The main reason for coming up with GM foods was to enhance agricultural sustainability for increased food production, but it has become a concern and threat to human beings and other organisms. The arguments given by Mrs Margaret Mellon against GM food are indeed a concern in the food and agriculture industries in the 21st century. As she puts it biotechnology is an excellent tool for improving human’s life in several ways but its use in agriculture to make GM food raises a number of problems. Indeed the more questions we ask on GM food, the less likely we are to accept them at face value because of the risks they post on the human. The paper provides a detailed description of the reasons as to why the world does not need GM food due to its risks and the possible solutions to curb GM foods.

The genetically engineered food production process poses severe risks to the environment. The seeds of the GM foods are transported beyond the areas where they are grown. They help reduce the use of pesticides and herbicide chemicals in agriculture as said by Robert Horsch; however, through cross-pollination they cause problems (Conner, Glare & Nap, 2003). For instance, cross-pollination of the GM plants has created herbicide resistant species of weed “Superweeds” which threatens other wild plants and crops that help in environmental sustainability. GM foods like Bt pest-resistant corn is only aimed at suppressing stock borer pests.  Therefore, farmers still use pesticides to kill the other pests which are contrary to the environmental protection principle that GM foods are meant for.

On human health, GM foods pose an array of concerns as the mixing of plant genes threatens human health. Some of the GM foods cause allergies in people by converting non-allergenic food to be allergenic. For example, the crossing of Brazil nuts and soybeans made a number of people prone to allergies suffer. Some of the GM foods increase resistance to antibiotics, making these types of medicine to be less effective (Domingo, 2000).  Unauthorized GM food may be found food chain for example the Starlink GM maize meant for animal fed was accidentally transferred in products consumed by humans. Fears have also been raised by scientists that new toxins can be introduced by the technology. It may also have links to reproductive malfunctions, cancer and digestive disorders among other risks.

GM foods also have potential economic risks on the farmers. As briefly alluded by Robert B. Horsch biotechnology research is only done predominantly by one company like Monsanto. This creates monopoly of the market by the powerful companies thus negatively impacting on small scale farmers. There is fear that these farmers may even make farmers to buy crop species bred from the genetic crops that originally originated from their own farms.  The propriety form of biotechnology processes and products may slow their access to research by the public. This creates negative impacts on developing nations lacking private research initiatives and patent rights to production of biotechnology foods.

Some of the solutions to improve food production without the use of GM foods are changing of the trade policies. Developed states like US that have more than 300,000 food products on their groceries should strive to change their trade policies to allow the developing nations to get access to these food. If this is done then the food scarcity in the developing countries that calls for introduction of GM foods in bridging the gap will end. The other means of eliminating GM foods is by improving infrastructure. By improving the technology and the roads, there will be more production, more technologies to preserve food and easy transportation of non-GM foods to the market. Land reform is another very important idea to improve food production. Through land reclamation and use of the organic locally produced manure high yield of crops may be achieved at low costs, thus eradicating the need of GM foods.

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