Are all G.M.O.s Bad?
Genetically modified organisms (G.M.O.s) were not a cut and dried issue for Greggor Ilagan. According to an article by Amy Harmon, while many people vehemently supported a 2013 bill to ban G.M.O.s on the island of Hawaii, he was plagued by doubts. Mr. Ilagan was in his first two-year term on the County Council of Puna, Hawaii, and he sought to understand the facts on G.M.O.s in spite of intense opposition. There were people, such as the island’s papaya farmers, who did not support the ban. It was important to him to support these constituents by searching out the facts. As Ms. Harmon points out, while pursuing this fact finding mission, Mr. Ilagan found himself “wrestling with a subject in which popular beliefs often do not reflect scientific evidence.” He discovered that all the reputable scientific studies on the issue found no scientific evidence that G.M.O.s were harmful to human health and the environment. Hence, Mr. Ilagan voted “no” on the bill. It passed anyway and a promised support to form a task force to examine the impact of the ban on the island quickly dissipated.
Feeding people has become an ever growing problem. Climate change is having a significant negative impact on agriculture and the world population is growing exponentially. A ban on G.M.O.s makes the issue of feeding people much harder to resolve. If pursued with sustainable principles in the forefront, G.M.O.s can do for the world what it did for Hawaii’s papaya farmers, save the life of a crop to feed people. All G.M.O.s may not be bad.
