The opportunity: Farmers in the United States who grow genetically modified crops are losing business due to the recent consumer preference of non-GMO products and news articles all over the internet claiming that GMO crops are harmful to humans and the environment.
- The who: Farmers in the United States who grow genetically modified crops
- The what: are losing business
- The why: recent consumer preference of non-GMO products and news articles all over the internet claiming that GMO crops are harmful to humans and the environment.
Forming the hypothesis:
- The who: With this opportunity, more farmers are affected by this than just those who grow GMO crops because of misleading labels that say "non-GMO" even if there are not GMO options for that product. (i.e. if a company labels oranges non-GMO, they may get more people to buy that product vs. a company that doesn't label their oranges non-GMO when in reality, there are no oranges in the United States that are genetically modified, so this can affect other farmers as well)
- The what: Farmers are losing business from this shift in consumer preference and negative advertising of GMO crops, but it is not significant yet. Many customers in the grocery store do not have a preference, but those who do are growing.
- The why: The why's differ for those who are in the why for this opportunity. For some, they do not buy GMO products because they disagree with genetic modification. For others, it may be because they believe these products are harmful for humans, or harmful for the environment.
Based on the five people that I interviewed, I gained mostly the thoughts on one side of the issue, which would be anti-GMO. Many of the people believed that because these products are being genetically modified, it can have adverse effects on humans. These effects, though, would not be seen immediately, but develop over time as more products are being consumed. Some believed that this process involves chemical injection, some believed that it was simple changes in genetic coding of the crop. Some of those that I interviewed also discussed how these products can be bad for the environment because they produce bigger crops, and bigger crops equals more nutrient uptake from the ground, more need for irrigation and other things. On the other side, one of the people that I interviewed had positive things to say about genetic modification, stating that this process is needed because this technology allows farmers to gain a bigger yield, which is crucial in order to feed such a large population. He also said that they can be better for the environment because some modifications can make a crop drought tolerant, which allows the farmer to water less, ultimately saving this usage.
Through these interviews, I learned that many people did not agree with this technology, but I also learned that this could be good for consumers due to high demand. This encouraged me to research the topic more to really get a good perspective on the issue.
This topic interest me as well, I grew up in Florida, surrounded by people who farmed or raised cattle. The funny thing is, a lot of people have GMO to thank for the revival of our state fruit. Scientists have worked tirelessly to figure out a way to make our oranges to be able to resist greening, which is a very needed thing. Biotechnology could change what is currently needed to be done to keep greening at bay, which is very reliant on insecticides.
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