The Pros And Cons Of GMO Regulation

In 1994 the first genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been put on the shelves in grocery stores. Since then there have been debates about the environmental impact, health risks, and ethical concerns. It has now been 22 years since GMO have been used for commercial agriculture yet there isn’t any clear regulations on them. GMO should be regulated so that we can avoid potential health and environmental damage. The International Agency for Research on Cancer declared a reason for regulation on GMOs. The declaration, by the member of the World Health Organization, came as a defense of potential health risks created by genetically modified products. Michael Specter, an author of an article published under The New Yorker, describes how the research agency declared glyphosate to be a likely cause for cancer.

According to the Library of Congress, the FDA “would treat foods derived from GMOs like those derived from conventionally bred plants.” Loose constriction on GMO’s will allow private agricultural biotechnology corporation to freely experiment on commercial products, which can become problematic. Since large scale GMO based agriculture is relatively new, we don’t have sufficient scientific data on how to combat potential risks. In an excerpt from the Vermont Law Review, about government regulations of GMO’s research shows that “at least ten species [….] of weed plants [became] resistant to glyphosate in more than twenty states.” There is a direct correlation between the introduction of these pesticide resistant weeds and the introduction of GMO. These now “superweeds” will slightly change the local environment and become a problem for natural and or organic farmers. With stricter regulation, more time could have been spent to review the possible outcomes and this could have been