Monday, December 2, 2013

9. Mehmet, Oz. Genetically Modified Foods (GMO): Good or Bad? Doctoroz.com [Internet] 2012 Oct 16 [cited 2013 Nov 25 for SCIENCE in the NEWS]. Available from; http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/mehmet-oz-md/genetically-modified-foods-good-or-bad.

       Genetically modified foods are created using biotechnology to change their genetic material. The technique develops desired genes that are useful for our lives, or sometimes inactivates unwanted genes to make the product more efficient. Mehmet Oz, who is the host of The Dr. Oz Show and a professor of Surgery at Columbia University, talks about each sides main points on genetically modified foods (GMOs), which are still greatly controversial today, instead of standing on one side of the GMO issue in this article. Mehmet explains several specific examples of modified corn, such as genetically modifying corn to be tolerant to herbicides, breeding corn with a built-in pesticide that kills bugs, or taking out a fish gene that can survive in cold water to make corn that survives in cold water. Furthermore, even though there are many merits to using genetically modified foods to feed a growing population, his opinion is that we still have to be on alert about the future costs of using GM foods.

     Overall, this article is a brief introduction of genetically modified foods and also about several cases of GM foods used in real life. I do agree that we have to be sure of what we eat and aware of future side-effects that might cause severe diseases. However, instead of worrying about upcoming negative effects of eating GM foods, I believe the problem of hunger and starvation has to come first which we all have to solve out together. In that way, using GM foods is the best way to figure out the problem of insufficient global food resources resulting from poverty at this stage.

     * However, if there is any other way to solve this hunger problem from poverty in developing countries, what would be the methods to replace the GM foods? 
   * If you disagree with popularizing GM foods, what would be the reason?
                       

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