gm those stamps for genetically modified organisms this is often a controversial topic in politics but in fact most scientists agree that gm those have proving useful and safe formal definition of genetically modified organisms is this organisms enriched genetic material has been changed using modern biotechnology typically directed dna_ recombination to create new genes mankind of course has been breeding plants and animals and changing them for a long time but now we're doing it with more powerful technology modern gm those were brought to the market in nineteen ninety five now there are over fifty million farmers in twenty nine different countries growing however the vast majority of tml crops are grown in the united states brazil and argentina in the united states gm knows account for about ninety four percent of the soil crop every time you reading tofu in america and about eighty eight percent of the corn crops that's because gm those tend to be easier to grow cheaper they are hardier and they're more capable of producing food more cheaply three hundred million americans as well as visitors to this country has been eating tml crops for almost twenty years now and there hasn't been serious evidence have any kind of negative health effect or negative impact on the environment the three crops for gm those who've had the biggest impact our first sewing beans then cotton and also corn rights would then be next in line there also kinds of rights that have additional vitamins and this helps remedy the lack of nutrients faced in many regions of the developing world there are also breeds of sorghum and potatoes with greater micronutrients they were gml techniques for sugar beets content the pocket and at least possibly there might be in the future brought tolerant cassava insect resistant counties fungus resistant the man is virus resistant sweet potatoes and higher yielding pearl millet currently however we don't know just how successful these additional possibilities for gm as will be in any case the most general notion of gm does the notions that humans would breed or somehow alter plants and animals so that they would be more productive goes far back in human history if we look at the great civilizations of the new world before europeans arrived they were built really upon the production and consumption of court but corn as we know it was not something that appeared miraculously in nature it originally came from a kind of weed and it was approved in a productive and make nutritious by human intervention this was done by farmers in central mexico many hundreds of years ago and these farmers can rightfully go down in history at some of the greatest scientists humanity has produced annette jia most seem to have helped the environment rather than hurry this is particularly easy to see in the case of com very often a lot of pesticide has to be spray dot com plans to keep away the insects but gm up on his farm here and it doesn't require the same dose of pesticides there is also the prospect of new breeds of crops wheat require less fertilizer in this could lead to less burden on the environment through for instance the runoff a fertilizer into water supplies in any case higher yielding gm across mean less burden on the supply of land sometimes gm ozark all franken foods and are subject to a lot of political opposition especially coming from western europe there's the sense that somehow mankind is tampering with nature that were turning our food over to the ownership or control of corporations and there's a general reluctance to embrace gm arose as a useful and productive technology there are a lot of seemingly unfounded fears ago gm os possibly hurting the environment many countries in western europe at dancer restrictions on gm eos and this is also meant that african countries or reluctant to embrace gml is because that would mean closing off european markets for their exports the result has been that african crops have stayed less productive many african nations also has refused food aid in the form of gm knows and fear that the gm nos will contaminate their native crops and that europeans will then at some point reject those exports and that market will be shut off the general scientific consensus has been that this political opposition to gm those is largely unwarranted one group that has largely embraced gm goes is the religious order of the amish in the united states the amish around mount for rejecting or refusing to use many branches of modern technology but they understand that you have a gm those improve crop yields and they have done just fine using pianos for further readings on gm knows you can google to these sources and there's an overview of cameras in my book an economist gets lunch 