For the last century the world population has multiplied more rapidly than ever before. By 2050, the expected global population is predicted to plateau around 9 billion people. The population is rising faster than the availability of land for agriculture. In America, we currently need 1.2 acres of land per person to feed out population. Is GM the answer to sustaining a growing population, better environment and a stronger economy or are there dangers of GMOs that are not fully understood yet? The creation and cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) crops for food security is widely debated. Many people, including some scientists, disagree with the use of GMOs for multiple reasons. Some fear that long term consequences are not understood and others worry that this process makes small town farmers dependent on large industries, such as Monsanto. Certainly public view is split on these issues especially with the countries and their political stance against the GMO industry taking over agriculture, such as Europe. Then, there are other countries in North America, South America and Asia that believe GMO crops have delivered many benefits to food quality, the environment, pharmaceutical production and non-food crops.
Many developed countries have incorporated genetic modification into their agriculture to improve productivity. In the less developed regions of the world, GM advocates argue that GMO agriculture will drastically increase food sustainability as well as motivate the economy. They argue that genetically modified crops have specific changes in their DNA that create advantages such as drought tolerance, herbicide resistance, nutrition availability, disease resistance and cold resistance, and this biotechnology has already and will continue to improve the lives of small scale farmers in developing regions as well as large scale farmers in more developed regions with increasing yields. On the other-hand, there are arguments that GM crops have long term consequences on human health, cause environmental issues and that they are not necessary for feeding the population. GMOs are not a perfect solution for the increased need of food, and this thesis will examine the benefits and costs of GMOs in food production and summarize the main arguments for both the pros and cons of this biotechnology. Through my research I will make an evidence based recommendation of GMOs and unveil who gains and who loses from genetic modification.