Is My Food Real? Nutritious? Safe?

Genetical Engineering (GE) is defined as the group of applied techniques of genetics and biotechnology used to cut up and join together genetic material and especially DNA from one or more species of organism and to introduce the result into an organism in order to change one or more of its characteristic, courtesy of Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Pros to GE or Genetically Modified (GM) Foods
GE or GM foods are beneficial in-regards to helping feed the billions of people in our world today. (For an exact amount, check out the World Clock!) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world population is going to grow from 6 billion in 1999 to NINE billion in 2043! (See graph!) So how are we going to feed all of these people!? The proposition is that GE or GM foods gives us a shot in the dark!

Pest resistance is a pro of GM foods. In order to keep pests away, traditionally, we use pesticides. As we all know, use of pesticides is a common complaint from society as questions and concerns of safety (and even cost) arise. With GM foods, these foods are naturally pest resistant without the use of pesticides. Advantages include less money spent to raise crops, money saved from loss of crops, essentially more food produced, less harm to environment without use of pesticides, and happy farmers and communities.

Other pros include herbicide resistance, disease resistance, cold tolerance, and drought tolerance.

Nutrition is considered another pro. Some foods have a long shelf life, yet don't have an overabundance of nutrition. (An example would include rice.) The thought is that we could use rice, for example, to help feed the malnourished across the globe; the difference is that GM rice would have more nutrition. We would change the genes so rice would now have vitamins, for example. (Traditional rice does not have vitamins.) Therefore we could provide nutritious food without the likelihood of it rotting before it was received.

In addition to new GM nutritious foods, there are ideas circulating about the possibilities of GE medicines to aid the poor across the world. (Many medications need to be refrigerated and stored properly, which is often a huge obstacle to overcome when delivering medications to third world countries!)

Cons to GE or Genetically Modified (GM) Foods
GM or GE foods sound great, right? We could feed the estimated 9 billion people expected to be living around the world in the 2040s! Not necessarily. As I always say- at what cost? At what cost have we found something new and great!

Some cons of GE foods include unintended harm to organisms, where some insects and animals can die due to consumption of new strains of GM foods. Another con includes decreased resistance to pesticides. Some mosquitoes and insects are showing resistance to some pesticides and the question remains if they will become resistant to GE/GM foods. For anyone who opens a newspaper, reads news online, turns on the TV or radio- there isn't practically a day goes by that we don't hear about the increase in food allergies. The medical society doesn't really have a grasp of why there is an influx in children having food allergies. A fear with GM foods is the possibility of more food allergies with the introduction of these new genes. And, as with almost any new idea or product, we never know the potential health consequences until years later. (For example, years ago the medical world thought trans fats were a better choice then saturated fats. It took too many years to recognize that trans fats were actually worse for you than saturated fats. Look at the current work, time, and money being spent to rid of the use of trans fat around the world.)

Other things to ponder... Is there adequate research to justify GM foods in our grocery stores? Is it ethical to not label GM foods as such on packages? Does the research come from well designed studies? Do we really need GM foods to save the world from hunger?

So do the pros outweigh the cons? You decide!

Additional Resources:
Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?
GE Foods (additional links)
Alarming Facts About GE Foods
Lack of Labeling
GM Labeling Commentary
Center for Food Safety: GM Foods