Introduction
The issue of genetic modification of animals and plants have been heatedly debated upon in both public and scientific discourses. As technologies become more advance, people begin to largely alter, rather than depend, on their environment. On the one hand, people’s lives become easier and mass production and consumption is possible. One the other hand, the alteration of environment disrupts ecological processes that may endanger human, animal and plant life, and the issue of scarcity of resources are increasing becoming visible as humans use more and more raw materials. Despite the perceive benefits of GMO, more researches must be done to ensure that both its short term and long term effects are not detrimental to both humans and environment.
GMO: The Golden Rice and
The Golden Rice is perhaps, one of the most controversial GMO products. The production of the Golden Rice aims to answer for the increasing number of vitamin A deficiency, especially in developing countries (Duboc, 2014). The Golden rice, infused with Beta A Carotene, is envisioned to alleviate Vitamin A Deficient diseases and food insecurity. However, research on its effectiveness has been in question, , and farmers are more lukewarm in accepting the Golden Rice. In fact, they argue that there are more alternatives to answering for Vit A deficiencies.
GMO can also introduce potential harm to people. For example researchers tried to genetically modify soybeans by introducing a gene from a Brazil nut to enhance its nutritional content (Nordlee, Taylor, Townsend, Thomas, and Bush 1996). However, rather than enhancing its nutritional content, it introduced allergens to the soybeans. Hence, the soybeans which were supposed to be a viable alternative to highly sensitive people was not safe under their experiment.
Despite its potential benefits, GMOs most be continuously evaluated in terms of its effectiveness and safety the public, and other stakeholders, must be included in its research and implementation. People must be aware of both the benefits and costs of these GMO products
References
Dubock, A. (2014). The present status of Golden Rice. Journal of Huazhong Agricultural University, 33(6), 69–84.
Nordlee, J. A., Taylor, S. L., Townsend, J. A., & Laurie A. Thomas, B.S. Robert K. Bush, M. D. (1996). Identification of a Brazil-Nut Allergen in Transgenic Soybeans. The New England Journal of Medicine, 334(11), 688–92.
