Human population is forever on the rise.

My question today is what is the one thing

that isnt growing fast enough to cater to the rising population. Is it technology, no
not really says Moores law. Is it then perhaps water, well with 70% water around us,
there seems to be plenty. It definitely isnt air because we arent on mars. You see,
the one thing that isnt growing as fast as the human population is food itself. There
are just too many mouths to feed. No wonder Africa is such a hungry nation.
The worlds food security is slowly declining. There might even come a day when
cannibalism is the new fast food but until then, we must do something else to
ensure our food security. That, my friends, is the entire purpose of genetically
modified organisms. With GMOs, not only can we feed hungry Africa but the entire
worlds population can live extremely nourishing lives. All thanks to a few syringes
and some clever genetics.
When most people think about genetic modifications per se, they either think about
mutants or bio weapons. But really the field of genetically modified organisms also
encompasses crops with higher yields and genetically fattened chickens. Genetic
modifications done for increasing food security offer us a wide range of benefits
such as
Higher yields
Resilience to adverse conditions
As well as a dramatic increase in the nutritional content and preservative properties
of the food.
Despite the fact that only 25 percent of corn in the world is grown with GMOs, the
use of the technology has led to an increase in the availability of corn estimated at
10 percent. These increases have resulted from both higher yields per as well as
allowing for expansion of land and seasons for growing for certain crops. GMO has
already made a significant positive contribution to human well-being. For example,
without GMOs the price of soybean would be around 33 percent higher. These
increases played a major role in preventing the American food crises and riots of
2008 and 2011 from becoming a global phenomenon.
One of the notable benefits of genetically modified (GM) foods is that they can be
engineered to resist extreme weather and diseases. The entire plot of Interstellar
wouldnt have taken place if only they had utilized GMOs to defeat the blight. When
you consider the fact that a farmer is to some extent at the mercy of the weather,
you can imagine how a crop engineered to be resistant to intense weather
fluctuations can be a relief for the agricultural industry. When a drought strikes or
there is a longer, colder winter season than usual, crops can ultimately be
destroyed. However, the use of a GM crop engineered to withstand these extremes
in weather can mean a consistently steady crop that retains high quality and flavor.
These types of weather resistant crops are generally considered well-suited to

developing nations, who place more reliance on staple crops and who also do not
have the economic stability to withstand a ruined crop from one year to another.
Still, the issue of using GM crops to handle weather extremes have also been raised
again more recently in Britain after 2007, which was a particularly poor year for
farming.

Golden Rice is a striking case of a lost or delayed opportunity. Its a rice variety
enriched with beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A or in layman terms, it gives
you better eyesight than carrots. Every year, an estimated quarter million people
who rely on rice for their diet go blind due to lack of this. A variety of Golden Rice
was first available around 2002. Over time it has been improved but regulatory
pressure has prevented its introduction. It has been estimated that even a limited
adoption of Golden Rice could have saved millions of people from blindness and
death due to Vitamin A deficiency.
There is a huge bunch of misinformation going around these days that GMO crops
and meats cause diseases or for some reason give peanut allergies from bananas.
Seems to me like someone at Wikipedia, went bananas. GM foods currently
available on the international market have passed safety assessments and are not
likely to present risks for human health. In fact, Non-GMO the term itself is a special
feature of some products which just goes to show that almost all our food is indeed
already genetically modified, yet most of seem quite healthy dont we? I bet none of
you ever had peanut allergies from things that arent peanuts.
The crux of the apparent problem with GMOs hasnt got anything to do with GMOs
themselves but rather is due to peoples lack of knowledge. If we are to transform
our world into one where Africa is no longer hungry, then we must take up the
mantle of Genetic modifications to our food and embrace this wonderful change,
with open mouths.
Thank You