Deck 29: Special Topics 5 Genetically Modified Foods

Question 1

What are the laws regulating the development, approval, and use of GM foods in your region and nationally?

Answer 1

GM foods are obtained from organisms that are genetically modified. The GM foods are either genetically enhanced or in some cases, specific gene expression can also be suppressed. GM foods are mainly produced by r-DNA technology or genetic engineering. The main aim of GM food is to enhance the quality of the food and to increase the productive yield. GM food is said to be transgenic if it receives gene from an unrelated species and cisgenic if it receives gene from one of its own species.
GMOs production holds a significant component in the biotechnology industries and is considered economically valuable for the US economy. Several crops grown in the US are GMOs in majority. The major crops such as soybeans, cotton and corn are 90% genetically modified for herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. The first GMO seeds were first planted in the US in 1996 and its plantation has grown since then. Labeling of GMO products are not compulsory in the US as they are considered safe once approved by the agencies that regulate GMO release in the market. GMOs of potatoes and apples have been recently released in the US market as the FDA has declared them as safe and nutritious as their conventional counterparts. The public are also open to consumption of GMO products consequently increasing the cultivation and production of GMOs.
The United States is the leading producer of GM crops. The United States have followed strict rules regarding the regulation, safety and environmental risk of GM foods between 1960's through the 1980's. However, after 1980's the rules have become more moderate compared to other European countries having stricter rules. The United States now follows flexible law regarding the release of GM foods into our food system and they do not have any federal legislation specific to GMOs. The GMOs are considered fit for our health and environment since they focused more on nature of the products rather than its processing and development. Several laws and regulations have been passed depending on the type of GMO involved. The release of transgenic crops in the US is governed by agencies like the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
APHIS controls the planting, import, or transport of GM plants under the Plant Protection Act ( PPA ),that authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to prohibit or restrict the movement of any plant or plant products in interstate commerce. They grant the release of GMOs in three ways which involves notification procedure, permit procedure, and determination of non-regulated status.
The FDA regulates the safety of GMO's for human, drugs, biological products and animal food products except meat, poultry, and eggs. The FDA ensures that the food are safe for health and free of adulteration prior its release. The FDA in its 1992 statement declared that GMOs will be treated in the same way as its conventional products. The newly developed animal drugs for genetically engineered animals are considered unsafe unless approved by FDA. The new animal drug must provide information on its chemistry, clinical purpose, labeling of components and composition, manufacturing methods, facilities, and controls of safety, environmental impact and other informations. The same regulation applies for new developed drugs for human purposes.
The EPA regulates pesticides, herbicide tolerant GM foods developed through genetic engineering, by laws that are passed under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act ( FIFRA ) and Toxic Substances Control Act ( TSCA ). Under FIFRA, EPA regulates the plants that are modified to tolerate the pest as well as the safety in terms of consumption. It also checks for environmental safety. Under TSCA, EPA checks for information describing modified microorganism's characteristics and genetic construction and its effect on the environment.
These are the laws that regulate the development, approval, and use of GM foods in US.

Question 2

How do genetically modified organisms compare with organisms created through selective breeding?

Answer 2

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Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) give us much greater control over the additional traits which we would like to incorporate in a species. While selective breeding has been in practice for a long time, and has been highly productive for mankind, we have almost reached the zenith; and with the ever expanding human population the need has arrived for more improvements in the varieties which are already present. Even though selective breeding allows us to select for such genes which are already present in the wild type varieties of such species; we cannot introduce useful genes from other species through identification and cloning of such genes. Also during selective breeding another very important problem that breeders face is that for traits that are linked, both the characters are expressed in the newly produced variety even though, only one trait is desired. In this regard genetically modified organisms have an upper hand as only the selected genes can be transferred with precision. Genetically modified organisms also give us much better productivity, disease resistance, decreased pesticide use and improved nutrition and flavour as compared to organisms modified through selective breeding. GM organisms are also less time consuming to produce than selective breeding organisms as well.
The main downside of genetically modified organisms is its high production cost as it is largely dependent on technology. Also, as these are mainly produced by big companies there is a fear of them being highly priced to bring in maximum profits to the company.

Question 3

Do you think that foods containing GM ingredients should be labeled as such? What would be the advantages and disadvantages to such a strategy?

Answer 3

Labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods has become a topic of paramount controversy as there are various risks and benefits associated with such steps. As health is a priority for every consumer, labeling should be made a necessity. Every consumer has the right to know the ingredients of commodities they purchase and it is the duty of the seller and producers to provide full data of the commodities it sells. Furthermore, the approved transgenic crops are reckoned as "substantially similar" to those of its non-transgenic counterparts in terms of safety. Labeling would thus eliminate the already perceived idea that transgenics are poor for health as enough information would be provided through labeling. Concealing ingredients of transgenic products is not needed in fear of consumers not purchasing them as they are as healthy as organic products. Besides there are religious and ethical beliefs which prevents people from consuming genetically modified crops; therefore, labeling can help in avoiding such problems.
Advantages of such a strategy are as follows:
1. Labeling would provide more information of ingredients to the consumers and thus would restore confidence and transparency.
2. It will educate the consumers rather than misleading them and would clarify the concept about transgenic not being natural and risky for health.
3. Providing information will allow consumers to make their own choices based on their beliefs, culture and morality.
4. Labeling opens up research possibilities as the consumers become more aware of GM foods being safe for consumption.
Disadvantages of such a strategy are as follows:
1. Increase in the demand of more organic food and organic products which are hard to produce, can create havoc and fabrication of organic foods to meet the market demands.
2. Labeling is costly and instantly makes the commodities more costly for consumers.
3. The already perceived idea that genetically modified foods are bad for health will cause people to neglect transgenic products which are actually equally good as the conventional products.
4. Commercialization becomes difficult.

Question 4

Can current GM crops be considered as transgenic or cisgenic? Why?

Question 5

One of the major objections to GM foods is that they may be harmful to human health. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

Question 6

Of the approximately 200 GM crop varieties that have been developed, only a few are widely used. What are these varieties, and how prevalent are they?

Question 7

How does glyphosate work, and how has it been used with GM crops to increase agricultural yields?

Question 8

Describe the mechanisms by which the Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis act as insecticides.

Question 9

What measures have been taken to alleviate vitamin A deficiencies in developing countries? To date, how successful have these strategies been?

Question 10

What is Golden Rice 2, and how was it created?

Question 11

Describe how plants can be transformed using biolistic methods. How does this method compare with Agrobacterium tumefaciens -mediated transformation?

Question 12

How do positive and negative selection techniques contribute to the development of GM crops?

Question 13

Describe how the Roundup-Ready soybean variety was developed, and what genes were used to transform the soybean plants.