Genetic Modification (GMO)

Many questions and concerns have arisen with the new found plant breeding technology termed genetic modification or commonly referred to as GMO. Concerns and questions about long term effects and societal good have caused slowed acceptance and rigorous testing of this new technology. Although slowly being adapted, many benefits are already being realized by today's society. GMOs are protecting the environment. Discoveries in biotechnology have allowed some crops to have their own protection against insects and disease and, therefore, can be grown using less crop protection chemicals. For example, cotton and corn now can resist some destructive insects on their own. This allows farmers to choose the best combination of tools to control harmful pests and diseases. Biotechnology is providing opportunities to decrease soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions through farming practices that protect the environment. Some of these new crops require less tilling, helping to preserve precious topsoil, use less fuel and reduce farm run-off into streams and rivers. They are also playing a part in feeding a growing population. According to statistics from the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the world population will likely increase to approximately nine billion by 2050. The fact is that with more people, we will need to provide more food. At the same time, there is little remaining land for farming, without destroying valuable rainforest and wetland habitats. World hunger is a complex issue that biotechnology can play a part in helping. Thanks to continued improvements in agriculture and food production, and to developments in food biotechnology, we'll be able to grow more food and better food on land already being farmed. More nutritious foods are also becoming available as a result of GMOs. Now and in the near future biotechnology products provide potential food quality improvements. Some biotech foods may help to prevent heart disease and cancer by delivering more of vitamins C and E. Research is under way on "golden rice," which would combat Vitamin A deficiency in developing nations by delivering more beta-carotene and iron. Other biotech foods under development, such as a potato that absorbs less oil, may help to prevent heart disease by cutting back on fatty acids. Biotechnology will improve nutrition in other ways, such as by producing allergy-free peanuts and rice. Researchers are even working on a banana that could deliver vaccines against Hepatitis B and other deadly diseases.

1. What are genetically-modified plants and foods? The term GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) is most commonly used to refer to crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. Genetic modification covers such diverse activities as the use of yeast in brewing or bread making to advanced plant breeding techniques. New developments in biotechnology allow scientists to identify and transfer the specific gene that creates a desired trait in a plant, and offer a more precise way to produce plants with certain beneficial characteristics - such as greater nutrition.

2. How many plants are genetically modified? According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are over 40 plant varieties that have completed all of the federal requirements for commercialization. Some examples of these plants include tomatoes and cantalopes that have modified ripening characteristics, soybeans, canola and sugarbeets that are resistant to herbicides, and corn and cotton plants with increased resistance to insect pests. The seven transgenic crops grown worldwide in 1999 were, in descending order of area, soybean, corn/maize, cotton, canola/rapeseed, potato, squash and papaya. Transgenic soybean and corn continued to be ranked first and second in 1999, accounting for 54 % and 28 % of global transgenic crop area, respectively. Cotton (9.1 million acres) and canola (8.4 million acres) shared third ranking position in 1999 each occupying approximately 9 % of global area. Potato, squash and papaya occupied less than 1% of the global area of transgenic crops in 1999.

3. Where are genetically-modified crops grown? Between 1996 and 1999, twelve countries, 8 industrial and 4 developing, have contributed to more than a twenty-fold increase in the global area of transgenic crops. Adoption rates for transgenic crops are unprecedented and are the highest for any new technologies by agricultural industry standards. In 1999, the global area of transgenic crops increased by 44 %, or 29.9 million acres, to 98.6 million acres, from 68.7 million acres in 1998 . Seven transgenic crops were grown commercially in twelve countries in 1999 three of which, Portugal, Rumania and Ukraine, grew transgenic crops for the first time. The countries listed in descending order of transgenic crop area on a global basis in 1999 are: USA, 70.9 million acres, or 72 % of the global area; Argentina with 16.6 million acres equivalent to 17 % of global area; Canada 9.9 million acres representing 10 %; China with approximately 0.7 million hectares equivalent to 1 %; Australia and South Africa each grew 0.2 million acres of transgenic crops in 1999. The balance of <1 % was grown in Mexico, Spain, France, Portugal, Rumania and Ukraine, each with < 0.2 million acres.

4. What percent of crops in the US are genetically-modified? In the U.S. approximately 57% of all soybeans cultivated in 1999 were genetically-modified, up from 42% in 1998 and only 7% in 1996. Bt corn and Bt cotton also experienced similar but less dramatic increases. Bt corn production increased to 30% of all corn grown in 1999, from 26% in 1998, and 1.5% in 1996. Bt cotton was 27% of the total crop in 1999, up from 23% in 1998, and 19% in 1996. As anticipated, pesticide and herbicide use on these GM varieties was slashed and, for the most part, yields were increased.

5. Why genetically modified breeding verse traditional methods? The enhancement of desired traits has traditionally been undertaken through breeding, but conventional plant breeding methods can be very time consuming and are often not very accurate. Genetic engineering, on the other hand, can create plants with the exact desired trait very rapidly and with great accuracy. For example, plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will gain drought tolerance as well. Not only can genes be transferred from one plant to another, but genes from non-plant organisms also can be used. The best known example of this is the use of Bt genes in corn and other crops. Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis, is a naturally occurring bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are lethal to insect larvae. Bt crystal protein genes have been transferred into corn, enabling the corn to produce its own pesticides against insects such as the European corn borer.

6. What are some of the advantages of GM foods? The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to increase by 50% in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. GM foods hold promise to meet this need in a number of ways:

• Pest resistance Crop losses from insect pests can be staggering, resulting in devastating financial loss for farmers and starvation in developing countries. Growing GM foods such as BT corn can help eliminate the application of chemical pesticides and reduce the cost of bringing a crop to market. • Herbicide tolerance For some crops, it is not cost-effective to remove weeds by physical means such as tilling, so farmers will often spray herbicides to destroy weeds, a time-consuming and expensive process. Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resistant to one very powerful herbicide could help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed. For example, Monsanto has created a strain of soybeans genetically modified to be not affected by their herbicide product Roundup ®. A farmer grows these soybeans which then only require one application of weed-killer instead of multiple applications, reducing production cost and limiting the dangers of agricultural waste run-off. • Disease resistance There are many viruses, fungi and bacteria that cause plant diseases. Plant biologists are working to create plants with genetically-engineered resistance to these diseases. ? Cold tolerance Unexpected frost can destroy sensitive seedlings. An antifreeze gene from cold water fish has been introduced into plants such as tobacco and potato. With this antifreeze gene, these plants are able to tolerate cold temperatures that normally would kill unmodified seedlings. • Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance As the world population grows and more land is utilized for housing instead of food production, farmers will need to grow crops in locations previously unsuited for plant cultivation. Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought or high salt content in soil and groundwater will help people to grow crops in formerly inhospitable places. • Nutrition Malnutrition is common in third world countries where impoverished people rely on a single crop such as rice for the main staple of their diet. However, rice does not contain adequate amounts of all necessary nutrients to prevent malnutrition. If rice could be genetically engineered to contain additional vitamins and minerals, nutrient deficiencies could be alleviated. For example, blindness due to vitamin A deficiency is a common problem in third world countries. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Institute for Plant Sciences have created a strain of "golden" rice containing an unusually high content of beta-carotene (vitamin A). Since this rice was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, a non-profit organization, the Institute hopes to offer the golden rice seed free to any third world country that requests it. Plans were underway to develop a golden rice that also has increased iron content. However, the grant that funded the creation of these two rice strains was not renewed, perhaps because of the vigorous anti-GM food protesting in Europe, and so this nutritionally-enhanced rice may not come to market at all. • Pharmaceuticals Medicines and vaccines often are costly to produce and sometimes require special storage conditions not readily available in third world countries. Researchers are working to develop edible vaccines in tomatoes and potatoes. These vaccines will be much easier to ship, store and administer than traditional injectable vaccines. • Phytoremediation Not all GM plants are grown as crops. Soil and groundwater pollution continues to be a problem in all parts of the world. Plants such as poplar trees have been genetically engineered to clean up heavy metal pollution from contaminated soil.

7. What are some of the criticisms of GM foods?

Most concerns about GM foods fall into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concerns.

8. How are GM foods regulated and what is the government's role in this process?
Governments are hard at work to establish a regulatory process to monitor the effects of and approve new varieties of GM plants. Yet depending on the political, social and economic climate within a region or country, different governments are responding in different ways.

9. How are GM foods labeled?
The FDA's current position on food labeling is governed by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act which is only concerned with food additives, not whole foods or food products that are considered „GRAS‰ - generally recognized as safe. The FDA contends that GM foods are substantially equivalent to non-GM foods, and therefore not subject to more stringent labeling. If all GM foods and food products are to be labeled, Congress must enact sweeping changes in the existing food labeling policy. In January 2000, an international trade agreement for labeling GM foods was established. More than 130 countries, including the US, the world's largest producer of GM foods, signed the agreement. The policy states that exporters must be required to label all GM foods and that importing countries have the right to judge for themselves the potential risks and reject GM foods, if they so choose. This new agreement may spur the U.S. government to resolve the domestic food labeling dilemma more rapidly.

10. If biotech products are safe, why are biotechnology companies opposed to labeling them?
Companies are supportive of efforts to ensure that consumers have the information they need to make sound food decisions. The question of consumer product labeling is best addressed by the food industry working in cooperation with regulatory agencies. In the U.S. and Canada, this cooperative effort has resulted in a science-based system that requires labeling if the food differs in safety, composition, or nutritional quality compared to conventional food. No products developed using biotechnology that are currently on the market fall into this category.

11. What is in the future for genetically-modified crops?
High adoption rates reflect grower satisfaction with the products that offer significant benefitsranging from more convenient and flexible crop management, higher productivity or net returns/acre and a safer environment through decreased use of conventional pesticides, which collectively contribute to a more sustainable agriculture. As expansion of transgenic crops continues, a shift will occur from the current generation of "input" agronomic traits to the next generation of "output" quality traits, which will result in improved and specialized nutritional food and feed products that will satisfy a high-value-added market; this will significantly affect the value of the global transgenic crop market and also broaden the beneficiary profile from growers to consumers which could in turn have important implications for public acceptance. Genetically-modified foods have the potential to solve many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides and herbicides. Yet there are many challenges ahead for governments, consumers, producers and industry.