GMO Is Harmless

Written by Febrina Valencia May 10, 2021

In “Are G.M.O. Foods Safe?” published in 2018, Jane E. Brody says fruits and vegetables
which are crops of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is safe to be consumed. Brody
explains there are no adverse health effects among consumers have been found in the decades.
Instead, GMO crops have been establishing impressive benefits for human population and their
health. Brody shows, by engineering resistance to insect damage, crops availability are
increasing to fulfill human’s need and food industry. Besides, GMO crops which are modified
with additional of vitamins and minerals are suitable option to face famine and malnutrition of
world’s population. I agree with Brody’s statement that GMO crops bring benefits for world
populations and they are not harmful to be consumed by human.

GMO crops are safe to be consumed since the engineering process conducted to modify
plants are strictly regulated by government’s food administration. There are two major
international protocols that address GMO, the Cartagena Protocol of  2000 and the Nagoya-
Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol of 2010, besides international protocols, in Indonesia
itself, Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 21 year of 2005 (PP No.
21/2005) on Biosafety of GMO had been established, the biosafety of GMO includes
environmental safety, food safety and/or feed safety.

Another reason to agree on GMO being beneficial is, they are enriched with vitamins and
minerals as result of biofortification. Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional
quality of staple food crops is improved through genetic engineering, thus GMO crops are one of
crucial step in facing world malnutrition. Biofortified products such as Golden Rice -- a GMO
rice crop enhanced with vitamin A to help combat irreversible childhood blindness could help to
solve important health challenges in developing countries. (Gearing, 2015). Another example of
biofortified crops to fulfill nutrients of developing countries is an African corn that was
modified by researchers from a Spanish university, achieving 169 times more beta-carotene, six
times more vitamin C and twice as much folate. In 2015 human consumption tests were being
carried out, these crops have the objective of alleviating nutritional deficiency in underdeveloped
countries of Africa (Norero, 2018). Not only focusing on developing countries, scientists had
created multivitamin GM corn, three distinct metabolic pathways are modified to enhance the
levels of three key vitamins. The rapid progress of nutritionally enhanced GM crops through the
development pipeline will save millions of lives and reduce the impact of malnutrition in the
world’s poorest areas (Zhu et al., 2009).

GMO crops can also have positive impact for farmers and environment. Scientists modify
the plant's protein so that it makes a protein that wasn't previously present. This carefully
selected protein is toxic to certain insects which makes GMO crops resistant to pests. A study in
1996 – 2016 assessing the global economic and environmental impacts of biotech crops showed
that the technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 671.2 million kg and has reduced
environmental footprint caused by pesticide use by 18.4%. The technology has also significantly
reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture equivalent to removing 16.75
million cars from the roads, because GMOs require fewer pesticides, they keep food production
costs down resulting in lower prices for consumers by as much as 15-30%, prices for non-GMO
corn in 2013 averaged 51 cents per bushel higher than GMO corn (Brookes & Barfoot, 2018). As
a result of it, the plants quality are more secured with the help of resistance gene to insect, which
soon lead to increasing of crops productivity and availability in the market. Agricultural
economists published a study which shows GM crops increased global production by 357.7
million tons of corn, 180.3 million tons of soybean, 25.2 million tons of cotton fiber, 10.6 million
tons of canola and about a ton of sugar beet (Norero, 2018).

Besides all the research datas and facts stated, people still have genuine fears in
consuming GMOs. The most prominent ones are the possible risks of consumption, they argue
that health can also be negatively impacted when they eat GMOs, thus some people are being
anti-GMOs and spreading untrustable news about how human should avoid GMO products.
According to article written by Dr. Mark Hyman (2017), there is no enough information out
there about what GMOs are doing to our bodies and our health.  The research and studies that are
available are not making a positive case for these foods, he advices people to avoid GMOs.

However, people tend to get scared of GMOs and try to create unprovable informations,
because for some people, GMOs represent unnatural foods and they do not provide themselves
enough facts about GMOs, while the fact prove it is not true that GMO products will cause harm
to human’s health, on the other hand, GMOs can fulfill human’s dietary needs in order to receive
nutritional benefits from foods they consume.

A lot experiments and research are conducted by government and experts to establish the
safety of GMOs, instead of being risky for human’s health, genetically modified crops are
actually healthier. Based on 20 years of research, the National Academies of Science,
Engineering and Medicine concluded that there is no substantiated evidence of risks  to
human health between currently commercialized GMO and conventionally bred crops.
Furthermore, GMO foods are not likely to cause food allergies than non-GMO foods
(Streit, 2019). The FDA requires accurate testing of all genetically modified foods to
ensure that they are not allergenic. As a comparison, study of 21 years of corn production
quantified that Bt corn contained lower concentrations of mycotoxins (29%), fumonisins (31%)
and thricotecens (37%) (Pellegrino et al., 2018). Another research to prove GMO is healthier is,
in 2008, American research team performed a study where GM carrots were tested on mice and
30 volunteers, and the results showed that humans absorbed 42% more calcium from the GM
carrots than from ordinary ones (Bohanec, 2015).

In conclusion, GMO crops are safe to be consumed by human. Moreover, they are
beneficial for world’s population, including farmers and environment, since they are enriched
with extra nutrients and resistant to insect compared to ordinary plants, that resistance ability is
positively impactful to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Other than that, people should not be
afraid of the fact that GMO crops are made from modifying engineering process, because the
process itself is conducted with safety protocols from government, and it is truly recommended
for people to load themselves with newest information about development of GMOs to prevent
any misleading understanding.
 REFERENCES

Bohanec, B. (2015, July 21). 10 Successful Examples of Genetic Modification. Metina

Lista. https://metinalista.si/10-successful-examples-of-genetic-modification/

Brookes, G & Barfoot, P. 2018. GM crops: Global socio-economic and environmental

impacts 1996- 2016. PG Economics Ltd, UK. p 1-204

Estiati, A & Herman, M. (2015, 23 November). Biosafety Regulation of Genetically

Modified Products in Indonesia. Media Neliti.
https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/55972-ID-regulasi-keamanan-hayati-produk-
rekayasa.pdf

Gearing, M. (2015, August 10). Good as Gold: Can Golden Rice and Other Biofortified
Crops Prevent Malnutrition. Science In The News.
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/good-as-gold-can-golden-rice-and-other-biofortified-
crops-prevent-malnutrition/

Hyman, M. (2017, May 20). My Thoughts on GMOs. Drhyman.

https://drhyman.com/blog/2017/05/21/thoughts-gmo-foods/

IL Corn. (2017, May 23). Benefits of GMOs. https://www.ilcorn.org/news-and-

media/current-news/article/2017/05/benefits-of-gmos

Library Of Congress. (2020, 30 December). Restrictions on Genetically Modified

Organisms: International Protocols. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/restrictions-on-
gmos/international-protocols.php

Norero, D. (2018, February 23). GMO Crops Have Been Increasing Yield for 20 Years,
With More Progress Ahead. Allience For Science.
https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2018/02/gmo-crops-increasing-yield-20-years-
progress-ahead

Norero, D. (2018, June 20). Unfairly Demonized GMO Crops Can Help Fight
Malnutrition. Allience For Science.
https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2018/06/unfairly-demonized-gmo-crops-can-help-
fight-malnutrition

Pellegrino et al. (2018, February 15). Impact of Genetically Engineered Maize on

Agronomic, Environmental and Toxicological Traits: A Meta-analysis of 21 Years of Field Data.
DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-21284-2
 Streit, L. (2019, February 25). What’s the Deal with GMOs? Myths vs. Facts. Healthy for
Life Meals. https://www.healthyforlifemeals.com/blog/gmos-myths-vs-facts

Zhu et al. (2009, May 12). Transgenic multivitamin corn through biofortification of
endosperm with three vitamins representing three distinct metabolic pathways. PNAS.
https://www.pnas.org/content/106/19/7762