Is GM food a blessing or a curse? GM food is more of a curse than a blessing. GM food is a blessing when it increases income.

With GM food, farmers need not worry about crops being damaged by pests, low rainfall and other problems every year and having to throw away them, resulting in reduced loss of income. These GM food are pest resistant and can survive with less water. This way, farmers do not lose income this way and can save on the money used to buy pesticides. For example, a pest resistant corn was created by inserting a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). It does not get damaged easily, and this increases output and income. Also, some GM food can stay fresh for a longer time, allowing farmers to sell their products to markets that are further away. Farmers are able to sell more of their food crops to other countries and earn more money. GM food is also a blessing when it increases food supply. Some GM food can produce higher outputs than non-GM food crops. For example, the cultivation of Super Rice, a type of GM rice, produces double the output of normal rice. Farmers can gain more income when they have more crops to sell. Also, increase in food supply leads to decline in food prices, making food cheaper, allowing the poor to be able to afford food, reducing malnutrition and improve peoples health. Certain GM food can withstand harsh environmental conditions like barren and dry land, infertile and saline spoils, increasing food supply. GM food is also a blessing when it improves the nutritional value of food. Some GM food crops have higher nutritional levels. For example, GM rice known as Golden Rice has been enriched with beta-carotene to supplement the lack of Vitamin A in rice diets in LDCs that caused many to die and become blind. GM food can be used as a form of medicine or vaccine in LDCs. Lastly, GM food can reduce environmental pollution. The growing of GM pest-resistant and herbicide-resistant plants has reduced reliance on harmful chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, reducing land and water pollution. Thus, GM food is a blessing as it brings a lot of positive impacts with it. However, GM food is a curse when it brings about potential health risks. GM food may cause allergies in some people. For example, scientists have used lectin, a protein found in beans in potatoes to prevent aphids from attacking potato plants. However, people allergic to lectin will get allergic reactions if consumed. Also, there may be unknown consequences of consuming food that is not natural, like GM food. For example, it was found in 2005 that a GM pea caused health problems in research mice. GM food crops can affect biodiversity. For example, some pest-resistant plants are indirectly destroying harmless insects like Monarch butterflies. In the 1980s, corn was genetically modified to express a toxin called the Bt toxin, which kills the European corn borer, a butterfly caterpillar that feeds on corn. When the larvae of Monarch butterfly fed on plants that were dusted with Bt corn pollen, the larvae grew more slowly and died at a higher rate than larvae that were not exposed to the pollen. This affects animals further up the food chain, causing more plants and animals to become extinct. Also, some GM food may genetically pollute natural crops that are not genetically modified. For example, when the pollen of a pest-resistant crop is carried by the wind or by insects to compatible natural crops, the offspring of the organic crop will become pest-resistant. Since such gene pollution is irreversible, it will result loss of natural plant species, resulting in a loss of biodiversity. Such gene pollution may lead to development of superweeds that are herbicide-resistant. This happens when the herbicide-resistant gene is passed on to weeds from GM food crops that are herbicide-resistant. As a result, superweeds develop and are harder to combat against. Thus, GM food is a curse as it brings such negative impacts with it Based on the criterion of impact, GM food is more of a curse than a blessing. Although it increased incomes and brought about increased food supply, when GM food are affected by gene pollution, the food supply is affected forever and is far more significant than the short term benefits that it has.