Are genetically modified foods safe?

The introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods has provided promises in addressing
issues on agricultural problems, scarcity of resources, food improvement, and the like. The
cultivation of GM crops on millions of hectares of lands and their injection into our food chain is a
huge global genetic experiment involving all living beings (Maghari & Ardekani, 2011). Along with
its benefits to both food producers and consumers are its potential biomedical risks and
environmental side effects. The increasing public concerns on this issue are aimed at the short
and long-lasting health problems that may result from this advanced biotechnology (Zhang et al.,
2016). This paper attempts to elucidate why GM foods are not 100% safe.

Before starting discussing the merits and demerits of GM foods, it is important to know the
reasons that motivate our resort to the new technology for the development of these foods. Firstly,
the world population is continuously increasing with a large number. One of the purposes of
having GM foods is to address food shortage. It was estimated that in year 2030, the world
population will reach around 8.5 billion (FAO, 2016). The growing population is one of the major
contributors to undernourishment around the world. Accordingly, FAO (2016) reported that 795
million people in the world were undernourished, among which 780 million people in developing
regions. Hence, the eradication of hunger is one of the promises of GM foods.

Along with the increase in population, the decrease in arable land is also considered as
factor that motivates the production of GM foods. FAO predicted that the finite amount of arable
land available for food production per person will decrease from the current 0.242 ha to 0.18 ha
by 2050 (Alexandratos, 2012).

Thirdly, there is a bottleneck of conventional and modern breeding. Conventional breeding

aims to express some desired property (e.g. disease resistance) from a parental line with another
parental line. This process usually takes several years before the desired trait can be assessed.
At present, the yields of most major crops are stagnating while the demand for food, both grain
and animal protein, is growing. Oliver (2014) said that meeting the challenge of improving yields
requires a constant commitment of generating a steady supply of crops which conventional
breeding cannot comply. According to him, the production of GM crops is filling this gap.

There are numerous benefits brought by GM foods such as food improvements providing
a higher nutritional value, better taste, and increased shelf life. However, it is also important to
note that along with the promises of GM foods are also problems. Debates over GM foods mainly
focuses on its potential adverse effects on human health and environmental safety. It should be
noted that among the reasons why there are such debates includes: the difficulty of the scientific
community in explaining concisely to the lay public the biological techniques involved; concerns
about the improper dissemination of GM foods; the ethical principles inherent in traditional food
processing; and the misgivings with regards to the adequacy of evaluation of the GM foods
(Baulcombe et al., 2014).

Bawa and Anilakumar (2013), stated that there are three major health risks potentially
associated with GM foods namely toxicity, allergenicity and genetic hazards, which arise from
three potential sources: the inserted gene and their expressed proteins per se, secondary or
pleiotropic effects of the products of gene expression, and the possible disruption of natural genes
in the manipulated organism.

Various scientific data has proven the adverse effects of GM crops to animals. To cite,
rats exposed to transgenic potatoes or soya had abnormal young sperm; cows, goats, buffalo,
pigs and other livestock grazing on Bt-maize, GM cottonseed and certain biotech corn showed
complications including early deliveries, abortions, infertility and also many died (Maghari &
Ardekani, 2011). Additionally, the same authors also cited the allergy case in India that happened
on 2005, wherein hundreds of villagers and farmers of cotton developed skin allergy. The
investigations revealed that all of the affected farmers experienced itching of skin, with 86 percent
of them having eruptions on body and 56 percent have swelling of face. Moreover, studies have
also showed that Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn expresses an allergenic protein that can alter the
overall immunological reactions in the body. In a study conducted by Séralini et al. (2014), in an
attempt to study the effects of Bt corn against rats, the results have showed its adverse effects
on the rats. The rats fed with Bt corn had an increased risk of developing tumors, suffereing organ
damage, and dying prematurely.

Aside from health risks, GM foods is also associated with ecological risks. Bawa and
Anilakumar (2013), stated that as GM foods are aimed at endowing the altered plant in becoming
pest/herbicide resistant would lead to insects and weeds to evolve to nullify the design of
transgenic crops. In addition, this might cause a disruption in the food web.

Another issue posed is the possibility that the insect-resistant plants would increase the
number of minor pests while reducing the number of major pests. The scenario here is that the
pest population might shift from those put-offs by the engineered plants to other, undaunted
species. This shift, in turn, might unleash a pervasive disruption of the entire food chain, with new
predators of the new insect species, and so on up to the top of the chain. Or the disruption might
work in the other direction, whereby residues of herbicide or insect resistant plants might generate
negative effects on organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi, etc.) found in surrounding soil (Zhang et al.,
2016).

Lastly, GM foods may cause antibacterial resistance. In the processes of genetic

modification, antibiotics are also frequently employed, typically as selection markers, to
distinguish successfully transformed bacteria from those in which the transfecting genes did not
take hold. Thus, the machinations to genetically modify an organism carries the risk of transferring
the genes of antibiotics resistance into the benign bacteria comprising the microflora of human
and animal gastrointestinal tracts, or, worse yet, to pathogenic bacteria harbored by the consumer
of GM a food, because bacteria, good and bad, are quite capable of shuttling useful genes – like
those that protect them from nasty antibiotics – around by horizontal transfer between species
(Ricroch et al., 2011).

There should be a reasoned and rational approach in dealing with the issue of GM foods-
to its benefits, as well as consideration of the rights of consumers to know what is in their food.
GM foods is undeniably a very promising approach in solving modern problems related to food
from world hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment
by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides and herbicides. Taking
everything into consideration, GM crops are alive— they can migrate and spread worldwide. That
is why, we could not just disregard the benefits that we could get from it. However, there are risks
associated with these benefits. It is also important to weigh the consequences brought by GM
foods. In this regard, biotech companies must apply more caution and avoid unintended harm to
human health and environment. Although some regulations exist, a call for vigilance must be put
to practice especially for those countries that produce GM foods, to follow international scientific
bio-safety testing guidelines with the aim of protecting the public health and mitigation of future
environmental harm.
References:

Alexandratos, N.B.J. (2012) World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050. Retrieved from

www.faoorg/economic/esa

Baulcombe, D.D., Jones, J. Pickett, J., & Puigdomenech, J.P. (2014). GM Science Update: A
Report to the Council for Science and Technology. Retrieved from:
https://wwwgovuk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/292174/cst-
14-634a-gm-science-updatepdf

Bawa, A.S., & Anilakumar, K.R. (2013). Genetically modified foods: safety risks and public
concerns- a review. Journal of Food Science and Technology 50 (6), pp.1035-1046.

Food and Agricultural Organization (2016). Nations FaAOotU: The State of Food Insecurity in the
World. Retrieved from: http://wwwfaoorg/3/a-i4646epdf

Maghari, B. & Ardekani, A. (2011). Genetically Modified Foods and Social Concerns. Avicenna
Journal of Medical Biotechnology, 3(3): 109-117.

Oliver, M.J. (2014). Why we need GMO crops in agriculture. MO Med 111 (6), pp.492-507

Ricroch, A.E., Berge, J.B., & Kuntz M. (2011). Evaluation of genetically engineered crops using
transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiling techniques. Plant Physiol., 155 (4)
(2011), pp. 1752-1761

Séralini, G., Clair, E., Mesnage, R., Gress, S., Defarge, N., Malatesta, M., Hennequin, D.,3 & de
Vendômois, J.S. (2014). Republished study: long-term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and
a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize. doi: 10.1186/s12302-014-0014-5

Zhang, C., Wohlheuter, R., & Zhang, H. (2016). Genetically modified foods: A critical review of
their promise and problems. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fshw.2016.04.002.