What Are the Advantages of Genetically Modified Foods?

1. Food supplies become predictable. 
When crop yields become predictable, then the food supply becomes predictable at the same time. This gives us the ability to reduce the presence of food deserts around the world, providing a greater population with a well-rounded nutritional opportunity that may not have existed in the past. This could positively impact malnutrition and food shortage in various countries who are limited on food sources.

2. Nutritional content can be improved. 
Genetic modifications do more than add pest resistance or weather resistance to GMO crops. The nutritional content of the crops can be altered as well, providing a denser nutritional profile than what previous generations were able to enjoy. This means people in the future could gain the same nutrition from lower levels of food consumption. 

3. Genetically modified foods can have a longer shelf life. 
Instead of relying on preservatives to maintain food freshness while it sits on a shelf, genetically modified foods make it possible to extend food life by enhancing the natural qualities of the food itself. According to Environmental Nutrition, certain preservatives are associated with a higher carcinogen, heart disease, and allergy risk. Therefore eliminating the use of preservatives can help decrease these risks.

4. Genetically modified foods are easier to transport. 

Because GMO crops have a prolonged shelf life, it is easier to transport them greater distances. This improvement makes it possible to take excess food products from one community and deliver it to another that may be experiencing a food shortage. GMO foods give us the opportunity to limit food waste, especially in the developing world, so that hunger can be reduced and potentially eliminated.

5. Herbicides and pesticides are used less often. 
Herbicides and pesticides create certain hazards on croplands that can eventually make the soil unusable. Farmers growing genetically modified foods do not need to use these products as often as farmers using traditional growing methods, allowing the soil to recover its nutrient base over time. Because of the genetic resistance being in the plant itself, the farmer still achieves a predictable yield at the same time.

https://vittana.org/12-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-genetically-modified-foods

Medical Advancements

Similar to many other technologies, gene therapy and the production and application of GMOs can be used to address and resolve complicated scientific, medical, and environmental issues, but they must be used wisely.

Improving public health
In medicine, genetic engineering (GE) is used to make biopharmaceutical drugs. Various organisms are engineered for use as factories to produce the drug product. Bacteria are the preferred option, as they are the easiest to grow and scale-up for production, but depending on the complexity of the drug’s molecular structure, other organisms such as yeasts, mammalian cells, etc., can also be used to express the drug product. The first GE drug approved for use was insulin. By the year 2000, there were over 100 GE drugs on the market. Currently, people’s lives are changed every day by drugs like Remicade, Epo, Avastin, and Neulasta. Several studies show that these GMOs have positive impacts on human health. As expected, the enhancement of multiple micronutrients in the same crop by genetic modification, creates the best results. This method generates mass health benefits at a relatively low cost.

Examples of use of GMO in Medicine 
GMOs advance science of vaccines - Hepatitis B
One disease currently being addressed with the help of molecular biology is hepatitis B, which kills one person every minute worldwide. In the 1960s, virologists realised that the hepatitis B antigen, a protein from the virus’ outer shell that affects an immune response in an infected person, showed up in the blood of hepatitis B patients. To their surprise, injecting a healthy person with the purified antigen protected against future infections. The first hepatitis B vaccine (HBV), approved in 1981, was made by harvesting the antigen from the blood of hepatitis B carriers, including intravenous drug users. Once recombinant DNA technology was developed, researchers could isolate the gene for the virus’ antigen protein, allowing for HBV to be manufactured in laboratories via those genetic instructions instead of from infected blood. Currently, both FDA-approved vaccines for hepatitis B include the recombinant version of the antigen. 

Biological medicines are therapeutic goods that are derived from biological sources (including GMOs and GM products) and are regulated as registered prescription medicines. Other Examples include:

• vaccines 
• antivenoms 
• bacteria derived toxins 
• Immunoglobulins 
• monoclonal antibodies 
• allergens 
• blood products and clotting factors 
• hormones such as insulin, growth hormone, 
• enzymes such as pancreatins 
• heparins.

With the help of GMOs, infectious disease experts have the tools to get ahead of the next outbreak, moving beyond reaction to quick detection, containment and even prevention. 

https://www.britannica.com/science/genetically-modified-organism/GMOs-in-medicine-and-research#ref279980

http://theconversation.com/gmos-lead-the-fight-against-zika-ebola-and-the-next-unknown-pandemic-60674 

Benefits of GMOS in our food

Genetically modified foods, otherwise known as GMOs, have changed the way that people view their food. Although genetic modifications have occurred throughout history with selective breeding and growing methods, scientific advances have allowed this practice to advance to the genetic level. In the modern GMO, plants can be resistant to specific pesticides and herbicides while becoming adaptive to changing environmental conditions.

https://vittana.org/12-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-genetically-modified-foods

So what are the benefits of GMOs? According to the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, The benefits of genetically modified crops is a better quality taste, increased nutrients, resistance to disease and pests, and faster harvest of crops.

Genetically modified animals have certain genes inserted into their genomes so that they can produce ‘better’ milk, eggs, and meat. These animals also are expected to have a higher resistance to disease and overall better health, with better natural waste management. In theory, genetically modified crops and animals will also be more environmentally friendly because they conserve water, soil, and energy.This is also benefiting Society as we are consuming these genetically modified crops which has increased Nutrients needed for our bodies. Rice, for an example, feeds 50 percent of the world’s population, so genetically modifying rice to have more vitamin A would reduce vitamin A deficiency in the developing countries such as Africa.