And we’re finally back with the last installment in this series about the new and unfamiliar foods we all eat every day! Last time, we looked at everyone’s biggest question: Are GMOs safe to eat? Both scientific evidence and theoretical analysis agree that there is nothing harmful about eating GMOs, so now, we’ll take a look at some of the many ways gene modification technology is being used today, as well as what lies ahead as humanity reimagines a more sustainable future.
Let’s start with one of the more widely accepted uses for GMOs: producing medicine. While you’re unlikely to find insulin producing bacteria at your local grocery store, the genes of bacteria and other microorganisms are regularly modified to produce essential molecules such as insulin for much cheaper and in much less time than synthetic methods. This has made insulin and other medications much more accessible for people with diabetes and other conditions.
Another medical condition that can be easily treated with GMOs is vitamin A deficiency, or VAD (to learn more about vitamins, check out this post). Most people get their daily intake of vitamin A by eating foods rich in beta-carotene (such as carrots), which the human body easily converts to vitamin A. In east Asia, however, vegetables with high levels of beta-carotene are uncommon and the primary food staple is rice, which does not provide enough beta-carotene to combat VAD. GMOs offer an easy solution to this problem. Scientists have used gene modification technology to create a strain of “golden rice” that naturally produces beta-carotene as it grows. This rice could introduce beta-carotene into the everyday food supply, lessening the need for government-provided beta-carotene supplements and alleviating VAD throughout the region.
The benefits of GMOs are not limited to specific regions. Farmers and consumers all over the world can benefit from genetically modified crops. Globally, a variety of pests destroy crops such as corn, potatoes, cotton, and eggplant. The conventional way to deal with these crops is to spray the crops with pesticides. Even “organic” crops are sprayed with the naturally-produced pesticide “Bt,” which poisons pests but is safe for humans (just as chocolate is harmful to dogs, but not people). The emergence of GMOs, however, has allowed scientists to create crops that produce their own Bt. For farmers, adopting these new Bt-producing crops is better for the environment (as pesticides are not blown into the surrounding environment) and saves money (as farmers no longer have to buy pesticides). Some farmers even had increased yields after switching to GMO crops. For consumers, these crops cost less and are more accessible than conventional crops (because they are cheaper and easier for farmers to grow) and even contain less pesticide!
In the future, GMOs can replace not only pesticides, but also fertilizers. Instead of relying on fertilizers to obtain certain nitrogen-containing compounds, some plants create their own compounds naturally. If genes from these plants were introduced into other, more common crops, they could eliminate the need for costly fertilizers. This can resolve two problems at once. For farmers in the developing world, this would mean crops that grow better for less money. For farmers in the developed world, self-fertilizing crops will also save farmers money, but more importantly, they address fertilizer overuse and runoff, which often pollutes groundwater and damages the ecosystem. Consumers also benefit from cheaper prices as farmers pass along their savings on fertilizer.
In addition to all these uses, GMOs can also be used to save endangered species, combat illness, and reduce world hunger! While I won’t go into the details of those here, be sure to check out this paper on the potential and public perception of GMOs if you’re interested in learning more about these and other uses for GMOs, as well as the reasons why some of these GMOs (including Golden Rice) have yet to find market applications.
Over the past four articles, we’ve covered a lot of material! We started off nearly a year ago by explaining how humans have been modifying the foods they eat for thousands of years through processes like artificial selection and crossbreeding. We then took a closer look at what exactly a genetically modified organism (or GMO) is and how gene modification can be seen as a more reliable alternative to previous methods. After that, we looked at how GMOs are different from “traditionally” modified foods, and determined that both are equally safe to eat. And finally, we finished up the series with a look into how GMOs are used today and how they can be used in the future to benefit farmers, consumers, and the environment. If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for sticking with me ‘till the end. I hope you found this worth your time and maybe even learned a thing or two about GMOs. And at the very least, next time you head to the grocery store, there will be one more label you can now understand!
Post By: An Anonymous Contributor
Photo credits: USDA, https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/symbols
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