Environmental factors.

The second alarming effect of genetically modified food is the environmental factor behind it. According to Whitman, (2000), “In 2000, 68% of all GM crops were grown by U.S. farmers.” Although genetically modified food can be tailored to become more nutritious, pest and disease resistant, their customized genes may sometimes unexpectedly fall apart, or scramble and assemble themselves into accidental DNA stands. Such accidental combinations can have unpredictable outcomes including the contamination of the soil they were grown in. The pollen from these genetically modified crops may be carried by birds and the wind and contaminated their surroundings. There is also a high risk of these malformed genetic traits to be unknowingly passed onto the next set of crops grown on those fields, thus resulting in an unintended chain of soil and crops modification. Modified fields, and surroundings will never be able to harvest organic material like they once used to, whilst organic plantations leave the soil as it was.