GMOs have been circulating in our food supply for decades, but the debate around their safety and acceptance is still red hot. Are they a solution to help feed the growing global population? Or are they a hazard to our health and environment? Tune in to find out.
Want to recommend an episode topic? Send me a message on Instagram @nutritionbitespodcast
Credit to MonoSheep for the theme music.
GMOs have been circulating in our food supply for decades, but the debate around their safety and acceptance is still red hot. Are they a solution to help feed the growing global population? Or are they a hazard to our health and environment? Tune in to find out.
Want to recommend an episode topic? Send me a message on Instagram @nutritionbitespodcast
Credit to MonoSheep for the theme music.
Welcome to Nutrition Bites. The no nonsense podcast where you get the truth about food so you can eat what you want, and be healthy. I’m your host Maggie and welcome to Episode 20 of this series! Today we are exploring a food topic that’s been surrounded by controversy for decades. It’s been called a solution for food security by supporters and frankenfood by the opposition. On the menu today, GMOs.
Back when Blackberry phones reigned supreme and Flo Rida was relevant, I was a young nutrition student learning about a radical food innovation poised to solve malnutrition - golden rice. This rice is genetically modified by scientists to supply a high dose of beta-carotene, the precursor molecule for Vitamin A. The reason for its invention? Vitamin A deficiency is a huge problem in developing countries causing hundreds of thousands of cases of blindness as well as millions of childhood deaths every year. As an all around mega nerd I was so intrigued by this invention, but my enthusiasm was not shared in the grown up world. In fact, despite being invented in the late 90s no country wanted to grow it. Governments and citizens viewed this food with a ton of suspicion, so much so that it took until 2021 for the Philippines to be the first country to approve its use. Although golden rice is looked upon with a ton of caution, our food supply actually contains many genetically modified organisms. In North America alone, 95% of canola, over 80% of corn, and over 60% of soybeans are genetically modified. And with the use of these foods in animal feed and as ingredients inn processed foods - GMOs are practically unavoidable. So should we be spooked out or celebrate the innovation? Let’s talk about it.
A genetically modified organism, or GMO, is a plant, animal or microorganism that has had its DNA changed using technology. But before we dive into tech tech, we need to recall a lesson from high school biology. Close your eyes for a moment and travel back in time with me. Smell the body spray of your classmates and feel the angsty frustration in the air. It’s science class.
DNA is the “blueprint” to life - it holds the instructions on how to build an organism. Genes are portions of DNA that contain specific directions to build each tiny part of a being. For example, in plants, there are genes that dictate the flower colour, plant height, and characteristics like how well it can tolerate dry soil. In all organisms, there are genes considered “desirable” and “less desirable”. For example, a desirable gene I wish I had was the one that would let me tolerate lactose, because I really freaking miss cheese. For farmers, desirable plant genes are related to survivability, like drought-resistant corn, as well as consumer interest, like sweeter peaches. And as long as we’ve been growing crops, humans have been selecting for these “desirable” traits. Traditional genetic selection includes picking the best performing plants during each season and using their seeds to grow next year’s crops. Another technique is cross-pollination, which is combining the DNA of two plants through pollination to create a new seed.
We’ve gotten pretty good at altering the genetics of plants through traditional techniques, but it’s not always easy. For one, these natural processes can take a LONG time. A farmer may have to wait several generations of plants before he picks the perfect pepper. If you’re tapped into the hot sauce community you’ll know that it often takes years for farmers to cross-breed and create new, psychotically hot, pepper. Just ask Sean Evans of Hot Ones. Another issue with traditional genetic modification is the lack of specificity. When you cross-pollinate two pepper plants, you’re mixing all the genes together, not just the one or two that you want passed down, and this can result in undesirable traits being carried forward. By genetically modifying plants with modern science, however, it can improve both the time and specificity of creating a new plant.
The creation of GMOs usually involves extracting specific genes from one organism and inserting it into the DNA of another plant cell. A new plant is then grown from that genetically engineered cell and there you have it - a GMO. In theory this doesn’t sound too scary, after all we eat plant-based burgers made in a lab, and ultra-processed snacks like Pop Tarts that barely resemble real food. But where people start to get uncomfortable with GMOs is when they learn where those new genes are coming from, and the main motivation behind creating these plants.
In order to accomplish the increased levels of beta-carotene in the grains of golden rice, scientists had to insert two genes into the plant cell of rice: one from a daffodil, and one from a bacteria. Even as a science advocate, I can’t help but feel like we’re playing God by inserting bacterial DNA into a plant. Of course, not all plant GMOs use bacterial DNA. For example, a new pink Pineapple developed by Del Monte is accomplished by introducing genes from a tangerine. But the GMO crops that are grown widely across the world - canola, corn, soy and sugarbeet - are modified with bacterial DNA. And the motivation behind developing these crops is not to fight malnutrition or make a fun “designer” fruit for bored housewives, it’s to create crops that aren’t killed when being sprayed with pesticides. In fact, back in the mid-90s when the first GMOs were being approved, - this was a big selling point. Create pesticide and herbicide-resistant plants and farmers will be able to better control, and lessen, their use of these chemicals. But, nearly 30 years after the approval of the first herbicide-resistant corn and canola, chemical use has actually increased. And the kicker to all this? The companies that make these chemicals are also the ones that created the chemical-resistant GMOs. This kind of sketchy, but completely legal, corporate greed in the GMO game definitely leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. Combined with the fact that this technology is relatively new, having really only made scientific progress in the 80s, there are a stack of reasons why many people distrust GMOs. With less than 30 years of these plants circulating in our food system, many are also concerned about the long-term health effects of consuming GMOs.
Contrary to the majority of food-related regulations, the rules for GMO approval are fairly standard across the globe. In the early 2000s, a group of countries, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, and EU, all collaborated to develop core principles for analyzing the safety of GMOs. And unlike adaptogenic supplements or protein powders, the approval process is much more lengthy and rigorous. Health Canada even states that GMOs are subject to a far higher level of regulatory oversight and scientific requirements than traditional foods. And the stance of Health Canada, the FDA and many other governments and scientists, is that any approved GMOs are just as safe and nutritious as their non-GMO counterparts. Myths around increased risk of developing allergies, or production of toxins in our body, have been disproved time and time again. Even in the anti-GMO sphere, the concern around impacts to human health seems to be less of an issue. The big worry has to do with the environment.
A blessing and a curse of GMO seeds is that they produce identical plants. This is great for improving efficiency on the farm - you know exactly what to do to maintain an entire crop - but it’s terrible for biodiversity. In biology, having genetic diversity is key to sustaining life. The less diverse a genetic pool is, the more susceptible an organism is to disorders, disease and death. In dogs, so-called “pure breds” are more likely to have specific health issues - like German Shepherds and hip dysplasia. Pre-20th century, a small genetic pool for European royal families, back when they could only date their cousins, led to poor health outcomes, like infertility and hemophilia.In the plant world, the more diverse the gene pool, the more resistant they are to environmental stressors and the more likely the species is to survive threats like climate change and disease. A terrifying example of the fragility of a non-diverse plant crop is the banana. Most of the bananas we eat in the world are identical clones. And while we’ve been selfishly preoccupied with COVID-19, the banana has been battling it’s own pandemic against a fungus, a bandemic if you will. It’s actually so bad that the banana may go extinct. This is just one example of why monocultures, like GMOs, are not a good idea for a resilient food supply.
Another agricultural strike against GMOs is the concept of contamination. Because plants are pollinated by organisms, like bees and birds, GMO seeds and pollen can be carried outside of their specific growing region and contaminate a non-GMO crop. There have been plenty of cases of GMO seeds travelling across national borders and contaminating organic farms and wild areas. Even in the early 2000s at the very beginning of GMO use, Mexico, which banned GMO corn, was being contaminated with genetically modified maize seeds from U.S. crops. Not only is this a huge environmental mishap, but there are also financial consequences. Farmers who grow organic or wild plants have to now test their seed for genetic modification, and destroy any GMO seeds or crops they may have accidentally grown. And if they don’t? Well there have been multiple cases where GMO companies, hungry to protect their IP, have sued small farmers who accidentally, or unknowingly, grow genetically modified crops due to contamination. Now I try really hard to remain unbiased but if Disney needs a new corporate villain, I think I may have a recommendation.
Despite the bad reputation of GMO companies, it is important to discuss the positives of this invention. After all, there are valid reasons why we grow so many GMO crops. Global population growth is expanding and we need to have a food system that can feed all people, and the animals that we eat, with increasingly limited land. Living in wealthy nations with full supermarkets, online grocery ordering, take out apps, and 24 hr fast food chains, it can be hard to remember that undernutrition still exists in the world. Over 700 million people don’t have enough food to eat and poor nutrition kills 3 million children every year. With the advancement of GMOs, farmers can control their crops with greater precision and farm more efficiently - helping to keep a more predictable supply of food available. And biofortification of foods, like golden rice, can be a tool to help reduce malnutrition. GMOs are also used for non-edible purposes, like growing cotton for clothing, and using corn for fuel and plastics.
And let’s be real. Whether or not you know it, you’ve likely been consuming genetically modified foods for a while. Over 58 GMOs are allowed for sale in the EU, 140 in Canada, and 180 in the U.S. The United States, Brazil, Argentina, India and Canada are the top 5 GMO producers in the world and the majority of crops grown are used for animal feed and as ingredients in processed foods. So even if you’re buying organic whole fruits and vegetables, the burger you eat may have come from a cow fed genetically modified corn, and the ice cream in your freezer likely contains soy lecithin - an additive derived soy that’s likely a GMO. And this highlights a big issue within the GMO conversation - it can be really difficult for consumers to know if what they are eating contains a genetically modified ingredient. Mandatory GMO labelling exists in some countries, including the EU member states. However, in the case of the EU, if the genetically modified ingredient is less than 1% of the product it does not have to be called out. As of January 1st 2022, a new law will come into effect in the United States mandating the labelling of genetically modified foods. Canada on the other hand, has no intention of enacting a GMO label. In fact, Health Canada’s stance is that because they see no health or safety difference between GM and conventional foods, there shouldn’t have to be a label. If there’s one thing that makes a Canadian’s national pride swell, it’s being better than our big neighbour America, so this one really cuts me deep. With varying labelling rules it can be hard to understand if what you’re eating contains GMOs - even the “GMO-free” or “non-GMO” labels are owned by different organizations. Your only guarantee is a certified organic claim, which has specific rules around the use of GMOs.
Food labelling may sound like a boring topic, perfect for the likes of Jerry Gergich from Parks and Rec, but in the case of GMOs it’s a really important tool to help consumers make informed choices. The cases for and against genetically modified foods are both strong. Although there is no health impact from eating GM foods, we have to remember that our food system has an incredible impact on the environment. And GMOs are a great case study to help us think more about where our food comes from and how it’s grown. And if we’re going to get real pedantic about it, humans have been modifying the genetics of plants and animals for thousands of years. The only reason we have dogs is because we selectively bred wolves not to kill us, and why we have juicy summer peaches is because we cultivated peach trees to grow fruit 64x larger than what they originally produced. Sure the techniques looked a lot different, but the concept of genetic modification isn’t new. So is the modern technique used in GMOs something to celebrate or avoid? It’s really up to you to decide.
That’s been the bite for today. Stay hungry.