A lot of us have heard of GMOs and GM food, and a few of us know what they are, but fewer still know what the big deal is…. Here’s simplifying it for you!

What ARE GMOs, GM Crops and GM Foods?
According to the WHO, Genetically modified organisms ( (GMOs) are plants or animals in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species (for eg. A gene from a pest resistant garlic plant can be introduced into a tomato plant- which is easily affected by pests - to make it pest resistant).

The crops grown this way are GM Crops. And food derived from GM crops – like brinjal, tomatoes, etc are called GM Foods. Eg, Bt Brinjal was created by introducing a gene from conventional insecticide into the brinjal. This Brinjal vegetable is now a genetically modified food.

What are the advantages/ claimed advantages of GM foods?

GM organisms were developed ‘to improve one of more of the following - crop protection from insects, diseases, weeds, droughts & cold weather and to increase yields’.

The possibilities of GM foods are indeed immense… they may be able to eliminate application of chemical pesticides and thereby reduce costs, labour, and even bio-accumulation of chemicals in our bodies. Farmers may not have to worry about GM crops if the plants are genetically modified to resist diseases (use genes from stronger immunity plants) or frost (cold-resistant genes from cold water fish are introduced into delicate plants like tobacco) or lack of water (introduce genes from cacti like plants). Researchers even believe that we can alleviate nutritional deficiencies through genetic modification. Golden rice was developed with a high level of beta carotene (vitamin A), to prevent blindness associated with low Vitamin A in 3rd world countries, where the poor sometimes survive on rice alone.

Now the bad news…

1. Human Health Risks
a. Allergy: Many children have developed life-threatening allergies to nuts, wheat, honey and other foods. Introducing gene into plants may create new allergens or cause allergic reactions in susceptible individuals. GM foods aren’t even labeled, so people can’t even make an informed choice. The imported corn kernels or canola oil that you pick off the shelf may in all likelihood be genetically modified.

b. Negatives for human health: Mutations in food plants may have unknown negative impact on human health. An article published in Lancet journal examined the effects of GM potatoes on the digestive tract in rats, which claimed appreciable differences in the intestines of rats fed GM potatoes and rats fed unmodified potatoes.

2. Economic concerns
a. Developing GM foods is very expensive; to make profits companies indulge in monopolies, patenting seeds and extreme lobbying at government and regulatory levels, and these are likely to raise the prices of seeds, and thus food.

b. Patent enforcement is difficult – farmers often contend that they involuntarily grew Monsanto-engineered strains when their crops were cross-pollinated. This leads to legal cases, and often financially kills marginal farmers.

c. Farmers have to buy new seeds everytime. GM Seed companies start selling seeds at discounted/ subsidized rate and then increase the rates after some time. The natural seed saving that farmers do is not ‘legal’.

d. Farmers STILL need to buy and apply chemicals because a GM crop is not resistant against every pest, weed etc.

3. Environmental hazards
a. Unintended harm to other organisms - Bt or other toxins kill many species of insects/ birds/ organisms indiscriminately; it is not possible to design a toxin aimed at just crop-damaging pests. Useful organisms are also killed, and bio-diversity is affected.

b. Resistance to pesticides - After a few generations, pests become resistant to the toxins in GM crops. Although the seed companies then introduce the next generation of GM seeds, and the cycle starts over – and super immune pests develop.

c. Gene transfer to non-target species - Cross pollination of weeds and GM crops may lead to the superweeds… which are resistant to the toxins themselves!

Hope this gives you an insight into the GM foods, and makes you aware of the food you chose to eat – or avoid.