In my opinion, no. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency studied them for years before allowing their release, and, unlike many other crop protection materials, found only one thing to regulate -- the possibility of insect resistance to the Bt trait. Farmers are required to plant from 5% to 20% of their acreage to non-Bt crop to help delay the development of resistant populations. With one billion people in the world suffering from hunger, I believe there are more important problems.
Some GMO crops are genetically engineered to produce a substance that kills insects when they is eaten by them. It is for that reason that some GMO crops are classified as pesticides by the EPA.
Organic crops are non GMO, but GMO crops of the same kind can cross pollinate with them, resulting in contamination of the organic crops.
there have been no instances of genes escaping from GMO plants into other plants
In the United States, genetically modified foods have been declared to be "substantially equivalent" to non-GMO foods, so there are no differences in how they are grown. There are recommendations for GMO farmers to plant barriers of non-GMO crops to cut down on cross pollination of their crops with non-GMO crops, but these are just recommendations and are not enforced.
When organic crops are pollinated with GMO crops, the GMO gene can become a part of the organic crop, so the organic seed for the following year contains the GMO. Technically, since organic crops are not supposed to have GMOs in them, this contaminates the organic crops.
GMO foods are grown very much like non-GMO that are not being grown organically. The big difference is that some of the crops have been engineered to have resistance to herbicides like Round-up. For those crops, the herbicide can be sprayed directly on the crop without killing it; whereas, it cannot be sprayed directly on the non-GMO crops. Other crops have been genetically engineered to produce a substance that kills insects when they eat the plant. In that case, those growing GMO crops theoretically would not need to use pesticides, or at least not as many pesticides, as those who grow non-GMO crops.
Initial isolation distance refers to the minimum distance required between a genetically modified organism (GMO) field trial and other non-GMO crops of the same species to prevent cross-pollination and maintain genetic integrity of the non-GMO crops. It is meant to minimize the risk of genetic contamination and maintain the purity of non-GMO crops.
One problem GMO crops pose for farmers who do not grow them is cross pollination of GMOs in non-GMO crops, especially those that are grown organically.
Spread of GMOs is the unwanted cross pollination of GMO crops with non-GMO and organically grown crops. Unchecked spread means that it is being allowed to happen without measures to avoid it being taken.
In many parts of the world, hunger is not the result of lack of food in the world, but political and social issues. Unless those issues are dealt with and resolved, GMO or any other kind of food is not going to solve hunger in those areas. In addition, some countries that will accept non-GMO foods will not accept GMO foods, so GMO food will not help to solve the hunger in those countries.
People should avoid eating GMO foods for many reasons, including:No long term human studies were done before GMO foods were released to consumers.Questionable regulation by the United States FDA, USDA, and EPA.Anecdotal evidence that GMO foods are harmful to human health.Though GMO crops were supposed to lessen chemical pesticides used on GMO crops, there are actually more herbicides being used on crops engineered to resist the herbicide Round-up. Now, more crops are being engineered to resist other, more toxic chemical herbicides.The bT varieties of GMO crops are designed to produce a substance that kills targeted insects when the plant is eaten, but that substance could be killing non-targeted insects and having ill effects on human health when people eat the crops.Long term studies on rats resulted in negative effects on their health, though each study that was done (and they were done by respected, independent scientists) was questioned by other scientists and government officials.
Think GMO crops. Not natural selection, we selected them artificially