Letter: Modified foods safe, beneficial

It was reported that Whole Foods national corporation has decided to label all foods either GMO (genetically modified organism) or non-GMO. According to the article, this is expected to boost non-GMO sales from 15 percent to 30 percent. Obviously, Whole Foods is doing this for commercial, rather than ideological, reasons. Regardless, I wish to point out that there is no rational reason for rejecting GMOs.

There are no intrinsic, biochemical differences between GMOs and non-GMOs: DNA is DNA, protein is protein etc. Many high-level scientific studies have shown that there is no risk to people, in terms of disease, nor to the environment from GMOs. Rejection of GMOs is essentially pseudo-science. On the contrary, GMOs represent advances that should help humanity.

For example, “Golden Rice,” which is rice that delivers vitamin A, could prevent 1 million-2 million cases of blindness and 1 million-2 million deaths per year in children and women. It is being offered free to countries that need it, but has been emphatically rejected because it is a GMO. In the future, we may be able to get all our vaccines from a single bite of a banana.

The public’s short-sighted rejection of GMOs is the result of ignorance of biology. Every living thing on Earth, including ourselves, is a GMO. All living things are the products of about 3 billion years of evolution, which is dependent upon genetic change. If there was no genetic modification (mutation), we would still be in the primordial soup.

Moreover, for millennia, agriculturalists have genetically modified organisms by selective breeding to improve crops and livestock. This is even mentioned in the Bible (in a primitive way), when Jacob keeps the spotted and speckled goats to his advantage. Many of the fruits and vegetables at the supermarket are the result of selective breeding: for example, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc.) are derived from wild mustard. The domestic dog is the result of similar processes. Human manipulation of genes is not intrinsically dangerous.

There are some risks associated with the process, particularly that monoculture can make crops susceptible to a single pathogen. However, these are not intrinsic to the GMO process. There are so many genuine dangers to worry about in the world today, why focus on an empty issue?

marion FREISTADT

teacher

New Orleans

Comments

1) Comment by hemogoblin - 15/03/2013

No glowing in the dark, phil! They don't use radiation to make genetically modified organisms. The bt protein in some GM plants is a lot safer for you than the chemical pesticides it replaces.

2) Comment by phil - 15/03/2013

No problem except if you do not want to glow in the dark. All I can say is if you are going to mess with mother nature, you better know exactly what you are doing and all of the effects that will result.

3) Comment by hemogoblin - 15/03/2013

Retroviruses have been putting their DNA into Animals for a long time--all the genetic modifications used in agriculture are based on things that occur in nature all the time. Why not use those techniques for the good of humanity?

4) Comment by InPVille - 15/03/2013

Selectively breeding from the same species is one thing. Is injecting the DNA from one species that can not naturally reproduce an equivalent thing. Even if we think it is, as DMJ wrote before me, let the consumer decide what he/she eats. Let the information be included.

5) Comment by DMJ - 15/03/2013

It's one thing to advocate eating GMO food or not; it's another to actively fight the labeling of such. No one wants to ban genetically modified food; they just want to know if they're buying it or not. If GMOs are safe, even beneficial, then why not print it right on the package?

6) Comment by [e-mail] - 15/03/2013

Bugs vrs chemicals...a good topic to pursue. Since the banning of DDT there's been a lot of changes, some good, some bad and it's starting to look like that was not the panacea that was celebrated by environmentalists at the time.

7) Comment by Bighug - 15/03/2013

The writer makes some good points. Third world countries that refuse to accept GMOs, resulting in deaths of many of their citizens, is another example of evolution. Stores that use the illogical fear of GMOs and farm chemicals to raise prices are also an example. I'll take a trace of chemical any day over what bugs deposit on produce.