GMOs give foods better texture, flavor, and nutritional value, while being a sustainable food source for the world (Benefits of GM Food, 2005).
GM foods have an increased shelf life because of the genetic engineering that occurs in them.
GM foods can produce larger crop production, which can in turn help by feeding more people in developing countries.
GMOs can grow edible vaccinations in plants that can immunize humans from a variety of infectious diseases, such as cholera or potentially AIDs (Benefits of GM Food, 2005).
It is economical even though the seeds cost more. They reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides. GM foods require less manpower to be grown successfully, which should result in economic gain (Murnaghan, 2000).
One other benefit that comes from GM foods, is that they can withstand extreme weather. This means that it can produce many crops in bad weather seasons.
The last benefit is that GM foods can be engineered to have any amount of any nutrient you want and need in your diet. EX: Rice is a GM food that is rich in vitamin A (Murnaghan, 2000).
Genetically modified viruses are real, frightening risks this causes ethical dilemmas.
Labels - Within the US, a big issue is whether GM Food should be labeled (Goldbas, 2014).
US: Only checks GM Foods for whether they are toxic, cause allergies or can be digested (Goldbas, 2014)
Environment - GM Food ruins the environment for non-GM Food (Murnaghan, 2016).
Triggers Allergies - Given that a gene is taken from an allergenic organism and placed into another one organism that does not cause allergies, a person may be exposed to an allergen. As a result, this could lead to an allergic reaction (Murnaghan, 2016).
Causes Diseases - Some GM crops are antibiotic resistant. If some of these crops attract a bacterium or virus, this can be disastrous for the human population (Murnaghan, 2016). Most GM foods are also infected with a gene that allows the food to be antibiotic resistant. If a pathogenic bacteria grows within this plant, it will be very difficult to kill off (Goldbas, 2014). Before they kill it of many lives will be lost.
Changes the Food Web - Due to the changes in the genetics of certain plants, animals are affected differently (Murnaghan, 2016). For example, as a caterpillar, the Monarch butterflies eat milkweed. Milkweed grows around corn and soybeans in the US (Goldbas, 2014). The high concentration of pesticide and anti-herbicide decreases the amount of milkweed (Goldbas, 2014). As a result, it decreases the population of monarch butterflies.