Can GM foods will provide many health benefits?
Advocates hold that GM foods will leave traditional crops in the dust. They will have longer shelf life. They will be better for us, with some products already in the works benefiting our waistlines (low-calorie sugar beets and oils with lower saturated fat content, for example) and others bearing higher nutritional content (high-fiber corn and high-starch potatoes). And they will be safer to eat. GM corn has lower fungal toxin content than non-GM corn, and farmers typically produce GM crops using fewer pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. GM foods will have even greater benefits for the world’s poor, supporters state. In developing countries, malnutrition is a grave problem, because people often have to rely on a single staple, such as rice, that on its own doesn’t supply sufficient nutrients. Food scientists hope to genetically modify crops to add vitamins and minerals. One of the most promising is “golden rice,” which can stimulate our bodies to generate vitamin A. In the develo
