As awareness continues to grow and debates on both ends of the spectrum heat up, what exactly are genetically modified organisms and foods? What are the positive contributions and negative consequences of genetic engineering, a scientific breakthrough of the 20th century?
Remarkable advances in technology over the last several centuries have made impossible dreams now a reality; unimaginable feats now easily accomplished. We’ve reached the moon and beyond. We’ve created apps that allow us to see and hear others in real time, while they are situated on the other side of the planet. We have even harnessed the awesome power of genetic engineering.
Genetically Modified Organism’s (GMO’s) are an example of that awesome power. We can take the DNA from one organism and place it into another. The possibilities, both negative and positive, with doing something like this are endless. But where is the line drawn? Just because we can, does it mean we should?
Controversy of whether or not we should genetically modify foods has taken precedence in the media lately with educated arguments weighing in on both sides of the spectrum. More importantly, if we are going to produce genetically engineered foods, shouldn’t we have the decision whether or not we want to eat them? Seems like common sense, no?
What are GMO’s?
According to The New England Journal of Medicine, genetically modified organisms are the result of genetic engineering techniques used to alter an organism’s genetic makeup. These techniques essentially transfer individual genes between different organisms and even non-related species. Genes, more specifically, are specific regions of DNA or RNA that are involved in the coding and programming of an organism’s cell development and protein synthesis. They are a living organism’s hereditary units and are responsible for maintaining and passing these genetic traits on to offspring.
Through the insertion, deletion and mutation of these genes are the production of GMO’s made possible. The resulting recombinant DNA can have entirely different effects such as changing their original function or amplifying it by several folds.
There are several techniques used to produce GMO’s, some of which include attaching genes to a virus, physically inserting extra DNA into a host organism or allowing it to happen in a natural setting, where external DNA simply penetrates a cell membrane and incorporates itself into the host’s genome.
Why have GMO’s been produced?
Genetic engineering was initially discovered in the 1940’s, then only a few decades later, this field has proved experimentally successful leading to amazing accomplishments today. GMO’s are also the source of genetically modified foods (GMF’s) and have been used extensively in scientific research for a myriad of different reasons, in addition to agricultural purposes. Moreover, there have been countless species genetically modified from micro-organisms like bacteria and yeast to much larger organisms such as insects, plants, fish and mammals.
Artistic examples of a GMO are transgenic plants. These have been re-engineered to produce crops with different colours that are not ordinarily observed in nature. Blue roses and lavender coloured carnations are beautiful examples of this.
Also, due to bacterial DNA having simpler genetics, the manipulation of their genes has resulted in a number of medical breakthroughs. For example, these innovations have led to the production of insulin, the human growth hormone and clotting factors to help treat diabetes, combat dwarfism and aid in remedying hemophilia, respectively.
Other examples of GMO’s being utilized in both biological and medical research include the productions of pharmaceutical medications, experimental gene therapy and genetically modifying mammals to research human diseases in order to develop cures to these illnesses.
Selective breeding for favourable traits in offspring is something, which humans have practiced for millennia. Being utilized extensively in agriculture and experimental biology, these methods produced both desirable and unintended effects, but were limited to variations occurring naturally.
With the remarkable breakthroughs in genetic engineering as previously mentioned, it is now possible to control specific genetic changes introduced into an organism with pinpoint precision. And very quickly, genetically modified foods are now becoming the norm for consumption.
Positive Contributions
Thus far, there have been many positive contributions made by the advent of genetically modified foods. As developed countries for the most part have eaten better over the years, there were still millions affected worldwide from food shortages and limited access to viable crops. Thus, GMF’s were initially researched to create a solution to the world’s hunger problems.
Furthermore, ‘Nature Biotechnology’ reveals increased crop yields, reduced costs for food production and developing pesticide and herbicide resistant crops were at the forefront of GMF research.
Pesticides and herbicides were introduced by farmers to help combat the massive financial losses incurred from insects and weeds ravaging through their crops. They would douse their harvests with different types of chemicals to prevent future losses. These methods proved effective but also left devastating effects on the environment, as the run off would contaminate water supplies and ruin soil quality for future harvests. Not to mention, consumers do not want to eat foods that have been laden with chemicals.
Genetically modified plants such as B.t. corn would minimize the application of pesticides and reduce costs for food production, as the corn itself expresses a protein that kills and deters insects. Additionally, genetically engineering crops to confer herbicide resistance minimizes the amount of herbicides that are used, which also reduces farming costs. Some genetically modified plants have also been engineered to withstand different types of viruses, fungi and bacteria that cause disease and ultimately lead to the plants dying.
With malnutrition being so prevalent in developing countries, scientists have also genetically modified certain crops to help compensate for the lack of essential vitamins and minerals that a balanced nutrition brings. An example of this documented in the Journal of Nutrition is ‘Golden Rice,’ which was developed to help overcome vitamin A deficiencies often witnessed in developing countries. These golden grains were engineered to contain high levels of beta-carotene to help prevent blindness caused by the vitamin deficiency.
Also heavily investigated was developing crops to infer resistance to harsh soil conditions and environmental stressors, such as extreme temperatures, drought tolerance and fluctuations in soil quality and salinity. According to journal ‘Transgenic Research,’ certain seeds have been engineered with genes from cold water fish to allow them to tolerate colder temperatures that would normally freeze the seedlings causing death. What is more is that these plants are now able to flourish in conditions, which would have been impossible beforehand.
Certain animals such as farmed salmon have been engineered to grow larger and mature faster, thereby reducing their life cycles and time needed to harvest them.
One interesting example of gene therapy used in GMF’s was the enhancement of cattle genomes to incur resistance to mad cow disease. This neurodegenerative illness was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people and millions of cattle in the United Kingdom within the last decade.
One potential GMF application, which can have astounding impacts is the development of recombinant vaccines being introduced into fruits and vegetables, as revealed by the scientific journal, ‘Nature Reviews Genetics.’ This technique has the potential to help treat millions in underdeveloped countries, simply by the direct oral consumption of foods. This would prevent the need of large scale vaccinations being required after diseases have spread, in addition to minimizing associated costs. Currently being researched are vaccines to help combat hepatitis B by using potatoes and lettuce as suitable candidates for experimentation.
At present, there are many food sources which have been genetically modified and countless others sold as commodities, which are then processed further into ingredients.
Negative Impacts
Despite the numerous positive applications of GMF’s, there are many negative unintended consequences that are causing widespread controversy and concern. According to the World Health Organization, most anxieties fall into the categories of environmental hazards, economic concerns and human health risks.
Environmental Impacts
Engineering genetically modified crops to act as a toxin to deter certain species from consuming them will always produce unintended casualties as well. This was the case with B.t. corn and the monarch butterfly. In a well documented laboratory study, it was concluded that the reengineered corn caused high mortality rates in the monarch caterpillar, as they ate the poisonous pollen that was blown from the corn.
B.t. toxins are not specific to crop damaging pests and unfortunately killed many unintentional insect species as well. Although there was controversy regarding the validity of the experiment and its conclusions, it is hard to ignore the potential of harming unintended pests and insects. If additional species of insects are wiped out, it can have even larger, more devastating effects by destroying important links in the food chain for much larger species. Thus having the potential of causing a butterfly effect, pun intended.
Nature is resilient, and what makes this extraordinary is that organisms find new and inventive means to survive when their continued existence is at stake. Sometimes this is a boon and at other times, becomes a great problem. Examples of this include different forms of bacteria that developed resistance to certain antibiotics after initial exposure or even mosquitoes that built immunity to the pesticide DDT. This is a concern, as select insects and pests may eventually develop a resistance to genetically modified crops.
Another issue to consider is the cross-pollination between genetic and non-genetically modified crops that can happen by chance in nature. In a worst-case scenario, herbicide resistant crops can transfer their genes to weeds and thus create super resistant weeds, as per scientific journal ‘Trends in Biotechnology.’ Possible solutions to avoid this have been to develop sterile crops, which can only be used for harvesting but will be unable to breed for successive generations.
Economic Impacts
Genetically modified foods are a thriving industry as billions have been invested into research, production, marketing, distribution and farming over the last few decades. Global production levels have skyrocketed especially in the four main genetically modified crops – soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. One of the major concerns with this is that private corporations, who produce the genetically modified foods, such as Monsanto Company, will reap all the benefits and next to nothing will be paid downstream to farmers who harvest the crops.
This is especially important in developing countries, where farmers have a more difficult time purchasing the more expensive genetically modified seeds. One way to counter this is for larger corporations to reduce their product costs when selling them to impoverished countries which is now becoming more commonplace in the global market.
Impacts to Human Health
Of all the major consequences of genetically modified crops, the most important deals with their effects on human health and the uncertainty regarding long time consumption. What are the direct health impacts? Is there a possibility to develop allergies? Is nutrition negatively affected? How stable are inserted genes and can they cause any unwarranted side effects? Could genetically modified foods ever become carcinogens?
As soon as a few key questions get asked, it’s very easy to come up with several more speculating what negative effects genetically modified foods can manifest.
With food allergies developing in children at increased rates over recent years, especially to nuts, there is the worry that GMF’s may cause additional food allergies to develop. Moreover, there simply hasn’t been enough research conducted to test the long term consequences of eating genetically modified foods. Despite the biotech agricultural industry being heavily regulated, it’s very difficult to speculate on longitudinal effects impacting human health.
There are also unknown consequences to altering an organism’s genome through foreign gene expression. This can alter an organism’s growth rate, their metabolism and response to environmental factors, which then affects their ability to proliferate in their natural environment. In addition, the either horizontal or vertical transferring of genetic material through various food chains can affect food safety and security, as these elements aren’t tested for. All of these unknowns can then react in a number of different ways especially when the complexity of nature is considered.
Although GMF’s have passed risk assessments by industry standards, much more research is needed in this field to be able to deliver concrete results regarding human safety.
Should GMO Foods be Labelled?
Shouldn’t us as consumers have the right to choose whether or not we want to eat genetically modified foods? GMF’s being produced on a global scale impacts everyone. Most developed nations now have policies requiring mandatory labelling of GMO foods, some even going as far as banning their imports.
This is certainly the case in Europe, but not in Canada or the rest of North America. As such, many Canadians are unaware that they consume many products which have been genetically modified.
In August of this year, a fantastic debate transpired on CBC’s ‘The Lang and O’Leary Exchange’ between 14-year-old activist Rachel Parent and renowned Canadian financial analyst Kevin O’Leary, shedding more light on the issues of GMO labelling. It’s clear that there are many benefits to GMO foods, but how clear and to what extent is definitely debatable as seen in their discussion. Even more exciting was the fact that the 14-year-old held her ground against one of the brighter and sharp-witted minds of our generation.
“We are not experiments” was the theme of her arguments as she rallied for the need to know what we are eating as consumers. During the debate, Parent acknowledged that “we shouldn’t completely ban companies from growing GMO crops, but said non-industry groups and government need to do more testing and that we need mandatory labelling laws so consumers can choose for themselves.” Having the right not to purchase GMO foods is something supported by many organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation and Non-GMO Project.
Interestingly enough, in Washington State, there is legislation happening now to determine whether or not GMO foods should be labelled. Supporters of Initiative 522 echoed concerns similar to those of Rachel Parent and want GMO foods to be labelled in the state. Consumers should have the right to make an educated decision regarding their food purchases.
Contrarily, opponents argued that GMO foods are safe to consume, as they’ve passed all industry regulated screening tests, and the labelling would create a false sense of insecurity in eating GMO labelled foods. The end result would also lead to higher grocery bills as labelling would increase the cost of food.
On November 5, 2013, the Washington Post announced that Initiative 522 was concluded, as voters rejected the initiative to have GMO foods labelled by a margin of 54 per cent voting in favour of ‘No.’
Concluding Thoughts
Genetically modified foods can resolve several of the world’s malnutrition and hunger problems. They also increase crop yield and quality, while minimizing the reliance on pesticides and herbicides. Nonetheless, there are still countless economic, environmental and human health risks left to consider knowing that GMO’s are a relatively young practice. Philosophical and religious concerns have also emerged, such as ‘Should we be involved in gene manipulation despite the fact that we can?’
Our governments face many challenges concerning this subject, especially in regards to further safety testing, industry regulations and GMO food labelling. Being able to harness genetic engineering has given humans so many positive applications that it makes it difficult to ignore this technology.
It is also safe to assume that GMF’s will continue to be produced – there’s no stopping this industry.
What’s important is that we must proceed with caution to avoid causing unintended harm to our health and the environment. Even more importantly is that consumers should have the right to choose whether or not to eat genetically modified foods if we they don’t want to. Labelling of these foods needs to happen immediately.
PHOTO : Neil Palmer (CIAT), the communication center, sleuth journal
By Ameet Singh
