Background information

Benefits of GMOs

•    Better food quality and taste- Using GMO foods can produce more sugar such as fructose in vegetables such as corn, and increase heat in peppers. They can also increase shelf life
• There is an increase in product in a smaller amount of time because genetically modifying the organism will allow them to grow bigger and faster
• Using GM animals allows for disease resistant animals that can withstand factory conditions better
• Using GMOs will also save time and money in the maintenance process such as using pesticides where they can just introduce a DNA fragment that codes for a natural pesticide harmless to humans

Drawbacks of GMOs

•  Safety concerns of not knowing any longer term dangers of GMOs
• There are environmental dangers where introducing genetically new plants and animals could damage the ecosystem especially with cross breeding or pollination
• Socioeconomic damage to poor countries that do not have the means to engineer their foods where industrial moguls will no longer need these countries for export
• Ethically, there is the question of whether it is right or wrong to alter the genetic makeup of organisms leading to possibly cloning humans
• There is always a huge resistance issue where producing plants and animals resistant to bacteria cause the bacteria to grow stronger  and making them harder to kill