Genetically-modified foods are part of a larger category of "genetically-modified organisms" and frequently abbreviated "GMOs." While the short-term advantages of GMOs are easy to quantify, the long term disadvantages may not be discoverable until they have been in use for many decades, and thus many people are concerned about the long-term effects of their use.
The main advantages of GMOs are that they can be tailored to solve specific problems. For example, GMO crops can be tailored to be resistant to specific pests or diseases. This has an obvious benefit of increasing agricultural productivity. The problem is that pests and diseases evolve quickly, and this year's pesticide or GMO may no longer be effective in a few decades, leading to a constant race between genetic engineers and natural evolution.
GMOs can also be tailored to adapt to specific environments. For example, plants can be designed to be drought- or heat- or cold-resistant. Again, this can have obvious benefits, especially in light of global climate change.
A major question concerning GMOs is that they increase the tendency towards monocultures, which are highly vulnerable to both climate change and new strains of diseases and pests. Also, GMO seeds are often more expensive than regular ones and tailored to create plants that do not produce viable seeds, making them especially problematic for farmers in developing countries.
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