Goldberg, a plant molecular biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, is not battling psychosis. He is expressing despair at the relentless need to confront what he sees as bogus fears over the health risks of genetically modified GM crops. Across campus, David Williams, a cellular biologist who specializes in vision, has the opposite complaint.
But now anyone in this field knows the genome is not a static environment. Inserted genes can be transformed by several different means, and it can happen generations later. Williams concedes that he is among a tiny minority of biologists raising sharp questions about the safety of GM crops.
But he says this is only because the field of plant molecular biology is protecting its interests. Funding, much of it from the companies that sell GM seeds, heavily favors researchers who are exploring ways to further the use of genetic modification in agriculture. He says that biologists who point out health or other risks associated with GM crops—who merely report or defend experimental findings that imply there may be risks—find themselves the focus of vicious attacks on their credibility, which leads scientists who see problems with GM foods to keep quiet.
Whether Williams is right or wrong, one thing is undeniable: despite overwhelming evidence that GM crops are safe to eat, the debate over their use continues to rage, and in some parts of the world, it is growing ever louder. Skeptics would argue that this contentiousness is a good thing—that we cannot be too cautious when tinkering with the genetic basis of the world's food supply. To researchers such as Goldberg, however, the persistence of fears about GM foods is nothing short of exasperating.
So who is right: advocates of GM or critics? When we look carefully at the evidence for both sides and weigh the risks and benefits, we find a surprisingly clear path out of this dilemma. The bulk of the science on GM safety points in one direction. Take it from David Zilberman, a U. Berkeley agricultural and environmental economist and one of the few researchers considered credible by both agricultural chemical companies and their critics. He argues that the benefits of GM crops greatly outweigh the health risks, which so far remain theoretical.
It has raised the output of corn, cotton and soy by 20 to 30 percent, allowing some people to survive who would not have without it. If it were more widely adopted around the world, the price [of food] would go lower, and fewer people would die of hunger. In the future, Zilberman says, those advantages will become all the more significant.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the world will have to grow 70 percent more food by just to keep up with population growth. Climate change will make much of the world's arable land more difficult to farm. GM crops, Zilberman says, could produce higher yields, grow in dry and salty land, withstand high and low temperatures, and tolerate insects, disease and herbicides.
Despite such promise, much of the world has been busy banning, restricting and otherwise shunning GM foods. Nearly all the corn and soybeans grown in the U. Ten E. Approval of a few new GM corn strains has been proposed there, but so far it has been repeatedly and soundly voted down. Throughout Asia, including in India and China, governments have yet to approve most GM crops, including an insect-resistant rice that produces higher yields with less pesticide.
In Africa, where millions go hungry, several nations have refused to import GM foods in spite of their lower costs the result of higher yields and a reduced need for water and pesticides. Kenya has banned them altogether amid widespread malnutrition. No country has definite plans to grow Golden Rice, a crop engineered to deliver more vitamin A than spinach rice normally has no vitamin A , even though vitamin A deficiency causes more than one million deaths annually and half a million cases of irreversible blindness in the developing world.
Globally, only a tenth of the world's cropland includes GM plants. Four countries—the U. Other Latin American countries are pushing away from the plants. And even in the U. In the U. The fear fueling all this activity has a long history. The public has been worried about the safety of GM foods since scientists at the University of Washington developed the first genetically modified tobacco plants in the s.
In the mids, when the first GM crops reached the market, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Ralph Nader, Prince Charles and a number of celebrity chefs took highly visible stands against them. Consumers in Europe became particularly alarmed: a survey conducted in , for example, found that 69 percent of the Austrian public saw serious risks in GM foods, compared with only 14 percent of Americans.
In Europe, skepticism about GM foods has long been bundled with other concerns, such as a resentment of American agribusiness. Whatever it is based on, however, the European attitude reverberates across the world, influencing policy in countries where GM crops could have tremendous benefits. The human race has been selectively breeding crops, thus altering plants' genomes, for millennia.
Ordinary wheat has long been strictly a human-engineered plant; it could not exist outside of farms, because its seeds do not scatter. The practice has inspired little objection from scientists or the public and has caused no known health problems. The difference is that selective breeding or mutagenic techniques tend to result in large swaths of genes being swapped or altered. GM technology, in contrast, enables scientists to insert into a plant's genome a single gene or a few of them from another species of plant or even from a bacterium, virus or animal.
Genetically modified foods have frequently given rise to controversy, which means that it can sometimes be difficult to tell fact from misconception. In this Honest Nutrition feature, we explore the facts and dispel the most prevalent myths. Despite their extensive history and widespread use, consumers worldwide do not always have access to sufficient and accurate information about these foods.
There is further skepticism surrounding their safety and environmental and health impacts. In this Honest Nutrition feature, we explain what GM foods are, their importance, and what research has discovered about their safety and health implications. GM foods have undergone deliberate changes to their DNA genetic material to introduce traits that do not naturally occur in that food.
Genes from one organism are placed into another organism using recombinant DNA technology. The final food product is called GM or bioengineered food. This genetic modification may be carried out to enhance the agricultural features of the crop or improve its nutritional value.
The inclusion of this substance gives the rice a yellow or golden appearance, hence its name. GM foods are a subcategory of genetically modified organisms GMOs , which also include the genetic modification of microorganisms and animals. The practice of manipulating the genetic material of crops to yield desirable traits is not new, with records dating back 10, years ago in Southwest Asia. Traditionally, crossbreeding , grafting, and selective breeding methods were used to rear produce with specific traits and were deemed desirable for both agricultural success and consumer expectations.
With an estimated world population of 9 billion by , there is an agricultural challenge to meet the growing demand for nutritious foods. Arguably, conventional farming and food production have not been able to sustain a consistent supply. At the same time, traditional selective breeding can take at least 10 years before the desirable characteristics are portrayed consistently in the domesticated crops.
However, modern-day biotechnology enables specific genes to be identified, isolated, and inserted into crops of interest to enhance their features. Bioengineering of crops and other technological applications to food production are faster and have filled a major gap in the supply and demand chain.
A downfall of traditional farming is the susceptibility of the crop to drought, disease, and pest infestations as well as large volumes of pesticide and herbicide use. For this reason, GM foods are modified to support the reliability of the food supply and consistent quality of the final crop. Although agricultural improvements have been at the forefront of bioengineering and GM foods, some modifications have focused on enhancing the nutritional profile of foods.
For example, pink-flesh pineapples in Costa Rica have high levels of carotenoids — compounds found in plants that may reduce the risk of chronic disease, such as heart disease, in humans. The increased concentration of the essential amino acid, lysine, in corn, and beta-carotene in golden rice , are other examples.
Ongoing research is also exploring how to enhance the nutritional value of transgenic products, including modifying probiotics and prebiotics to improve gut health. These efforts are also of public health interest to make essential nutrients often lacking in the diet widely available to the population.
This list is publicly available and serves to inform regulating bodies about which foods they must issue food disclosure notices. It is important to note that many of these GM foods are used as ingredients to make other food products. Therefore, people most likely consume food products made with ingredients derived from GM food crops.
These labels will make consumers aware so that they retain buying power and make informed food decisions. But not harm on humans. In fact i hope they are working on something to save Mexico and South American bananas right now. I think people are taught to worry to much about almost everything in life! Does all of this GMO really cause cancer or is it the fact that humans genetically outliving how long the human body is really meant to live?
People used to live to 20,30, Think about if people stopped stressing about everything and enjoyed life how much happier we would all be. Grow your own food, stop making babies and quit trying to find an answer to prove your truth……. So, put down your proven sticks, eat what you feel comfortable with, go sit out in nature and take a deep breath.
Or else we are going to spend another day writing about the Lactose intolerance scare! I think not. We are a volunteer graduate-student-run organization.
First of all I would like to thank you for the excellent article and your articulate and logical responses to the people that comment on this site. Next I would like to say how Monsanto is not an evil corporation that most people make it out to be.
Many of their products, especially vegetable crops, are changed through hybridization which means that they should not be considered a GMO. Specifically, I have been learning about the process in which they are created and how they may impact our world positively and negatively. Would you be able to help me understand this topic a little better? When this disadvantage for the consumer is relieved, by laws that are enforced, then the process will take on a much different approach than what is being used presently.
Can you please clarify for me where the funding for this paper came from? Can you clafify what you plan to do when you recieve your doctrine degree? Lastly, who do you work for or intended to work for?
I found this article extremely informative but do not agree with it. I am asking about funding because I am sure you are aware of funding that comes from the same position as the author and would recommend if anybody wanted to see a counter argument to this article to watch the moive GMO Roulette. I believe it is beyond safe for me to say that there is an argument for both sides and somewhere in there the truith is.
My objective is to find that truith from an unbiased source, which seems to be very challenging these days. Thank you for your time.
Hi Mark, Thanks for your comment! I agree with this article and everything that it is supporting. All the people do is extract a gene in that specific food. The author is trying to put dust in the eyes of the public. Every second person is getting cancer after eating GMO food. The true results are there to see. This happened after the introduction of GMO food. This is a laughable article and may be paid advertisement to buy more GMO and end up part of population control. I am sure I will be able to find an article totally scientific but opposite to what the author wrote here to deceive the public.
If GMO is safe why people are having an epidemic of Diabetes, thyroid problem, obesity, blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, and great cancer epidemic which started as every 49th person was diagnosed with cancer but now every other person has cancer.
I understand just GMO is not targetted attack on the body but almost everything that we used for life has been GM. For example water has chlorine and fluoride with hundreds of side effects, then air is full of planted and hundreds of chemical, then radiation from electronics we use, then all food we eat, then our brains are getting polluted with horrible news of crimes in the world, hardly you see good news of people who are heroes in daily life, they are not reported to promote goodness and human brotherhood.
Them the sun is causing cancer due to the hole over the north pole. Most of the cancer caused by what you state in your comment is your comment itself, it really is making me want to die with how you are just stating random things you found on the internet and I just have to say you have really made my day man, I appreciate being stupid for the sake of making my day better! I only hope that they label all GMO foods that way I still have the choice to eat or not to eat.
Being a vegan I read all lables. This one company that makes veggie meat also has it in it but then they also have caffeine in their meatballs. Well we have been modifying food crops for a very long period of time by selecting the characteristics that we think are desirable. Just compare the original wild corn to the corn used by the Aztecs in Mexico when the Spaniards arrived.
By the use of genetic modification we have speeded up the process. Introducing genes from unrelated species is new but there is s evidence that in nature there occurs a crossover of genes between unrelated species. One also has to take note that in nature many plants have toxins that are harmful to human health.
So when we genetically modify a plant there is a risk we might make the plant more toxic but that same risk exists in nature. Contrary to what some people would like to believe nature is not this benign force that is looking out for our interests.
That is not good science. Probably what would bother me the most is pesticide resistance which translates into a heavier use of pesticides. Fares, N. Ewen, S. Birch, A. Geoghegan, M. Majerus, J. McNicol, C. Hackett, A. Gatehouse, and J. Malatesta, M. Caporaloni, S. Gavaudan, M. Rocchi, S. Serafini, C. Tiberi, and G. Caporaloni, L. Rossi, S. Battistelli, M. Rocchi, F. Tonucci, and G. Biggiogera, E. Manuali, M.
Rochhi, B. Baldelli, and G. Histochemistry 47 4 : Pryme, I. Vecchio, L. Cisterna, M. Malatesta, T. Martin, and B. Prescott, V. Campbell, A. Moore, J. Mattes, M. Rothenberg, P. Foster, T. Higgins, and S. Tudisco, R. Lombardi, F.
Bovera, D. Cutrignelli, V. Mastellone, V. Terzi, L. Avallone, and F. Ermakova, I. Preliminary Studies. Sagstad, A. Haugland, A. Hansen, P. Olsvik, and G. Seralini, G. Cellier, and J. Boraldi, G. Finamore, A. Roselli, S. Britti, G. Monastra, R. Ambra, A. Turrini, and E. Velimirov, A. Binter, and J. Vienna, Austria. Accessed July 22, Kilic, A. Cisterna, B. Flach, L. Vecchio, S. Barabino, S. Battistelli, T. Martin, M. Malatesta, and M. Primicerio, D. Hessen, and T.
Trabalza-Marinucci, M. Chiaradia, G. Brandi, C. Rondini, L. Avellini, C. Giammarini, S. Costarelli, G. Acuti, C. Orlandi, and G. Sissener, N. Sanden, A. Bakke, A. Krogdahl, and G. Atremis, D. Spiroux, F. Roullier, D. Biological Sciences 5 7 : Aris, A. Clair, R. Carrnan, J. Vlieger, L. Ver Steeg, V.
Sneller, G. Robinson, C. Clinch-Jones, J. Haynes, and J. The above sources were taken directly from an article written by Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts. Please take a look for yourself:. Krimsky, Sheldon. To clarify I want to say that my above comment was only meant to show that GMO foods are safe to eat, but we should not accept this as the end of the debate. Megan has done a fine job of synthesizing multiple studies that show how safe the GMO foods are for consumers, however we should not believe this is a closed book on GMO safety.
More testing should be done, especially with long term studies that track changes over two or three year periods. Interesting how many people are defending GMOs on this board even though they have no personal investment in the topic…Or do they.. The only reason this topic is searched and therefore this article discovered is someone is either concerned about the safety of GMOs, wants to learn more about GMOs, or the person has a vested interest in the success of GMOs.
So to be on this board defending GMOs is questionable to say the least, particularly because there is not enough evidence to even make a claim about the safety of GMOs. So making such a definitive claim is negligent and really suspicious. I have spoke with professors that casually speak of the risk a researcher poses to his or her career if they publish studies shining any negative light on GMOs.
Thats actually incorrect Jacob. There is a significant amount of information backed by credible sources to indicate that health outcomes from non-GMO foods are the same as GMO foods.
She earned her B. The data starts in through , and GMOs were first introduced in So if GMO foods cause cancer or tumors or birth defects why did animal health actually improve? What I was trying to say with my above comment is that there is research on both sides of this argument and the data points to GMOs being safe for human consumption. However, there are still some studies that show otherwise so we need to continue to pursue that information. You will not be able to prove they are safe, you can only prove they are as safe as non-GMO foods, which is what the large majority of studies prove.
I suggest you take a look at the study in my above comment in red text. One more thing to add here, Jacob. I had to read multiple academic sources, multiple opinion articles, multiple articles from both sides of this argument and then produce a lengthy essay that combines all this information into one piece.
The reason I was putting this information up for others is because I know others have come to this article seeking information about GMO foods. I know many of those people are not in college or may not have a college degree.
I was attempting to put the information that I found up here in a concise manner to help others. It is completely up to you if you want to read the two studies that I have linked in red text , but if you are looking for more information just as I was then I hope what I found was helpful to you. This article by Megan Norris was one of many sources of information that I used.
For anyone else looking up the safety of GMO foods you should know the facts and do your own research. Thank god for the internet and being able to find out the truth. The aim is to make them better right? Anyway, this is how I see it. A big thanks to the writer of this article. I am actually doing an assignment and have to compare different 4 articles to find which one do answer my question on GMOs.
Wooow i found this as best and interesting. I didnt even have a knowledge on GMOS as im a commerce student but now im no more left out. Thanks to the internet. This is why places like Harvard need to be fact checked. Now we have countless lawsuits against Monsanto for glyphosate poisoning and several lawsuits have been awarded millions in damages.
Great job Ivy league! Who the globalist masters you serve? GMO make youre babys have downsindrome. Pls do not buy intto the lies that these people are spreading.
Protect our future!!! There ya go! Maybe your lawyer can just shut down Harvard in its entirety. After this, they can get started on the process of shutting down her references and then their references and so on, all the way until they get to……….
Just tell your lawyer to shut down the internet. That may be easier. I think we all have to consider that GMOs are a new concept and that the data we have is not conclusive. Even some sources admit that they do not know and cannot predict the long term effects of GMOs and according to studies made in , they were often wrong about the general safety of GMOs.
This caused scientists to review their work, so to be honest this is a new subject that we sill cannot be certain about but in the end should be up to the consumer.
Love your post! If you are not already, you most certainly should be a writer. Thanks for posting! I disagree with GMOs because they prove facts about stuff I disagree with. I am also actually fearful of advancing technology and how far we have come as a society from my generations because things are changing and I am scared of change. The only reason I hate on this is that I am fearful of all this and that it will outlive us. I also get all my sources from very reliable sources such as blogs and webpages.
This Karen above me is the only one I will ever agree with, good use of sarcasm, this is how it should be done. I feel that the comments are providing more…realistic information than what this article is giving out. I am doing this research for an exam and i did not expect gen z rollin up in the comments. Hi, Thanks for sharing such an amazing post on GMO products. Above all of these, I was looking was something like this and find this very helpful.
Thanks again for sharing such an amazing post! Best Regards. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Skip to content by Megan L. Norris Summary: As the prevalence of genetically modified organisms GMOs continues to rise, there has been an increasing public interest for information concerning the safety of these products.
Uhh Jerk- You never had to do that! They were just complimenting the article. You are a genius. Smarter than most of the people on this website. Exactly Eunice!! They made by gaming places. In essence, GMOs increase pesticide use and pesticide use is harmful to the environment.
Good luck with your research. Er… Where did this come from? Basically, Silence Wench. There is a lot of proof of evolution. You just have to be willing to read other books. Wait so Harvard is not a valid source anymore but some random blogger is? Thats good in my country we have no GMO but glad u decided to start eating organic food. Wish I were a doctor.
Can you please help me answer this question. Guys, do your own research. Please see the argument written above in the original piece. Yes science has the rise in those things has to do with a higher amount of greenhouse gassas. They probably tried although most of them are not based and real evidince.
Ur judging a city by a random person in it that did something bad. Well that is just a bunch of lies every single person is judging GMOs by Monanto. Maybe non toxic, but what about nutritional value? I wonder how come more than 30 countries have banned GMOs? I wonder why 40 countries in the world believe Islam. It must be true if they do, right? Using your own method here to show you how stupid such statements are Neither yours nor previous commenters argument is valid. Bullshit you mean?
Did you mix up numbers five and six of your bibliography on your toxicity section? Thank you for your diligent research in an internet full of every kind of article and study. First of all, I just wanted to say that this article really helped me in my English class. Dear Dr. Any other advice or suggestions you may have would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your time, Sincerely, Niki. The article is quality content, but the comments section is my favorite part. Please take a look for yourself: Krimsky, Sheldon. You never know when the next breakthrough will save lives. Harvard is founded by rapists and beta males. Check da faxxx. I really appreciate your way of writing you have shared in this post.
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Breakfast is ready! Hang on a second. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those.
Very proud. I got a thing going here. Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! Special day, graduation. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. You did come back different. Looks good. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day.
Boy, quite a bit of pomp… under the circumstances. Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of… … That concludes our ceremonies.
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