GMOs — a Green Scientist’s view

If you’ve been alive in the last 10 years, you’ve likely heard of GMOs — Genetically Modified Organisms. This is a hot and polarizing topic these days, especially when it comes to genetic modification of food. So what do I, as an environmentally- and health-conscious scientist think of them? In a nutshell – I support the techniques but detest the “big business” side of it. Read on, and I’ll explain…

First of all, let’s start with some background. Genetic modification is the process by which a living creature’s DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid — the blueprint of life) is altered, usually by insertion of a gene from a different organism or by deletion of a native gene. The offspring of this modified creature would then also carry the same external gene, as would their offspring.

Sound scary? It really shouldn’t. Botanists and horticulturalists have been doing this for centuries, just using older, less efficient methods. Cross-breeding two plants to create a stronger one? Well that’s genetic modification. Genes from the 2 plants are mixed, creating a modified organism. It even happens in nature, and is a central concept in the process of evolution and Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Many, many fruits, vegetables, and other plant types (including organic ones) have been modified in this way, producing a wonderful variety of foods, ornamentals, and other things. Even though old and new methods differ, there are still genetic changes being introduced both ways.

Now with modern genetic engineering, there’s still a transfer of genes from one organism to another – the biggest difference being that it’s highly specific and targeted. Instead of random mixing of genes, exact genes can be removed from one organism and placed exactly where desired in the second. These methods are now some of the most basic techniques used in research labs around the world. “Molecular biology” as it’s called is an essential tool for scientists working in the fields of nutrition, zoology, botany, biochemistry, and all the medical sciences. Many lifesaving new medicines and therapies would not exist today if not for genetic engineering.

That was what I would call the good. Now to the bad.

Intellectual property: Companies producing GM seeds (eg. DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, and the much-maligned Monsanto) are able to patent their creations. This then allows them to sue “unauthorized” users of their products. Unfortunately, in the open air, seeds and pollen can often travel far from their intended destination, leading innocent farmers to be sued by unethical corporations just because a neighbour’s seed has contaminated their land.

Exploitation of farmers: When purchasing GM seeds, farmers are often required to sign agreements that they will not save seeds from their crops for planting the following year. This is contrary to practices that have existed since the dawn of agriculture. Farmers become trapped in an unaffordable cycle where they must buy expensive seed, treat their crops with expensive and toxic pesticides, and repeat this year after year. All of this benefits the huge biotech who makes the seed and pesticide, while the farmers continue to struggle. Those who save their seed and replant are sued mercilessly by their seed company.

Loss of biodiversity: As more and more farmers move to GM seed due to million-dollar marketing campaigns, we’re seeing a dramatic drop in the variety of plants being grown for food. Time-honoured methods of preserving and enriching the soil such as crop rotation are being abandoned for “monoculture” plots. Who needs healthy, nutrient-rich soil when you can plant the same crop year after year, and it will continue to grow because you treat it with huge amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that obliterate any rogue plant or insect that dares set foot in your field, beneficial or not? This loss of diversity is a threat to the global food system as any disease that attacks the GM crops could wipe out massive amounts of food. Look up the story of the Gros Michel and Cavendish bananas as a lesson on the danger of monoculture.

Contamination of organic and non-GMO crops: Direct transfer of seeds to undesired locations and cross-pollination between modified and unmodified plants are also problems. Farmers with no intent to grow GMO crops often discover that their fields have been contaminated by a neighbour’s plants. “Gene flow” between strains is caused by pollen transfer from a GMO plant to a non-GMO, leading to modified offspring. This contamination causes all sorts of problems for farmers, often making their crops unfit for sale to their intended markets.

The rise of “superweeds” and “superbugs”: As more and more genetically engineered crops are grown, we are starting to see more and more weeds and insects that have become resistant to the very poisons made to kill them. Since they have a competitive advantage, the super-populations can grow with each successive generation, while the “normal” organisms are slowly outcompeted, leading to large numbers of resistant super-plants and bugs that cannot be killed by conventional means.

Escape of GM animals into the wild: The AquAdvantage salmon produced by AquaBounty Technologies is the first GMO animal that we may soon see in supermarkets. It grows twice as fast as normal salmon due to insertion of 2 genes from different fish species.  While it appears that eating this fish will pose no foreseeable health problems, the biggest concern is that it will manage to escape its enclosures and outcompete normal salmon in the wild. If this happened, it could be a major danger to native salmon species.
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Corporate influence on food policy and control of the food supply: As the major multinational biotechs producing GM seeds grow more and more powerful, they exercise more influence on government regulation and lawmaking. Multimillion dollar public relations and lobbying campaigns can sway decisions made by regulators and voters. A perfect example of this is the 2012 defeat of a GMO labelling bill (proposition 37) in California. While it seems like a no-brainer that the public should have the right to know what they’re putting into their bodies, after huge amounts of money (~$46 million in total) were spent by companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, Syngenta, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo (who all wanted the presence of GMO ingredients to remain secret), the bill was defeated narrowly by voters. The defeat was almost certainly due to the anti-labelling advertising blitz paid for by these companies. And because these corporations also control the types of seed they produce for farmers, they can control what people grow.

Here’s one controversial case study: the development of Golden Rice by genetic engineering. This patented variety was developed with the goal of alleviating vitamin A deficiency, a major health problem affecting literally hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. The WHO estimates that 250 million preschoolers are deficient in vitamin A, and that correcting this deficiency would prevent 1/3 of all under-five year-old deaths. Vitamin A deficiency currently kills a staggering ~670,000 preschool children every year.

Golden Rice has been genetically engineered to address this by producing beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. The most recent version of the rice produces enough to eliminate vitamin A deficiency when consumed in normal quantities. So how could this possibly be a bad thing?

The controversy mainly comes from the question of who benefits from the planting of this rice. Opponents say it’s simply a massive money-maker for Syngenta and the other biotechs who produce Golden Rice. And while this may be true, the patented rice is actually being given away free for farmers earning less than $10,000 in developing countries, and these farmers are even permitted to save their seed.

Personally, I am in favour of this particular GM project. While money will certainly be made by Big Ag, the humanitarian reasons outweigh the negatives in my mind.

So after all that, what’s the bottom line?

1. GMO food in 2014 is pretty much always safe to eat. The word “frankenfood” gets tossed around a lot, but isn’t really a useful term. Comparing the careful insertion of a gene into an organism’s DNA to surgically attaching a limb to an animal isn’t accurate or true in any way. Even if that gene is from a bacterium or virus, it won’t hurt you.
2. The environmental and social issues arising from the ever-increasing production of GMO foods is a concern for me. When our food supply is controlled by corporations whose main concern is making money for their shareholders and executives, we cannot expect decisions to be made with the public’s best interest in mind. Add to that the sad fact that many regulatory boards are loaded with former biotech and food industry executives, and you have massive conflict-of-interest and regulations that frequently favour big business at the expense of the greater good. And that’s a problem.

I will always be a supporter of organic agriculture, a sustainable way of farming that works with the earth (rather than overwhelming it with brute force) to produce healthy, nutritious, uncontaminated food. But because it’s virtually impossible for the average city-dweller to eat exclusively organic, I don’t worry about the conventional and/or GM food that I’m unfortunately stuck with.

I’ve tried to address the most important positives and negatives in this post, but have certainly not covered everything. Please feel free to comment, no matter which side of the debate you’re on, and have a great day!

AM