ABSTRACT
Genetically modified foods have the potential to solve many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides and herbicides. Genetically modified foods promise to meet this need in a number of ways: pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, disease resistance, cold tolerance, drought tolerance/salinity tolerance, nutrition, pharmaceuticals, and phytoremediation. The term genetically modified foods or genetically modified organisms is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biological techniques. Most concerns about genetically modified foods fall into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks and economic concerns. Patent enforcement may also be difficult, as the contention of the farmers that they involuntarily grew Monsanto-engineered strains when their crops were cross-pollinated shows one way to combat possible patent infringement is to introduce a 'suicide gene' into genetically modified plants.
