Science Technology & Innovation Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Science Technology & Innovation Systems - Essay Example The research on the existing literature and the reports focusing on the particular subject led to the conclusion that the disadvantages of GM crops are more than their advantages – at such level that the use of these crops for covering the daily needs in food to be questioned. The potential effects of the expansion of such crops should be further examined; alternative practices for increasing the food stock worldwide would be necessary. 2. Genetically Modified crops – advantages and disadvantages The role of GM crops as part of food chain worldwide need to be carefully reviewed – taking into consideration the relationship between food and health; also, in terms of the environment, the potential implications of GM crops should be explored. The existence of strong oppositions regarding the expansion of GM crops leads to the assumption that the intervention of biology in food production has not been as successful as believed by the GM crops initiators. A fact that f urther increase the worries regarding the development of GM crops is the lack of effective rules for their regulation – as explained below. ... The advantages and disadvantages of GM crops are analytically presented in the sections that follow; reference is made to the effects of GM crops on three specific sectors: health, environment and law. 2.1 Genetically Modified crops and health The main reason for the development of GM crops has been the increased need for food in countries worldwide; the crops of this type are able to offer a high level of production – compared to the conventional crops – a fact that is considered as their main advantage. Another characteristics of the GM crops – in terms of health – is their ability to be altered – enriched with vitamins and other valuable nutritional elements – leading to the increased benefits for health (McKie 2011). An indicative example is the ‘golden rice’ (see Figure 1, Appendix) which has been considered as an important means for offering to the population of poor countries food enriched in Vitamin A – increasing their strength towards diseases which are caused by the lack of the specific Vitamin. In fact, the research on the effects of poor nutrition – in terms of nutritional elements – on human health has proved that food which is poor in certain vitamins can cause severe problems of health (Bionet, 2002); in poor countries, a direct relationship of lack of vitamins and blindness has been proved; this problem has been addressed using the golden rice which is enriched with Vitamin A (Bionet, 2002). However, GM food can also hide severe risks for human health; in fact, it is noted that the exact consequences of GM food on human health have not been precisely identified (Human Genome Project, 2008); however, effects like ‘allergens and transfer of