As one of the country's decision makers, would you advocate the use of GM crops? Why or why not?

Yes, I will support the use of GM crops.

As consumers, we will tend to benefit. Medicines and vaccines often are costly to produce and sometimes require special storage conditions which may not be readily available in third world countries. If edible vaccines are developed in tomatoes and potatoes, the vaccines will be much easier to ship, store, and administer than traditional injectable vaccines. One example is the GM rice plants where they can produce the hepatitis antibody, which can be used to produce immunity to the virus(as reported by The Daily Yomiuri). As rice is a necessity to Asians, the production of GM rice can help reduce the costs of producing medicine or vaccines. The money which is to be used in production of medicines initially can then be channelled and used in other areas.

In religious point of view, GM crops are halal. This has been determined by the Islamic Jurisprudence Council (IJC). Though there is still discussion about the position of crops into which DNA from forbidden foods has been incorporated, all biotechnology derived foods on the market are from approved sources. The IJC position is supported by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), and the IFANCA certification is accepted by Islamic organisations in Indonesia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. So, for Muslims, they should have no fear for any GM food. As for other religions, use of GM foods may not be a big problem. Since the Buddhist, Hindus and Sikh support stem cell research, they should also be advocating GM food, which is also a product of ES cell research.

Moreover, if I am one of the decision maker in a third country, I will definitely support the use of GM crops because one of the major problem that I as a decision maker must solve is malnutrition. Since GM food can produce greater yield, which means that farmers can produce more fom the same area of land, and also provide certain vitamins that my people lack, I see no reason in not supporting GM food. Furthermore, GM crops are herbicide tolerant and insect resistant. They can offer farmers simpler control of otherwise difficult to control related weeds and huge environmental benefits as farmers move to low or zero ploughing. This protects soil biodiversity, helps reduce energy use and CO2 emissions.

Though there are debates that GM crops are harmful to human health such that they can cause allergenicity and other unknown effects, the benifits of GM crops are a wholesome that as a decision maker in the counrty, I will not resist the use of GM food.