"Biotechnology's been around almost since the beginning of time. It's the cavemen saving seeds of a high-yielding plant. It's Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, cross-pollinating his garden peas. It's a diabetic's insulin, and the enzymes in your yogurt.... Without exception, the biotech products on our shelves have proven safe," said United States Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman (March 13, 1997).
We've all eaten them, and most of us probably eat them every day because, according to the Grocery Manufacturers of America, 60 to 70 percent of all processed foods contain them. This abundant, yet mysterious, source of food is known as genetically modified (GM) food.Food safety is of great concern to the general public, so when new technology like genetic engineering, which plays with the food items on your local grocer's shelves, is introduced, the public is going to be very concerned.
It is common practice for the general public to fear scientific innovations as soon as the story hits newsstands. We have seen it with the birth of the microwave, the television, the airplane, and now genetic engineering. With the birth of genetic engineering, another modern science invention, consumers were skeptical - and are still very uncertain of the consequences of the science. According to the most recent poll in January 2001, 60 percent of people surveyed said they did not want genetically engineered crops introduced into the food supply.
Since the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, humans have cultivated plants so that they grow with desired characteristics. Even back then, farmers used genetic manipulation to grow new and improved crops of food. Nearly 7,500 years ago farmers domesticated maize (corn) by manipulating a grass called teosinte.
In 1983, 18 years ago, the first transgenic plant was cultivated. This plant was a tobacco plant that was resistant to an antibiotic. In 1985, genetically engineered plants resistant to insects, viruses, and bacteria were field-tested for the first time. Crops of this kind have been available to the US for 18 years, yet we have seen no adverse health or environmental effects whatsoever.
To give a real example of the long-term usage of a GM food, consider cheese. Most cheese in the US is produced using a genetically engineered enzyme that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1990 - it has been almost 11 years since Americans began eating GM cheese.
Opponents to genetically modified food claim that the process by which these foods are produced is unnatural and unsafe to human health and the environment. There is, however, no scientific evidence to prove this. In general, genetic engineering is a very safe and direct technique that allows scientists to transfer genes between organisms that would normally not interbreed.
The "conventional" manner of selecting the best crops is by crossbreeding, or interbreeding two parent plants. Traditional crossbreeding transfers thousands of genes, which is an inefficient and imprecise way to cultivate crops. Bioengineers have more control with current technology than scientists used to in that they can crossbreed with only single genes - a more precise process.
There are many benefits of GM foods. Genetic engineering can provide more nutritious and higher-yielding crops. For example, "golden rice" was just recently created to have higher levels of (-carotene (a form of vitamin A). This rice has the potential to fight vitamin A deficiency and malnutrition in Asia, Africa, and South America.
We need genetic engineering to feed the world's hungry because, as Usha Barwale-Zehr, joint director of research for an Indian seed company, wrote to the Christian Science Monitor in October 2000, "the conventional approaches have not provided a solution... we cannot afford to ignore the potential application of biotechnology."
With genetic engineering, scientists can make plants pest-resistant, which has decreased the need for pesticide use. This has huge potential benefits for the environment. Dumping highly toxic chemicals on our land is very devastating to nature. In 1998, 8.2 million fewer pounds of active pesticide were used on corn, cotton, and soybeans than in the previous year because of the use of genetically engineered crops. And, since 1995 when genetically engineered crops were commercially available, farmers have saved $100 million in the reduction of pesticide use. Additionally, GM herbicide-tolerant soybeans have saved farmers about $200 million a year by reducing the amount of herbicide needed to grow their crops.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the FDA have been charged by the US government to regulate pesticide usage and ensure food safety, respectively. In May 2000, the FDA restated its belief that GM foods are not only safe, but they are as safe as their conventional counterparts.
Currently, the EPA is completing its first comprehensive review of the country's major genetically engineered crops: corn, cotton, and potato plants that contain pesticide genes. The governmental regulatory agency is expected to release the document this summer after it is reviewed by a group of independent scientists. In September 2000, after its initial assessment, the EPA concluded that there were no "unreasonable adverse effects" of biotech crops. The EPA found that corn, cotton, and potato crops pose no threat to human health or the environment.
Although scientists have uncovered many potential risks and benefits of genetically engineered foods, their data are neither certain, universal, nor complete. Key experiments of environmental risks and benefits are lacking - in part because it is very difficult to assess ecological systems due to their complexity.
There are a number of things that are needed in order for consumers to feel and remain confident about GM food. There is a need for the continual assessment of the safety of genetically modified foods, the development of greater techniques for genetically modified food safety assessment, the development of more effective technology to avoid antibiotic and pesticide resistance of crop pests, and a greater emphasis on the research of potential food allergens in GM foods.
The problem with the genetic engineering of food does not lie in the science - it is in the lack of education of the people. The public does not know what a genetically engineered food is, let alone what the potential risks and benefits are of such technology. For this reason, the federal government needs to make a greater effort to educate the public on genetically modified crops, with an emphasis on providing unbiased information. Furthermore, the government should take a greater responsibility to make the scientific research on GM foods publicly available.
