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GMOs: Not the Devil We Know from Facebook

Recently, I stumbled across a video of Jimmy Kimmel speaking about GMOs on his talk

show. Part of his bit was to send a camera crew to a farmer’s market and ask random people there

two questions: do they eat foods that contain GMOs and what are GMOs. Comically, with an air

of disgust, all who were interviewed emphatically claimed they most certainly did not consume

foods containing GMOs. However, all but one did not even know what the acronym GMO stands

for. It appeared they had been convinced to fear and be repulsed by the idea of GMOs even if they

had no clue what they were. While the “study” is far from scientific, it does mirror the sentiments

from a large portion of our population. The fear and mistrust of GMOs not only is unfounded but

needs to end. As we move into a world with more and more people to feed and a climate that is

less and less dependable, our dependency upon GMOs will become paramount.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in the context of this paper, are “crops developed

through genetic engineering, a more precise method of plant breeding” (GMO Basics). Using this

technology “allows plant breeders to take a desirable trait found in nature and transfer it from one

plant or organism to the plant they want to improve, as well as make a change to an existing trait

in a plant they are developing” (GMO Basics). It is interesting to note that “plants swap genes even

without the help of human beings when they reproduce sexually, and our ancestors guided the

process to develop crops suitable for agriculture” (XiaoZhi). The new genetic manipulations speed

up a process that, historically, took farmers many thousands of years to accomplish through

conventional breeding. Essentially, in the past if farmers found a desirable trait in part of their

crop, they would selectively breed only that crop the next planting season. This was meant to

encourage and propagate the traits of the most desirable crops. With GMO technology, scientists

can very precisely modify a few genes to immediately produce the desirable traits.
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It should be fairly easy to immediately see the benefits of genetically modified foods.

However, in 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey that compared the views of U.S.

adults compared to American Association for the Advancement of Science scientists that painted

a very different picture. They “asked both a representative sample of the public and AAAS

scientists about a range of science-related topics, from climate change to childhood vaccinations”

(Funk). Of all the topics, “more than any other issue, the public and scientists had very different

views about the safety of eating genetically modified (GM) foods. A majority of the general public

(57%) says that GM foods are generally unsafe to eat, while 37% say such foods are safe; by

contrast, 88% of AAAS scientists say GM foods are generally safe (Funk). The vocal critics of

GMOs generally fall back on at least one of three main arguments. The “skepticism is mainly

fuelled by concerns about unnaturalness (GMOs are considered to be unnatural, or to be produced

by unnatural methods, or to be equal to playing God, and therefore to be morally objectionable),

risk of adverse consequences (GMOs are perceived as involving unacceptable health risks or

environmental risks), and a variety of socioeconomic consequences (risk of exploitation,

monopolization, threats to traditional life forms)” (Christiansen).

Truth be told though, humans have been consuming GMOs for decades with no ill effects

that can be attributed to the modification. Those of us that live in the United States have more than

likely consumed genetically modified organisms, though maybe not directly. Almost every type

of meat at the supermarket was fed genetically modified corn. Also, there have been over 1,700

independent studies and over 600 published safety assessments from countless organizations

spanning the globe including, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Academy of

Sciences (U.S.), the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, the Academy

of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Royal Society of Medicine (UK), the American Association for the
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Advancement of Science, the Union of German Academics of Science and Humanities, the French

Academy of Science, and the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, to name a few. Every

study concluded that genetically engineered crops posed zero additional hazards when compared

to the conventionally grown crop. (Tribe)

While cruising through some very bad Facebook posts, containing poorly constructed

memes about GMOs I came across the phrase “FrankenFoods” quite often. This term is supposed

to disparage genetically modified foods, comparing them to the evil machinations of Dr.

Frankenstein. The newly approved Atlantic salmon has been also bequeathed FrankenFish by

these same people. The problem though, by that logic, diabetics must be referred to as

FrankenPeople. “Synthetic insulin is better than the 'natural' kind made using animal pancreases,

and scientists in the 1970s created it by genetically modifying yeast and bacteria cells with a

gene for insulin production, turning the cells into tiny insulin factories. It was a huge

breakthrough, but the future looks even more promising; gene therapy is here and has brought

with it 1,800 clinical trials to cure diseases like sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington s

disease, severe combined immunodeficiency and hemophilia” (ACSH Staff). I do not think this

nomenclature would be justifiably accurate for diabetics.

As previously noted, farmers have been modifying their crops’ genetics for thousands of

years, albeit, in a much clumsier fashion. When the long-ago farmers would find a trait in a certain

strain of plant they considered desirable, they would selectively breed that plant and cross it with

other desirable plants, thus crossing thousands of genes. Scientists look to other “plants and

microbes, which exhibit the trait they want to express in a genetically modified plant. Once they

have identified a trait and isolated the specific gene or genes that control the trait, the next step in
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development is to transfer the desired gene into a crop plant” (How GMOs…). GMOs speed up

the process that took past farmers decades to develop and make it much more efficient.

Today, there are ten GM crops grown: alfalfa, apples, canola, corn (field and sweet), cotton,

papaya, potatoes, soybeans, squash, and sugar beets. Also, the FDA recently reviewed and

approved a new kind of Atlantic salmon. Using genes from the Pacific salmon and the ocean pout,

the new Atlantic salmon has been engineered to have higher levels of growth hormone. This results

in a much larger salmon that is able to be harvested much sooner.

Genetically modified plants can be created with so many advantages over traditional crops.

They can be bred to be insect resistant, reducing the need for pesticides. A drought tolerant GMO

could bring food to parts of the world where irrigation is a problem. The plants can be bred with a

herbicide tolerance allowing the farmers to decrease the space between rows needed traditionally

for weeds, increasing yield.

Somewhere around 500,000 children go blind each year due to vitamin A deficiency. The

staggering reality is “global mortality from malaria, 715,000; from tuberculosis, 1.4 million; from

HIV-AIDS, 1.7 million; from vitamin A deficiency, 2.4 million; and from micronutrients

deficiency, 8.5 million” (Potrykus). The two highest causes of death can be cured with GMOs. A

strain of rice has been developed called “golden rice.” The required daily diet of vitamin A can be

had with only forty grams of golden rice.

As our population continues to grow, our farm lands shrink. Cities spread out and

envelope small towns and farm lands nearby. To combat feeding more people with less farm land

GMOs can be modified to grow in closer proximity and produce higher yields. “Between 1996

and 2015, crop biotechnology was responsible for an additional 180.3 million tons of soybeans,

357.7 million tons of corn, 25.2 million tons of cotton lint, and 10.6 million tons of canola,
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without having to bring more land into production. To produce the same amount of crops without

GM technology, farmers would have needed to cultivate 48 million additional acres of land”

(GMOs…Environment).

While it is somewhat easy to look at those who are strictly against any type of genetically

modified organisms as being simply uninformed, that may not entirely be the case. In today’s

society anyone can post any claim they want to a social media site and potentially, instantly

receive millions of views. “Anti-GMO organizations, such as NGOs, exploit these intuitions by

publishing images of tomatoes with fish tails or by telling the public that companies modify corn

with scorpion DNA to make crispier cereals” (Blancke). Unfortunately, many people do not take

the time to fully research these claims, thus perpetuating incorrect information. The anti-GMO

crowd is heading toward the path of flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers, with their audience being led

down an uninformed path that rejects very well documented and peer-reviewed empirical

scientific truths. If the human race is to survive at our current rate of growth Genetically

Modified Organisms must be embraced and are paramount for our world’s future.
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Works Cited

“GMO Basics.” GMO Answers, gmoanswers.com/gmo-basics. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

“GMOs & The Environment.” GMO Answers, gmoanswers.com/gmos-environment. Accessed 22

Apr. 2018.

“How GMOs Are Made.” GMO Answers, gmoanswers.com/how-gmos-are-made. Accessed 22

Apr. 2018.

ASCH Staff. “Are Humans Who Take GMO Insulin FrankenPeople?” American Council on

Science and Health. 3 Nov. 2015. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

Blancke, Stefaan. “Why People Oppose GMOs Even Though Science Says They Are Safe.”

Scientific American. 18 Aug. 2015. Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.

Christiansen, Andreas, et al. "Does Controversial Science Call for Public Participation? The Case

of GMO Skepticism." Les ateliers de l'éthique, volume 12, number 1, winter 2017, p. 26–

50.

Funk, Cary. “5 Key Findings on What Americans and Scientists Think About Science.” Pew

Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/29/5-key-findings-

science. Accessed 4 May 2018.

Potrykus, Ingo. “The GMO-Crop Potential For More, and More Nutritious Food is Blocked by

Unjustified Regulation.” Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2017, p.

90-96.

Tribe, David “600+ Published Safety Assessments.” GMO Pundit,

http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/p/450-published-safety-assessments.html. Accessed 4

May 2018.
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XiaoZhi, Lim. “GLP Infographic: How Crops are Modified--Are GMOs More Dangerous?.”

Genetic Literacy Project, https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/04/22/glp-infographic-

how-crops-are-modified-are-gmos-more-dangerous. Accessed 4 May 2018.