Do GMO foods need less

Herbicide or more?
GMO foods (genetically modified foods) are foods that are genetically modified to have a
quality of another plant or animal. The way this works is by taking a gene from another
specimen and placing it into something else. When GMOs were created in the 1970s-people
claimed that the plants needed less pesticide well that is not true. Scientists figured out that
GMO foods need more pesticide than normal plants. The amount of pesticide used on
plants has been increased and the use of glyphosate the world’s top weed killer has been
increased as well. Monsanto a company that creates GMO foods, promotes Roundup a
glyphosate-based pesticide as safe and having low toxicity, Monsanto was charged with
false advertising for saying that Roundup is biodegradable, and leaves the soil clean after
use, Roundup is not biodegradable, in fact, roundups glyphosate is harmful to the
environment per the European Union. Doctors are unsure, but some of the illnesses you
could get from these pesticides are cancer, damage to the nervous, endocrine, and
reproductive system. These plants are bad for the environment, and even though they stop
pests the earth adapts to the herbicides and pesticides, creating pesticide resistant
superweeds that need even stronger pesticides to kill them. These superweeds need
stronger pesticides and it goes on and on and on a continuous cycle.

These plants stop bugs and other creatures from eating the plants, and ever since then,
fewer bugs have been eating fewer crops due to the pesticides that are inserted inside
them. One of the bugs that like to eat crops are Aphids, they are little green and brown bugs
that like to feed on tomatoes until nothing’s left. Corn is a type of vegetable that is loved by
all pests such as the European corn borer (ECB for short) they need to find the greenest,
tallest corn for egg laying. When the ECB became a problem, scientists created Bt corn
(Bacillus thuringiensis) to kill the bugs. Scientists figured out that a family of an insecticidal
protein in the Bt crystal kills the ECB. When the ECB larva eats the Bt, part of it binds to the
crystal, penetrating it, and collapsing the cell lining of its gut, causing death. This helped the
farmers because they got to grow more crops without the ECB getting to it. This benefits the
farmers because they get to sell more corn so that they can earn more money for
themselves for general living purposes. This benefits the people because more people get
more food so that they don’t get hungry.

Even though these plants are not in development there are still problems with these
‘solutions’. These plants can kill the bugs that benefit the plant like Adult lady beetles, they
eat the Aphids, Mites, and Mealybugs, that try to harm plants. Lots of different bugs and
animals can go extinct or become very sick because of these plants. Even though the
European corn borer is far from extinction in a few years it can go extinct, and most of the
bugs that are being killed benefit the ecosystem. These plants are bad for the environment,
the pesticides that are in them contaminate other crops causing more bugs to die. Monarch
butterflies are close to extinction because of the pesticides used in GMO plants. There are
also other animals that are affected by these pesticides such, honey bees, and birds. These
plants may not always stop bugs, maybe in a few years, there will be bugs immune to the
pesticides in GMO foods. GMO foods are more expensive than regular foods. Here is a chart
from Royte, Elizabeth. “The Post-GMO Economy.” Modern Farmer, Farm.Food.Life, 2 May 2016,
modernfarmer.com/2013/12/post-gmo-economy/.
to show you what I mean.

As shown in the graph GMO foods are way more expensive than regular crops. For non-
wealthy farmers, this could be an issue, even though these plants are bad for the
environment, these farmers can’t access them because they are too expensive to buy and
care for. On top of people not being able to buy it, and it being very expensive, it is also bad
for people’s health, even though they stop the pests, we don’t know where the animals
have been or have eaten, and as said earlier people’s health is at risk because of these
plants. These pesticides especially glyphosate have been appearing in people’s blood, urine,
and breast milk because of the pesticides in GMO foods. There are also political problems
with this because the manufacturer's, people believe, have taken over the food industry and
that the food that they eat needs to be in the hands of the consumers and farmers. Food is
a necessity to everyone; therefore, manufacturers need to stop making GMO foods because
it is bad for the environment and bad for our health.

https://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/08/tomato-plant-problems/

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe70s/pests_08.html

http://www.eoi.es/blogs/guillermojoselatorre/2014/02/27/gmos-solution-or-problem/

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/gmos-and-pesticides/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bethhoffman/2013/07/02/gmo-crops-mean-more-herbicide-
not-less/#61d63e453cd5

http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/biotech/insect.htm

https://www.bestfoodfacts.org/gmos-environment/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/feb/17/peter-defazio/are-
gmos-causing-monarch-butterflies-become-extinc/

https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/gmos-are-killing-bees-butterflies-birds-and

https://modernfarmer.com/2013/12/post-gmo-economy/

https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/fieldcropsipm/insects/euro-cornborer.php

http://www.geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk/political-effects-gm-foods.html

http://naturalsociety.com/study-links-gmos-22-different-diseases/

https://sites.google.com/site/gmfooddc/moral-issues-on-gm-food