GMO's and population growth

• how has the number of people on earth changed over the past 200 years

  has increased dramatically

  from 1 billion humans in 1820 to 8 billions today
• 3 reasons that food production has had to increase over the past 200 years

  1. more people consuming food
  2. each person on average consumes more calories of food each day
  3. the average persons diet is more resource intensive to produce as it contains more meat and dairy and fewer grains and vegetables
• 5 ways humans have managed to increase food production to meet demand

  1. clearing of forests and other natural lands to provide land for agriculture
  2. application of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals
  3. selective breeding
  4. genetic modification
  5. improved irrigation
• genetically modified organism

  organisms whose genome has been modified by genetic engineering
• traits that can be improved by genetic modification

  • increased yield
  • increased drought resistance
  • herbicide tolerance
  • virus resistance
  • production of specific proteins
  • pesticide resistance
  • increased nutrients
  • flood resistance
• golden rice

  rice that has been genetically modified to produce a chemical that is converted to vitamin A in the body

  this is helpful in regions where there is a lack of vitamin A and can often cause deficiency diseases such as blindness
• pesticide

  a chemical that kills pests