GMOs, or “genetically modified organisms,” are plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding.
The idea put forward was that certain traits, including increased nutrition resistance to drought and faster growth, could be bred into crops such as corn and soybeans so that improved produce could be grown in much higher yields.
Genetically engineered crops have been with us now for some 20 years, and it is becoming apparent that the reality of GMOs has fallen far short of business model expectations A report issued in 2009 by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops found that GM technology has not increased yields at all through its entire history, despite the millions that have been spent on GM development, much of it from government funding.
The public is becoming increasingly concerned about GMOs, as scientific evidence is arguing against the safety of public consumption and the widespread growing of GMO crops. Of greatest concern, however, is new research regarding pesticides developed strictly for GMOs, which may prove to be the tipping point for the entire technology.
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