Social benefit or Frankenfood? UT scientist cites value of genetically modified crops

 

In developing countries where white rice is the dominant food, a half million pregnant women and young children become blind and two million die every year because of a Vitamin A deficiency.

On a mission to use genetic engineering to benefit humankind, scientists have genetically modified one type of rice so the grain, not just its leaves, makes Vitamin A. One published study showed that the improved nutritional content of “golden rice” could save sight and lives.

Golden rice was ready to be marketed in 2002, but critics have been calling it a Frankenfood. Golden rice is still not commercially adopted, even though in 2013, Pope Francis personally blessed its use.

This is one of the examples that Tessa Burch-Smith gave in her recent talk as part of the new Roane State Community College–Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning Intergenerational Lecture Series. An assistant professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, she teaches and conducts research in UT’s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.

A native of Saint Lucia, a Caribbean island country, she has a Ph.D. degree from Yale University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. Her lecture topic was “What’s up with genetically modified (GM) foods: scientific evidence vs. widespread beliefs.”

Burch-Smith drew another example of the controversy from National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” In its story on January 23, NPR stated, “GM potatoes have arrived, but will anyone buy them?” She explained that the new russet Burbank potatoes have been bred not to bruise and show black spots.

Many people fear or distrust large companies (“Big Ag”) that produce genetically engineered foods, or they think GM food is unnatural. “Well,” she said, “cooked food is not natural!”

Plants have been selectively bred for thousands of years.

“It’s still a major source of crop improvement and development,” she said. It has been the traditional way of bringing together desirable genes from two or more plant sources.

“The first genetic modification was done by domestication,” she said, showing a slide of the non-edible Teosinte plant, which was bred over 10,000 years to produce intermediates that ended up as the corn we eat today.

In genetic engineering in agriculture, an artificially created DNA molecule combines DNA sequences (genes) that are not usually found together in nature. Such recombinant DNA is produced and replicated by sophisticated techniques, also called genetic manipulation.

Do we need genetic engineering in agriculture? Burch-Smith said the planet will likely have nine billion people in 2050, two billion more than it has now.

“Currently, one in four people in developing countries are living in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than one U.S. dollar a day,” Burch-Smith said. “Growth in the agricultural sector has a crucial role to play in improving the incomes of poor people, by providing farm jobs and stimulating off-farm employment.”

The developing world will account for most population growth, she said. It is projected that 40 percent of the population increase by 2100 will be in Africa. From 2005 to 2050, global crop demand will more than double.

The strategies to meet this demand are limited to increasing the area under cultivation and boosting the yield of current areas under cultivation. She noted that only a few countries have untapped arable land: Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Sudan, Russia, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil.

“There is more uncultivated land suited to crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa than in any other area in the world,” she said.

Burch-Smith reminded the audience of the importance of the Green Revolution in the 1940s through the 1970s as a result of the work of Norman Borlaug, an American scientist and rice breeder. Selective breeding increased the yield and nutritional value of wheat and rice in Mexico, India, and the Middle East. The productivity was further boosted by additions of fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation water. The problem with fertilizer is that its runoff produces algal blooms.

“To meet rising food demand, we need another Green Revolution, especially for Africa, and we need it in half the time,” she said. “With growth in crop yield flattening and demand on the rise, some experts see genetic engineering as our best hope to produce more food and have a smaller ecological impact.”

She noted that “targeted breeding” with traditionally bred plants and GM crops could reverse yield growth declines since they have greater drought tolerance, nitrogen efficiency, photosynthesis rates, and resistance to insect damage, which destroys 15 percent of the world’s crops.

Commercially sold products of GM crops in the U.S. are corn, soybeans, cotton, squash, papaya, sugar beets, and rapeseed. Wheat, strawberries, apples, and potatoes are not commercially available as GM foods in the U.S.

 

Burch-Smith listed common objections to GM foods and gave her factually based responses.

Claim: “Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a radical new technology.” Her answer: “Humans have been making new combinations of genes for millennia by traditional breeding. Genetic engineering allows more control and more precision. The first GMO product was commercialized in 1994.”

Claim: “We don’t know if GMOs are safe.” Her answer: “More than 1,700 peer-reviewed scientific studies on GMO safety concluded that GM food is no different from conventional food.”

Claim: “GMOs are not regulated.” Her answer: “GMOs are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some of the testing is voluntary. I believe that testing should be compulsory.”

Claim: “GM foods cause allergies and cancer and are toxic.” Answer: “This statement has not been borne out by the 1,700 studies of GMO safety. The company that makes produces the GM food does not want to make people sick because they could go out of business and get sued.”

Claim: “GMOs cause farmers to use more insecticides and pesticides.” Answer: “Pesticides are costly so farmers use the minimum amounts needed.” Insect-resistant GM crops have saved lives of farm workers in India. Many have died from excessive exposure to the pesticides they applied.

Claim: “GMOs create superweeds and insecticide resistance.” Answer: This is possible, but strategies like crop rotation can greatly reduce the risk.

Claim: “Foreign genes spread to wild plants and corrupt ecosystems.” Answer: “Pollen from GM crops can pollinate nearby non-GM crops of the same kind but not of a different species.” Strategies exist to prevent undesired cross-pollination.

Claim: “Monsanto is the devil.” Answer: 
“Monsanto is out to make a profit.” Thus, it does not want to risk losing business by creating a product that is damaging to the public. “Not all GMOs are produced by big companies. Genetic engineering is increasing in the developing world.”

Europe has resisted importing GM foods for years. But Europe is quietly dismantling its regulations, Burch-Smith said. Spain and Eastern European countries are growing GM crops. If Europe starts importing some GM foods, African countries will likely grow GM crops and sell some of the food to the European market.