Is GMO food safe? They are more nutritious. FDA has approved GMO foods

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Is GMO food safe?
Introduction
The safety of GMO foods has sparked heated debates and, in many countries, there is legislation on their consumption. The proponents of GMO foods assert that they cannot be dismissed as categorically harmful. GMO has been going on for millennia and most of the foods consumed today are GMO. Previously, GMO was done through grafting of some plants, selective breeding among other processes to propagate desirable genes. Technological advancement has pushed the genetic modification a notch higher where possibly a frost tolerance gene in a fish found in icy waters can be introduced into spinach to prop its’ frost tolerance. Though it is not possible to prove food is safe, only to say that no hazard has been shown to exist.
They are more nutritious
GMOs have been engineered to be more nutritious, and they have offered a sustainable solution to malnutrition especially in many parts of Africa and Asia. For example, golden rice is very rich in vitamin A more than spinach is genetically modified purposely to improve its nutritional value CITATION Jan18 \l 1033 (Brody). Other foods which are continually being engineered to improve their nutritional value are apples, tomatoes, etc. Pink pineapples are being engineered to have tomato-based antioxidant lycopene; tomatoes are also being genetically engineered to contain the antioxidant-rich purple pigment from blueberries. All these modifications are aimed at improving the nutritional value of these foods, and there is no sufficient proof to show that they are hazardous, rather they are more nutritious. There are other foods which are continually being improved to increase the protein content and mineral value to address food shortage and malnutrition in affected areas. Thus, GMO is providing a sustainable solution to the looming problem of food security with the ballooning world population.
FDA has approved GMO foods
Foods and Drugs Administration (FDA) is a government body that is tasked with ensuring that all foods are safe for human consumption. For any GMO food to be approved for production, distribution, and consumption, it must be approved by the FDA. Interestingly, ‘traditional’ foods are not required to be approved by FDA though most of them are also genetically modified in a way or another CITATION Jam16 \l 1033 (Borrell). However, FDA moved in due to public demand to ensure that all the foods are safe for human consumption. Before GMO foods are approved for production, distribution, and consumption, FDA carries out extensive tests to ensure it has the right nutritional content; it does not contain hazardous compounds either introduced artificially or as unintended development due to gene editing. FDA also feeds the product to lab animals and monitor how the animals’ biological mechanisms respond to the GMO food. The tests are performed extensively and for a relatively long period until FDA finds no sufficient evidence to prove that the food is hazardous.
GMO has been produced to meet global food demands
The world’s population has grown exponentially in the recent few decades. It is estimated to reach 9.8 billion people by 2050 CITATION Uni171 \l 1033 (United Nations). As the population is increasing, food security has continually been becoming a challenge because of dwindling marine food due to overfishing, increased desertification due to multifactorial factors such as climatic conditions and poor farming methods, etc. Traditional food production methods cannot sustain the world’s population in the coming decades, and the only sustainable solution is GMO. We will need fish that grow faster to larger sizes (salmons have been engineered to do this CITATION Ric12 \l 1033 (Alleyne)) drought-resistant crops that can still yield higher produce arid and semi-arid areas which are growing in a million square miles per year. The world would need crops that would grow fast and yield higher productivity in hotter climates since the planet is increasingly becoming hotter. GMO technology is the humanity’s lifeline in the coming decade especially if climatic conditions worsen (and they are likely to worsen) and the world’s population increases (and it is likely to increase).
No adverse health effects have been found in humans
GMO foods are tested extensively before they are approved for production, distribution, and consumption CITATION Ray15 \l 1033 (Dobert). If any food is potentially found to contain high amounts of probably toxin substance, it is barred from mass production for humans. Most people have a blanket hysteria over GMO with very illogical reasons for it. Most people are ill-informed, and their assertions are not backed by any scientific proof to substantiate their opinions. It is mainly a case of propaganda or political issues which have instilled fear into many people over the safety of GMO foods. Most animals who are kept for their meat or products are fed with GMO foods for higher yields, and since most of them are mammals like humans, they have not shown complications that can be directly linked to GMO. Most of the complications that can be traced to these foods arise due to poor storage, poor preparation for consumption, pesticides used on them, etc thus, the foods are inherently safe but other processes that go into production, storage, distribution, and consumption might could have made the food potentially hazardous but genetic modification is unfairly blamed for it. Some people fear GMO foods because they have been widely publicized to cause cancer albeit many scientific studies have debunked this myth. However, some foods have a higher calorific value due to genetic en...