You know what they say: An apple today causes radioactive decay

A mouth-watering plate of spaghetti is presented to you at a fine Italian restaurant. It is glistening in the dim candle-lit room with bright red Arrabbiata sauce and is adorned with perfectly cut slices of Carmasciano cheese. The delicious aromas fill your nose as you begin to dig in. Little do you know that you are in the middle of a brutal massacring. Slowly after each meal your chances of getting cancer or a serious life threatening disease are greatly increased. You are slowly dying mouthful after mouthful so you should enjoy that Trebbiano wine while it lasts!

This might seem like some junk email you find at the bottom of your inbox, but according to 57% of adults your everyday food could cause serious health implications later on in your life. Let’s face it, us British do love a good old food scare – remember listeria in cheese, Salmonella and Eggwina? Yet only 12% of scientists believe this is the case. These perplexing killers are genetically modified organism (GMO) foods that are taking over their natural counterparts on supermarket shelves and restaurants everywhere. So why is it that most scientists, notoriously sceptical and bureaucratic when researching side effects, are not convinced in this serious life-threatening case? Will this spread bring humanity to the brink of destruction or just make our carrots more nutritious?

However, I’m not so sure he’s as well learned as he comes across as since he admitted “I know nothing about GMOs” in an interview with the Huffington post. So the man that has written numerous books and created several films about the dangers of GMOs knows nothing about them! Surely his evidence has some validity to add severity to his point. Well he specifies no actual statistic of the number of cows killed so it could just be a coincidence that a couple cows, fed genetically modified food, have died. The soy allergy rise is a little harder to explain and more serious since it does affect humans directly. However, even if there is a harmful gene in soy it does not mean that all genetically modified food will be dangerous. Especially since human DNA does not alter when we come into contact with other genes like he claims. I mean there is the saying you are what you eat but maybe this is taking that a bit too literally!It is due to the work of people like Jeffrey Smith, one of the leading anti-GMO voices, that the majority of adults are going against the opinions of scientists. Jeffrey M Smith is the founder of the institute for responsible technology and has written numerous books about the dangers of GMOs. He claims that foreign genes in the plant create their own pesticides that may damage our cells when we eat them. Even more disturbingly he also argues these genes could alter our own DNA and make us more prone to diseases. He backs these up with evidence as he claims that cows fed GM corn have died of mysterious causes. He also adds that it affects humans too, as soy allergies have shot up 50% after GM soy was introduced to the UK. You may be thinking who would argue with a man who appears to be such an expert in the field with evidence?

Still, what incentive does Jeffrey Smith have in spreading superficial facts of GMOs? Surely it’s not for the money? It’s not like he’s now become an international bestselling author and filmmaker. Oh wait … he has.

So what if he’s making money, you might say, can we really afford to completely neglect his warning? As it stands, we cannot afford to take his warning into account. The world’s population is skyrocketing and estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. How can we feed these extra 3 billion people when we cannot even do so today?

Current farming techniques will not be sufficient to feed the extra billions of mouths and the only alternative to genetic modification is increasing the use of fertilisers and pesticides. These are known to degrade the land and also to pollute the air and water so are therefore not sustainable. As a result, plant and animal life may die or become malformed. Also, children exposed to pesticides have increased rates of leukemia and brain cancer, and exposed pregnant women are proved to have higher miscarriage rates. So, all the claims people have about GMOs are actually seen in pesticides, the only other alternative. The one key difference is that this evidence is verified by a legitimate government source, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and the other, by the let’s say not so reliable, Jeffrey Smith.

Rewind 85 years to the 1930s and you would see a world in a similar predicament. Countries like India were experiencing famines as they struggled to feed their rapidly expanding populations. Maybe we can find the solution to the future by looking the past. The salvation of that time was the green revolution which ushered in a new age in agriculture as, both metaphorically and literally, it made the world greener.

This change is seen best in India where barren wastelands were recovered to fertility and health within decades. New species of rice were planted to increase yield and resistance to floods. This modified species contained a gene resistant to flooding so instead of dying out when fields were flooded, the yield reaped was as good as any other year.

So what exactly is this green revolution? I mean it’s great that it helped some farmers in the 1930s but how can that be translated to the modern world? Well, the green revolution was a series of scientific developments, some of which were genetic, that were made between 1930 and 1950 and helped to increase the productivity of agriculture. Many scientists believe that a second green revolution is occurring right now as we are learning more and more about the genes of plant, their effect and how we might use that knowledge to develop new and more resilient species of different crops.

Okay so now you may start to think that GMOs are the only solution for the future, yet many people are still under the misconception that the genetic modification of plants will lead to a monopoly of the agricultural industry and will hurt smaller farmers. This is true to a certain extent as only relatively large companies will be able to afford the equipment needed to modify genes. However, in an ironic twist, it is the people that are campaigning against GMOs for this reason who are increasing this effect and causing even more damage to smaller companies. These “GM foes” have forced governments to increase the regulatory costs of the research and production of GMO seeds. This is created a situation where only the largest co-operations with the deepest pockets are able to produce the seeds.

Furthermore there is evidence that genetically modifying our crops will actually make them safer than conventionally grown species. It has been shown that genetically modified potatoes produce less acrylamides when fried. Acrylamides are neurotoxins that are possible carcinogens that could cause cancers. Furthermore, scientists have found out which genes produce vitamins and anti-oxidants in fruits and can modify them to make them even healthier and nutrient-rich for us. So, not only can genetic modification remove harmful substances, it can also add healthy and nutritious substances as well.

The use of GMOs in our food has been going on for 10,000 years. The ancient Egyptians of this time created new varieties of corn which would harvest better. Yet their mutant corn did not destroy them, like our media might believe, but rather marked the beginning of one of the greatest civilisations to rule the world. So in contrast to what many believe mutant Franken foods are not coming to destroy us, since if they could, they would have done so a long time ago.

There is very little feasible proof that these crops are dangerous to us and many misconceptions about how they can damage us but the truth is altering the genes of other species will not have an adverse effect on our bodies. Despite a wide spread fear across the public, logic and evidence almost unanimously point towards GMOs being the way forward. There may be a few instances where GMOs have had certain negative side effects but you should learn to trust your scientists, after all, you’re not dead yet.

Dylan Parekh