Articles,  Science

Genetic Modification in Food

October 15, 2018

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Genetic modification (GM) is the editing or rewriting of an organism’s genetic code to make the organism even more beneficial to us. Although genetic modification recently has become a very controversial topic within society, it has been used for centuries. Nowadays GM is more clear, concise and targeted, making it less of a gamble like it was centuries ago. GM has seen a large amount of criticism and backlash from society stating that it is “unnatural” especially in the case of GM in foods. Scientists however argue that we are able to enhance our food supply and in the future may be able to create foods that protect us against different virus’.

What is natural?

GM is far from new, our ancestors used a process of selecting organisms that were most desired and the most desirable was repopulated. This process was repeated over generations and in turn tampering with the organisms “natural” genetic code. One of the earliest known genetically modified organisms is the dog, they were selected over 32,000 years ago and domesticated (Zimmer C, 2013). The earliest known artificial selection within plants was around 7800BC, where scientists have found a number of domestic varieties of wheat (Balter M, 2013). As much as society is worried about steering down the path of what is “unnatural”, most of what we know to be natural is merely a construct of what our ancestors have genetically modified.

GM in society

Modern GM is more scientific than randomly selecting an organism and domesticating it. Scientists carefully alter its genetic code and we are able to see noticeable changes and affects straight away rather than centuries later. From the start, GM has had a huge amount of criticism from society and a conference was run for 3 days in 1975 by lawyers and government officials to discuss whether society should be allowing the technology and its potential ramifications on human health and the earths ecosystem (Berg et al, 1975). They allowed the technology to be used and patented, consequently sparking the interest of large cooperation’s to invest in such technology.  Although saving multiple lives in the medical field with the aid of this technology, society is still cautious when it comes to GM and our food.

Society have raised concerns over the GM technology in both human and environmental safety. A major concern is we are unaware of the affects of GM on society, although multitudes of tests have been run to guarantee the safety of humans (anon, 2016), society is still not convinced that altering the genome of our food source is healthy (Phillips T, 2008). In 1999 there was an issue raised as a publication showed Bt toxins (Saravanan S, 2016) having negative affects on butterflies in a lab although later on re-tested in a farming field to show that this technology is completely safe (Niederhuber M, 2015).

Why do we need GM foods?

Our food source is rapidly decreasing and we are predicted to need 70% more food than we currently have by 2050 (Gerry C, 2015). GM technology has the power to allow us to grow an array of different types and amounts of foods that will help us eradicate societal worries of food shortage. Another argument that scientists are able to provide is once GM becomes widely acceptable there’s no telling to the future of our food industry. We are able to grow ethical meat and vegetables and even add extra proteins, vitamins and even vaccines that “naturally” grown foods lack. There is also evidence to suggest that GM foods will also help rejuvenate the biosphere, creating plants that take in more of toxins than they usually do allows us to even reverse our own damages (Powel W, 2016). GM technology also allows farmers to use less land when farming, add certain vitamins that third world countries lack to their food supply and in turn save millions of lives. There have also been numerous tests in different countries which have used GM to drought proof our food supply (Lynas M, 2017).

GM technology although being one of the most controversial topics in science today is definitely the future path to global food security. The technology allows humans to grow as much or as little agriculture as we like, each GM food is tested for safe ingestion far more than any “natural” organism and although seemingly unnatural, GM foods can actually be better for our bodies than non GM foods. Despite this ongoing testing and vigilance on the yet unknown if any affects of GM foods are still important going forwards.

  1. Phillips, T. (2008) Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): Transgenic crops and recombinant DNA technology. Nature Education 1(1):213
  2. Rangel G 2015 From Corgis to Corn: A Brief Look at the Long History of GMO Technology: Harvard University blog: special edition on GMOS
  3. Anon 2016. Genetically engineered crops Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
  4. Powel W, 2016. New genetically engineered American chestnut will help restore the decimated, iconic tree
  5. Lynas M, 2017. Visiting Tanzania’s first-ever GMO crop trial
  6. Saravanan S, 2016. Bt cotton in India, pesticide use and environmental impact in India: International Journal of Applied Research
  7. Niederhuber M, 2015. Insecticidal Plants: The Tech and Safety of GM Bt Crops: Harvard University Blog: Special edition on GMOs
  8. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Brenner, S., Roblin, R. and Singer, M. (1975). Summary statement of the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA molecules. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 72(6), pp.1981-1984.
  9. Gerry C 2015, Feeding the World One Genetically Modified Tomato at a Time: A Scientific Perspective: Harvard University Blog: Special edition on GMOs
  10. Zimmer, C. “From Fearsome Predator to Man’s Best Friend.” New York Times, May 2013
  11. Balter, M. “ Farming Was So Nice, It Was Invented at Least Twice.” Science, July 2013.

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