By 2050 the world's population is projected to rise to 9 billion from just over 7 billion currently . Proponents of genetically modified foods say they are safe and can boost harvests even in bad conditions by protecting against pests weeds and drought . This they argue will be essential to meeting the needs of a booming population in decades to come and avoiding starvation . However, Doug Guinan - Sherman senior scientist for the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists an advocacy group said genetic engineering for insect resistance has provided only a modest increase in yields since the 1990 s and drought - resistant strains have only modestly reduced losses from drought .
Moreover, he said conventional crossbreeding or cross - pollinating of different varieties for desirable traits along with improved farming is getting better results boosting yields at a lower cost . In fact much of the food Americans eat has been genetically modified by those conventional methods over thousands of years before genetic engineering came into practice . Overall, genetic engineering does not get nearly the bang for the buck as conventional breeding and improve agricultural .
[ 判断题 ] Para . 1 mentions that the risks of genetic engineering are not that horrible .