Can Gmos Solve World Hunger?

"Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature" (Jacob Bronowski, 1908-1974). Since man stepped on Earth, science has been the key for survival. When it comes to food, however, science has been on a hot debate for past several decades. Can GMOs solve world hunger? The answer turns out not to be as simple as people thought. There are many political and economic forces that may lead us in the wrong direction; however, we should keep on track by interpreting different aspects of the issue. Below, I am going to talk more about why GMOs can/cannot solve world hunger:

Many nutritionists and food experts around the world believe that world hunger can be solved by producing more food at lower prices (www.wisegeek.com). In other words, we should increase food productivity. This process can be done relatively more easily through biotechnology than traditional ways. According to Bill Lambrecht (2001), many scientists believe that biotechnology could raise overall crop productivity in developing countries as much as twenty-five percent and help prevent the loss of those crops after they are harvested. Twenty-five percent more overall productivity literally means saving millions of hungry people from dying annually. Farmers, in addition to quantity of crops, spend a lot of time on protecting their crops. "Crop losses from insect pests can be staggering, resulting in devastating financial loss for farmers and starvation in developing countries" (www.csa.com). As a result, in developing countries, farmers typically use tons of chemical pesticides. GM foods can be a solution to this problem as Deborah B. Whitman argues: "Growing genetically modified foods such as B.T. corn can help eliminate use of those chemicals and reduce the cost of bringing the crops to market" (www.csa.com). Farmers can also grow disease resistant seeds. In Hawaii, the papaya industry was almost completely destroyed by a tiny killer called papaya ring spot virus for which there is no natural resistance. A simple gene from the virus itself acted like a vaccine to completely protect the plant and restore the economy (Lambrecht 2001). Plus, if the old insecticides do not happen to work, the farmers' lives would be over. Frederick Tudor discusses that over the next hundred years the population of the U.S. will double and rural population will increase by fifty percent by the year 2050 (quoted in Dinner at the New Gene Café 2001, p. 297). Consequently, we will have to use more of our land for housing and less of it for food production. On the other hand, Michael Pollick (2010) mentions that, "Many people today live in areas of the world which were never capable of producing sufficient food crops or are nearly impossible to irrigate" (www.wisegeek.com). Taken these two reasons and the ability of biotechnology science, scientists are working (and have succeeded in several cases) on making the impossible possible. They are trying to grow crops in locations previously unsuited for plant growth. Besides that, scientists have created a gene tolerant to cold temperatures. An antifreeze gene from cold water fish has been introduced into plants such as tobacco and potato. With this antifreeze gene, these plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally would kill unmodified seeds (www.csa.com).

Another way that genetically modification of food can help solve world hunger is by adding more nutrients to the food. By making food more nutritious, scientists reassure that millions of hungry humans, especially children, get the needed amount vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, and carbohydrate from the foods that were previously consumed by them. One bold example of that would be producing "golden rice." Every year, around one million children die of lack of vitamin A. This new variety of rice produces extra levels of beta-carotene and related compounds that are converted in the human body to vitamin A (Lambrecht 2001). Scientists in biotechnology industry can also insert vaccines and anticancer agents into foods. For instance, they can "put antioxidants