GMOs: THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS – Status and Perspectives

Abstract

In 2007, GM crops were grown on 114,3 million hectares spread over 23 countries, on all continents, marking a 67-fold increase in the area since their first commercialization in 1996, and making it the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history. Main reasons for this expansion are, by the proponents of GM food, its safety, potential to revolutionize agriculture and benefit the farmers and consumers alike. On the other hand, there are indications that GMOs are harmful to the biodiversity and become eco-contaminants, and can, especially in the long terms, negatively affect the human health. The author thinks that patenting of living organisms by the multinational companies is unacceptable and unfair from the bioethical perspective, not only because they tend to hold monopolies in production and trade of GM plants, but also because of their efforts to gain domination over the very life. Finally, analyses made by many scientists show that the thesis that “gene revolution« will resolve the problem of hunger in the world was not justified in the previous decade.