Saturday, June 26, 2010 @ 8:24 PM

Benefits of GM foods
There is a need to produce inexpensive, safe and nutritious foods to help feed the world’s growing population. Genetic modification may provide:

• Sturdy plants able to withstand weather extremes
• Better quality food crops
• Higher nutritional yields in crops
• Inexpensive and nutritious food, like carrots with more antioxidants
• Foods with a greater shelf life, like tomatoes that taste better and last longer
• Food with medicinal (nutraceutical) benefits, such as edible vaccines – for example, bananas with bacterial or rotavirus antigens
• Crops resistant to disease and insects and produce that requires less chemical application, such as pesticide and herbicide resistant plants: for example, GM canola.

GM advocates argue that genetically modified foods are potentially better for the environment. By using genetically engineered crops that are resistant to attack by pests or disease (insect resistant or IR), farmers and primary producers do not have to apply large amounts of pesticides and chemicals to the surrounding environment. Developing crops that are tolerant to particular herbicides (herbicide tolerant or HT) and pesticides may reduce the amount of pesticides used in food production and the residual pesticide levels in the environment.

Benefits

• Crops
• Enhanced taste and quality
• Reduced maturation time
• Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
• Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides
• New products and growing techniques
• Animals
• Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency
• Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk
• Improved animal health and diagno`stic methods
• Environment
• "Friendly" bioherbicides and bioinsecticides
• Conservation of soil, water, and energy
• Bioprocessing for forestry products
• Better natural waste management
• More efficient processing
• Society
• Increased food security for growing populations

Better Health Channel. (2010). Genetically modified foods
Retrieve June 6, 2010, from
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Genetically_modified_foods?OpenDocument

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Human Genome Program. (2009). Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms Retrieve June 6, 2010, from
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml