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The debate surrounding genetically modified (GM) foods is complicated by their relative newness; we don’t fully understand their effects on the human body yet—there simply hasn’t been enough time to gather definitive data. However, there’s no need to wait decades to observe the consequences of engineered foods on our nutrition, as they’re already creating enough problems in other areas to show they might not be as beneficial as we think.
Take a look at the following points.
10. Creation of Superbugs and Superweeds
The advantage of designing a plant with an insecticide gene is that it eliminates a significant number of undesirable pests. However, the drawback is that only the most resilient insects survive, leading to the emergence of a new breed of superbugs that are resistant to both the plant’s internal toxins and external chemical sprays.
In 2011, researchers studied 13 common pests and discovered that five of them had developed resistance to the toxins engineered into GM crops like Bt corn and Bt cotton. Likewise, farmers are encountering weeds that are highly resistant to glyphosate—the herbicide branded as Roundup. Consequently, farmers are compelled to use even more chemicals to control these superweeds. According to the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe, the use of herbicides has risen by 25 percent annually due to GM crops.
What often creates confusion for people and the data is that farmers may initially use fewer chemicals in the early years of growing GM crops. However, once pests and weeds become resistant, farmers are left with little choice but to apply increasingly larger quantities of herbicides and pesticides—driving up both their operational costs and pollution levels.
9. Harm to Bees and Butterflies
One of the claimed advantages of GM foods is their resistance to pests and herbicides, which is said to result in higher crop yields. However, the methods GMO companies use to make their crops pest-proof are also believed to harm crucial beneficial insects, such as bees and butterflies. While it may seem that more food production for the world should outweigh the loss of a few bothersome bugs, this view overlooks the fact that the disappearance of pollinating insects could eventually lead to a collapse of the food supply. Insect pollination is responsible for one-third of food crops, with honeybees contributing 80 percent of that total. Therefore, instead of solving global food shortages, GM foods may ultimately worsen the situation.
Why are GMO manufacturers permitted to grow crops that harm butterflies and bees? The answer is complicated, as with the wide array of insecticides, fungicides, GM crops, and powerful herbicides used in modern agriculture, it’s difficult to determine whether GMOs are directly to blame. Just as one study concludes that GM crops are the issue, another emerges stating that they are completely safe. Meanwhile, honeybee populations continue to decline by 30 percent annually, and butterfly numbers have plummeted to historic lows.
Though it's not clear whether GM crops are inherently harmful to beneficial insects, they certainly contribute to the widespread use of chemicals, which undoubtedly damages both insects and the “weeds” that they rely on (for example, butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed).
8. Farmers Cannot Collect Seeds
At its core, farming is a straightforward process: plant seeds, grow crops, harvest crops, and save seeds from those plants for the following season. Unfortunately, GMO companies like Monsanto eliminate the last step, forcing farmers to purchase expensive GM seeds every year. As demonstrated in the Bowman v. Monsanto case, it is illegal for a US farmer growing a Monsanto crop to harvest seeds and reuse them. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where, despite public protest, the 70-year-old farmer was unanimously found guilty of patent infringement after he purchased and used second-generation Monsanto seeds.
By preventing farmers from saving seeds, large corporations could ultimately seize full control over the global seed market and its prices. Right now, three major companies dominate more than half of the worldwide seed market, causing seed prices to soar. For example, the cost of planting an acre of soybeans has risen 325 percent since 1995. The situation becomes even more alarming when you consider that Monsanto has patented a “terminator gene” that can force plants to produce sterile seeds–although they’ve assured us they won’t use the technology.
7. Cross-Pollination Leads to Contamination of Non-GM Crops
One of the significant challenges with GM crops is that they are hard to contain, making it difficult to eliminate them if we later decide they were a mistake. Scientists have not yet developed a way to control cross-pollination, meaning that no matter how carefully an organic farmer follows natural farming practices, they cannot prevent pollen from a GM farm from drifting in and cross-fertilizing their crops, turning them into hybrids. While it's relatively easy to prevent contamination in some plants, it’s nearly impossible in others–like canola and corn.
Initially, Monsanto and other companies claimed that cross-pollination wouldn’t be a problem as long as farms were spaced far enough apart, but this assumption was proven wrong when it was discovered that pollen could travel much farther than expected (sometimes several kilometers). As GM crops become more widespread, the ability to avoid them may become impossible, as all plants could eventually be “contaminated.” Even purchasing food labeled as organic doesn’t guarantee you're safe, as some regulatory bodies, like the USDA, do not strip a farm of its organic status even if a few plants have been cross-pollinated by GM crops.
6. It’s Illegal to Accidentally Grow a GM Plant
There appears to be a fundamental issue with the regulation of GM crops. On one hand, they’re illegal to own unless purchased from an approved supplier each season, yet on the other hand, their seeds and pollen are scattered widely. What happens if a farmer unknowingly grows a Monsanto crop due to cross-pollination? While Monsanto has never sued anyone for having trace amounts of GMOs in their fields, they have taken legal action against farmers who unintentionally grew large quantities of patented crops.
For example, Percy Schmeiser, a 74-year-old Canadian canola farmer, faced a lawsuit from Monsanto after it was found that most of his crop contained the patented Roundup Ready gene. Schmeiser claimed he didn’t know how his fields got contaminated, but he suspected it came from a neighboring farm that grew GM crops. His theory was that the plants closest to the neighbor’s fields were likely to survive his herbicide treatments, and those plants and their seeds were unknowingly harvested by his workers. Ultimately, the court sided with Monsanto, ruling that Schmeiser “knew or ought to have known” his seeds were resistant to Roundup.
Further complicating the situation, farmers often purchase 'commodity' seed bags that contain a mix of seeds from various sources, including GMO farms. As a result, if a farmer plants a Monsanto seed that was unintentionally included in the mix and later harvests seeds from that plant, they could face a lawsuit for failing to pay royalties to the GMO company. This exact scenario unfolded in the Bowman v. Monsanto case.
5. Rising Suicide Rates
Farming is inherently a gamble, especially in regions like India, where farmers rely heavily on a strong monsoon season to ensure sufficient water for their crops. If the monsoon fails, so does their livelihood. With this uncertainty and other socio-economic challenges, suicide rates among Indian farmers are alarmingly high, with approximately 1,000 suicides each month. The situation worsens as desperate farmers take out loans with crippling interest rates to afford the 'miracle' GM seeds, which unfortunately require double the water and don’t live up to their promised pest resistance. When bollworms continue to destroy their crops or the monsoon does not arrive, the farmers, burdened by insurmountable debt, feel that the only escape is through drinking a fatal dose of insecticide.
Since the introduction of GM crops in India, more than 125,000 suicides have been reported. A New York Times article highlighted that the exorbitant costs of seeds and pesticides have left farmers earning less than ever. Moreover, as pests and weeds grow resistant to insecticides, farmers must spend increasingly more on chemicals. Additionally, they are legally bound to purchase new seeds every season, or risk being sued or forced to destroy all their crops.
While Monsanto maintains that its products lead to higher crop yields, many, including India’s Agricultural Ministry, disagree. The ministry argues that Monsanto’s Bt cotton initially succeeded for five years, but now performs no better than conventional crops. The ministry also attributes the rising number of suicides among cotton farmers to GMOs. In 2012, a panel of scientists appointed by India’s Supreme Court recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops until more testing is done and stricter regulations are established. It remains unclear when or if the government will act on this advice.
4. Lack of Government Oversight
The unfortunate reality is that the 'superbugs' resulting from Roundup Ready plants might have been avoided if farmers were required to implement safe farming practices. For example, farmers who follow GM protocols and plant 'refuges'—areas of non-Bt crops next to GM fields—experience much lower rates of pest resistance. However, due to a lack of training, resources, and enforcement, many farmers neglect this refuge strategy, allowing superbugs to thrive. This is likely a major factor in the resurgence of the bollworm in India, which has become immune to Bt cotton, once thought to be resistant to the pest.
Furthermore, while 64 countries—including China and the European Union—require the labeling of genetically modified foods, the United States (the world’s largest producer of GM crops) still has no such laws. This makes it incredibly challenging for consumers to decide whether they want to eat GM foods, as many are unaware of their presence in products. For example, the USDA reports that 94% of soy and 75% of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. Considering that many processed foods contain some form of corn, corn syrup, or soy, it’s likely that Americans are consuming far more GMOs than they realize. To add to this, many farm animals eat these genetically engineered crops, passing them on through their meat.
3. Divert Attention from Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Solutions
One of the primary tactics used by GM companies to establish themselves in the agricultural industry has been the promise of preventing a global food crisis, especially in regions like Africa. However, this promise has not materialized as expected, as GM crop yields are inconsistent and many countries are simply not interested in consuming laboratory-engineered food.
In 1998, 24 delegates from 18 African nations told the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, 'We strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly nor economically beneficial to us. We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st century. On the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia, and that it will thus undermine our capacity to feed ourselves.'
If GMOs aren’t the solution, what can we do to feed the world’s growing population? Fortunately, there are many practical alternatives being promoted by both farmers and scientists. For instance, as the 1996 National Research Council in the U.S. pointed out, crops like pearl millet, fonio, and African rice are highly nutritious, delicious, and thrive in challenging climates. Moreover, environmentally sustainable farming methods, such as the System of Rice Intensification (which boosts rice yields by 50-100 percent), serve as a model for cultivating other crops in an eco-friendly manner. Additional solutions include decentralizing farming, urban agriculture, rooftop greenhouses, and aquaponics. Redirecting funds and resources away from GMOs could allow these natural, beneficial practices to grow and thrive.
2. Endanger Biodiversity
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of life forms in a specific area or globally. It is crucial to preserve biodiversity because every organism plays a key role in the delicate ecosystem that sustains life as we know it.
Industrial farming contributes to the loss of biodiversity by clearing native vegetation to make room for vast monocultures. This large-scale farming approach has led to a staggering 75 percent decrease in plant diversity since the 1900s. Genetically modified (GM) farms exacerbate the issue, as they rely on a single modified species for crop production (such as corn, soybeans, or rice), with all plants being genetically identical. This lack of diversity makes crops more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, diseases, and pests. Additionally, the decline in plant biodiversity is not the only concern; insects like bees and butterflies are also suffering, and herbicide use is linked to birth defects and declining populations of amphibians, birds, soil organisms, and marine life.
Companies like Monsanto are exacerbating biodiversity loss by acquiring seed companies and replacing traditional seed varieties with their expensive genetically engineered versions. While some speculate that Monsanto aims to monopolize the global food supply, it is more likely that their primary objective is to maximize profits. Selling patented, high-cost, must-purchase seeds every season generates far greater revenue than providing high-quality, conventional seeds.
1. The Revolving Door between Government and Biotech Professionals
While GMO opponents frequently warn about the potential dangers of genetically modified foods, biotech companies counter with scientific studies asserting that GM foods are completely safe. The contradictory information can be overwhelming, yet one fact stands out that should raise concerns even for the most impartial observers: Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto attorney and vice president, now serves as the Deputy Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Taylor has also held roles at the USDA and is often criticized for moving between the public and private sectors, a pattern commonly referred to as the 'revolving door.'
Even those who avoid conspiracy theories may still question whether Taylor took his position at the FDA out of a genuine concern for food safety or if he has ulterior motives to safeguard the interests of his agribusiness colleagues. This creates doubt about the FDA’s assurances that GM foods pose no greater risk than their conventional counterparts. Trust in the FDA is further eroded by the fact that, in the 1990s, FDA scientists warned that genetically modified foods were notably different and could pose 'different risks' compared to traditional foods. For some reason, these warnings did not align with the official stance of the agency.
