Genetically Modified Organisms
Informational Site
What are GMO's
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. By changing an organism's DNA, we can give that organism desired traits. Traits such as resistance to a certain disease or increasing a crops nutritional value. GM crops are already being grown globally with soybeans, corn and cotton being the most planted. The leading GM crop growing countries are USA, Brazil and Argentina while the UK does not yet commercially grow GM crops.
What are GMO's
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. By changing an organism's DNA, we can give that organism desired traits. Traits such as resistance to a certain disease or increasing a crops nutritional value. GM crops are already being grown globally with soybeans, corn and cotton being the most planted. The leading GM crop growing countries are USA, Brazil and Argentina while the UK does not yet commercially grow GM crops.
What are GMO's
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. By changing an organism's DNA, we can give that organism desired traits. Traits such as resistance to a certain disease or increasing a crops nutritional value. GM crops are already being grown globally with soybeans, corn and cotton being the most planted. The leading GM crop growing countries are USA, Brazil and Argentina while the UK does not yet commercially grow GM crops.
Why do GMO crops exist?
The human population is growing at an incredible rate and therefore food production must keep up with the growing population. By 2050, the human population will reach 10 billion which means we must increase food production by about 50% in order to prevent high levels of food insecurity. With the biodiversity crisis also occurring, the challenge of creating ecologically sensitive and sustainable agriculture production systems while increasing yields is critical. Gene technologies could provide an innovative way to improve yields without increasing the area of land needed to produce our food. Since the mid 1990s, GM crops have resulted in a 22% increase in crop yields without increasing cultivated area. This allows more land to be put aside for nature. Climate change and agriculture also go hand in hand with agriculture being one of the biggest accounting for 10% of the Uk's total greenhouse gas emissions. The use of GM crops can help to decrease agricultural GHG emissions due to fewer required inputs such as pesticides. Since the mid 1990s, GM crops have resulted in a reduction of GHG emissions equivalent to 7.8 million cars.
How can GMO crops help with the future of food?
Annual crop losses caused by the 5 main fungal diseases could provide enough calories to feed 600-4000 million people 2000 kcal per day for a year. Genetic modification can be used to produce crops that are less susceptible to these diseases. Therefore decreasing food insecurity.
GM crops can be modified to be more productive and resilient resulting in increased crop yield and allowing growth in more hostile conditions. GM crops have led to a 22% increase in crop yield without increase in cultivated area. This helps to decrease food insecurity especially in places where malnutrition is a leading cause of death while conserving land for nature. As a result GM crops could be used not only to benefit humans but also biodiversity.
GM crops could help to reduce our resource consumption - the crops can be modified to need less pesticides and fertilisers. Since the introduction of GM crops there has been a 37% reduction in global pesticide use. This decreases the amount of synthetic, non-biodegradable pesticides that are used, decreasing the collateral damage to wildlife especially by decreasing runoff of fertilisers containing N which leads to eutrophication
One success story of genetic modification is Golden Rice. Golden Rice was developed by Professor Ingo Potrykus and Professor Peter Beyer to contain the precursor to Vitamin A. Genes were taken from Narcissus plants and Erwinia bacteria that allowed rice to synthesise the Vitamin A. This has the potential to prevent 2.7 million childhood deaths and 500,000 cases of blindness annually.
GM crops can increase the post harvest quality of fruit and vegetables in order to increase their shelf life. This could be used to avoid food waste. In the UK, 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted annually. By using genetic modification, this number could be dramatically decreased. FlavrSavr tomatoes are one example of GM foods modified to last longer.
Possible dangers of GM crops
Many people are wary of the possible consequences of genetic modification and possibly rightly so. The speed of progress in genetic modification itself carries the risk of less vigorous research and testing. This could result in unpredictable outcomes such as the production of new allergens, especially if genes are inserted from common allergens such as nuts or wheat. Another concern is the intensive nature of many GM crops as they are used as extreme monocultures. This decreases diversity of both the crop itself and the surrounding habitat. In a world where 69% of animal populations are decreasing this is a problem. Modifying crops to produce insecticides could lead to the decline of many insect species, even beneficial ones such as ladybirds and honeybees. There is also a worry that the GM crops could breed with natural plant species (outcrossing) and result in the spread of modified genes. This could result in the spread of insecticide producing plants and herbicide resistant plants. The use of herbicide resistant crops could lead to the increased use of herbicides such as ‘Roundup’ but as more herbicide is used weeds can become adapted and resistant to it. In the last 20 years, 34 ‘Roundup-resistant’ weeds have been identified. As GM crops are designed and produced by certain groups they are liable to patenting. This means that farmers will have to pay for the right to use GM crops. This could potentially make farming more expensive and lead to restrictions on indigenous and subsistence farming.
New UK law on GMO
The ‘Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act’ has recently been passed into law in the UK on 23rd March 2023. This law defines a distinction between precision breeding and genetic modification. Genetic modification produces crops with genetic changes that could not have occurred naturally through traditional breeding while precision breeding produces crops which could have occurred naturally. This allows gene editing to be classified as precision breeding. The law deregulates precision breeding, making it easier for people in the UK to develop and grow gene edited crops as well as removing the need to label them as GMOs. This follows other countries such as Argentina, the US, Australia and Japan that have already enacted similar legislation. While the government distinguishes between gene editing and other types of genetic modification, many agro-ecologists argue that gene editing carries the same risks. Another concern is that the Bill is not limited to agriculture and extends to wild plants and animals. This could lead to issues of being able to interfere with nature by altering animal genetics to control which species can bread and whether they become resistant to certain diseases.
How do seed patents impact you?
No matter what your eating preferences are, vegan, vegetarian or meat eater seed patents will impact you. Genetically modified seeds with desirable qualities can be patented by their inventor and sold to farmers which will eventually end up in your meals.The idea is that the framework promotes innovation due to the potential profits you can make by selling a super seed with higher crop yields. However ~60% of the seed/herbicide patent industry is controlled by 4 seed manufacturers (Bayer-Monsanto, DowDuPont/Corteva, ChemChina-Syngenta, BASF). With it taking 13 years and ~$136 million on average to bring a GMC to market the chance that this will change is unlikely. This has resulted in the big companies such as Bayer-Monsanto suing small farmers, the Guardian reported that in total Monsanto has won more than £14.8 million from its lawsuits.
This being said, it is not all bad news there are also many unpatented projects that demonstrate the immense power of GMOs and how we can use them to improve our future foods. The most famous example is golden rice which has been modified to contain higher levels of vitamin A. This modification is aimed at areas of high vitamin A deficiency to improve the health and living standards of the people impacted by this. This example shows the positive role GMOs can play in the future of our food production and potentially bring us more nutritious food in the future.
In conclusion, seed patents can push up prices of food due to the high barriers of entry and monopolistic nature of the industry which negatively impact you as a consumer. However on the flip side these biotech companies have also used their resources and innovation to help solve regional health issues.