GMO Food: What? Me worry?

I’ve never much cared whether the food I eat has been genetically modified (GMO). GMO plants have had their genes altered using DNA from different species of living organisms, bacteria, or viruses to get desired traits such as resistance to disease or tolerance of drought and pesticides. For example, in the 1990s, the ringspot virus decimated nearly half the papaya crops in Hawaii. Now, 77 percent of the crop has been genetically engineered to resist the virus.

The vast majority of our processed foods contain GMOs, but most fruits and vegetables have not been modified. Until just recently, no meat, fish, and poultry products approved for direct human consumption are bioengineered, although most of the feed for livestock and fish is derived from genetically modified corn, alfalfa, and other biotech grains. Recently, the FDA has approved a genetically engineered salmon as fit for human consumption—a first for animals. The engineering involves the use of a gene from other fish that keep the salmon’s growth hormone continuously active, such that it grows to market size in as little as half the time as a non-engineered salmon.

Seventeen European countries and nearly all countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which follow Europe’s lead, have banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops. In some conspiracy-theory-prone African countries people believe that eating GMO foods will turn you into a homosexual. Not only do GMO plants not turn you into a homosexual, the worldwide scientific consensus is that GMO foods are as safe to eat as conventionally cultivated food. What’s more, plants that have been genetically modified for, say, insect resistance, have caused a 40 percent reduction in insecticide use worldwide. Ditto for fungicides. But because of the bans, farmers in Tanzania, for example, have had their cassava crops wiped out by brown-streak disease, while farmers in neighboring Uganda area growing cassava with complete resistance to the virus. As Mark Lynas, political director of the Cornell Alliance for Science says, “Thanks to Europe’s Coalition of the Ignorant, we are witnessing a historic injustice perpetrated by the well fed on the food insecure.”

Well, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. A major revolution in gene editing is underway. It's a technique called CRISPR. Apparently, it’s fast and easy (well, for some people). Because it can be used to alter the human genome, it bears watching.

Next week: Medical reversals: Oops! My bad!

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