Food Security and Genetic Engineering: The Effect on the Growing Communities

Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?

The debate about Genetically Modified Foods/Organisms (or GMO's) becomes a question regarding the effects that these products have on the body, surrounding plant habitat, and environmental effects.

Background

“The term GM foods or GMO's (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content. The enhancement of desired traits has traditionally been undertaken through breeding, but conventional plant breeding methods can be very time consuming and are often not very accurate. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, can create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy.… Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used.”

 

According to the USDA and FDA there are over 40 plant varieties that have completed all federal requirements for commercialization. These include

GM Foods

·         Tomatoes
·         Cantaloupes
·         Soybeans
·         Sugar beets
·         Corn
·         Cotton plants

Specifically the soybean, used as a staple food additive in the United States, ensures that most US consumers have been exposed to GMO’s.  Of all GM crops, the US grows 68% with soybeans and corn as the top two foods grown.

While GMO’s do have increased tolerance and resistance to the variable that usually would worry the farming community, can have special nutritional value added to them, and can improve their pharmaceutical use, there are many negative aspects.

The GMO industry is criticized for “pursing profit without the concern for potential hazards and the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversight.” The industry is facing doubt majorly concerning environmental hazards, human health risk and economic concern. GMO’s can cause unintended harm to other organism, reduce the effectiveness of pesticides causing increased dosages to be used, cause gene transfer to non-target species, and allergies. The effects on human health are mostly unknown but the potential for a large risk to human health is great.

In 1999 FDA held there meetings with the US public to begin the process of establishing a new regulatory procedure for government approval of GMO's. While some countries (Brazil) have banned GM crops, in the US, a more (lenient) regulatory system is in place.

“In the United States, the regulatory process is confused because there are three different government agencies that have jurisdiction over GM foods. To put it very simply, the EPA evaluates GM plants for environmental safety, the USDA evaluates whether the plant is safe to grow, and the FDA evaluates whether the plant is safe to eat…The FDA counters that the agency currently does not have the time, money, or resources to carry out exhaustive health and safety studies of every proposed GM food product. Moreover, the FDA policy as it exists today does not allow for this type of intervention. “

It is the labeling of GMO’s that is the easiest to make people aware of what they are putting into their bodies. But with that comes the question of the level of detectability of GM food cross-contamination.  A 1% threshold may already be below current levels of detectability.

We must be wary about jumping ahead in science and releasing products without the backing about the risk that they may cause. As now organic produce is extremely important and popular to prevent ingestion of chemicals, avoiding GM crops will most likely be in our near future.

-Marshelle