily items that are necessary for an easier lifestyle to whoever uses them. Another area where technology has been gaining terrain is on Food, particularly Genetic Modified Food, which consists on modifying certain genes, or crossing different foods, to obtain a “better” product.

This type of technology has some pros that support it and some cons that are against it.

On the pros, we have the fact that it makes food more nutritive and therefore healthier. The crops where this seeds are planted aren’t sprayed with pesticides or other chemical products that can infect the plants, and make them hurtful for men. With GM food there is also the possibility to create certain vaccines and medicines that, without it, wouldn’t be possible, because the plants or seeds weren’t good enough.

However, there are some cons, beginning with the fact that putting together genes from two different plants can cause certain allergies on humans that, if the food was biologic, they wouldn’t have. Also there is the problem that bugs and insects start being resistant to natural pesticides, and therefore infect the crops and the GM foods. The main problem with GM foods is the cost that it has, because it is very expensive and so, small farmers won’t be able to develop this technique.

Obviously, to sum up, there are a lot of pros that support GM food, and that can make it seem like a good idea, but there are also some cons that make us think twice before judging this technology. In my opinion GM food shouldn’t be done unless it had to be necessary, like in rare disease cases where people really need certain vitamins or nutrients.

João Miguel Araújo, 1101