Author: Carly Pontifex
What are GMOs? Are they really safe for my family to eat? Unless you have formal training in biological sciences, these are questions that might have kept you up at night. Are scientists playing God? Do they know what they’re doing? How do they know that there won’t be some terrible unintended consequences to their inscrutable science experiments? Maybe it’s our fault, the scientists, for not making it clear to you what is fact and what is fiction, and we can’t blame you. In this world of misinformation, it’s hard to know the difference between fiction and reality. Here I am, a concerned scientist, and I want to help you understand GMOs. As a disclaimer, this article was written with absolutely no conflicts of interests to report. I have never been contacted by any GMO corporation, nor have I been swayed to write this article by the agricultural industry. I just want you to know the truth.
How do I know that genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are safe to eat?
The act of genetic modification comes from making changes to the DNA of a plant or animal. We consume DNA in huge quantities in all the food that we consume, so eating DNA itself is completely innocuous. DNA is used in a living organism to make proteins. Are these proteins somehow dangerous when we eat them? Not at all, in fact, these protein are completely natural, they are just moved from the DNA of one plant or animal to another. When they reach our stomach, the stomach acid unravels the proteins, which are cut into small pieces, absorbed through the lining of our gut and used for energy. We use them just like any other protein that we eat. So it isn’t the protein in GMOs that are harmful. What about herbicide-resistant crops? According to the World Health Organization, there is some very limited evidence indicating that very high doses of herbicides like glyphosate found in Round-up™ can cause cancer in animals, although they state that these effects are not observed in lower, more realistic exposure dosages. Most of the studies performed indicate that there is no evidence of cancer causing effects at all. The 2A carcinogen ranking that the World Health Organization gives to glyphosate is the same ranking that they give to the consumption of red meat. That might still be enough for you to want to swear off GMO crops entirely, but ask yourself, would you eat those plants if they hadn’t been sprayed with Round-up™? My point is that it isn’t the act of genetic modification that most people take issue with, it’s the stuff that is sprayed on afterwards that some people oppose. Most people who believe they are anti-GMO are in reality anti-herbicide, and sometimes neglect to consider that the use of herbicides have benefits as well. So is it fair to condemn an entire technology because of one way to modify crops? Are there GMOs that don’t rely on herbicides to work effectively? Absolutely.
People in developing nations don’t always have access to foodstuffs that provide the recommended daily amount of vitamins. In many countries, primary vitamin A-deficiencies lead to vitamin A-related diseases. Vitamin A deficiency causes the most common form of preventable childhood blindness. Clever researchers were able to add two genes into rice that allowed the rice to produce beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A (which makes carrots orange). The rice, called Golden Rice for its yellow color, was able to stave off vitamin A deficiency-related diseases. In the Philippines, Golden Rice trials were destroyed by anti-GMO activists.
It is no secret that commercial farming causes environmental damage, but commercial farming is also essential to food security. What if we could make commercial farming more environmentally friendly? Plants produce a molecule called phytate, which stores phosphates. Phosphates are essential to bone and muscle development, energy and it makes up a component of the backbone of our DNA. Animals can’t absorb the phosphate from phytate very well; consequently, they excrete large amounts of phosphates in their manure. In high levels phosphate act as a pollutant. When these phosphates runoff into water sources, algae are able to use it to grow at an increased rate. As the algae die, bacteria begin to decompose the algae, using up the oxygen in the water. This leads to dead zones in the water where fish and other animals die off. Thanks to ingenious researchers, the Enviropig™ was developed. A gene called phytase was transferred from mice into pigs. When the pigs expressed this gene they were able to convert phytate into phosphates through their saliva which the pigs were then able to absorb in the gut. This drastically reduced the phosphate waste of these pigs. However, pushes from anti-GMO activists claim credit for the defunding of the Enviropig™ and their subsequent euthanasia.
So there you have it. Just a couple of examples of how GMOs are making the world a better place without herbicides. Yet, there is still a major push from anti-GMO activists to indiscriminately condemn all GMO technology. Why? The politics surrounding GMOs, as well as a general misunderstanding of the technology has led to pushes to prohibit all forms of GMOs. Wouldn’t genetic modification be worth it, if it could save plants from extinction? It saved papaya in Hawaii from the devastating Ring spot virus in the 1990s, it saved bananas from mosaic and brown streak disease, it saved Florida oranges from citrus greening disease and it saved the American chestnut tree from a deadly fungus. The truth is GMOs can feed the world, save species from extinction and decrease pollution. As scientists, we ask you to help us. It is time to end the stigma surrounding technologies that will make the world a better place.