Feeding the World Through Biotechnology
Roughly 805 million people in the world do not have enough food. Nearly 45% of deaths of children under the age of five is caused by poor nutrition - 3.1 million children each year. With genetically modified crops, these statistics can be lowered. G.M. Crops can help grow more food, add more nutition, and help end the hunger of people all over the world. The idea of G.M crops originated from Gregor Mendel, who studied the inheritence of peas in the 19th century. (1)
Roughly 805 million people in the world do not have enough food. Nearly 45% of deaths of children under the age of five is caused by poor nutrition - 3.1 million children each year. With genetically modified crops, these statistics can be lowered. G.M. Crops can help grow more food, add more nutition, and help end the hunger of people all over the world. The idea of G.M crops originated from Gregor Mendel, who studied the inheritence of peas in the 19th century. (1)
What are Genetically Modified Crops?
Why Were G.M. Crops Developed?
Since the begining, crops have been modified through selective breeding. Today, through technology we are able to genetically engineer plants to our needs. They are created through inserting and deleting genes in the plant's DNA to change the phenotype traits, genotype, and the function of the plant. (2)
In the video it explains how G.M. crops are developed
Major Challenges of Genectically Modified Crops
With genetically modified crops, there are many challenges that could be overcomed, but they also face many challenges. Many people fear G.M. crops because of certain rumors such as, the cause of allergenicity in humans and toxicity. Most people also believe that G.M. crops don't actually reduce pesticide use and others believe that gene transfer can cause certain plants to become superweeds and become resistant to pesticides. (3)
Watch video to understand what GMOs are
Why We Should Have G.M. Crops
There are many reasons we need G.M. crops. One reason for that is, as stated before about 850 million people around the world are malnourished and hungry. Most of the people that are malnourished and hungry live in third world countries where food is scarce and populations are high. With G.M. crops, we can reduce the number of people who are malnourished (1)
Past Technologies Used
Throughout history, biotechnology has been used on crops. Selective breeding is the manipulation of genes in crops which involves humans to continously select traits from certain crops and breed them. This technique has been used for many centuries and today we now genetically engineer crops to our needs. (10)
In picture above shows an example of selective breeding