My Take on GMO's
Few technologies have amassed as much controversy as GMO’s. Wide distrust has led many governments around the world to ban genetically modified foods entirely, such as Russia and many EU countries. Here in the United States they are permitted not because genetic engineered food has been proven safe-it hasn’t- but because it has yet to be proven harmful. But proving either one isn’t the easiest task. As nutritionist Marion Nestle can tell you, studies aimed at determining the health outcomes of certain foods is nearly impossible because people eat such varied diets, and other lifestyle factors may have contributed to the results. She warns to always look at who funded nutritional studies, and proceed with caution if they have conflicts of interest. Because unfortunately, studies are expensive, and what agency or organization would want to spend millions of dollars unless it had a vested interest in proving a certain outcome?
Because I’m dissatisfied with the partiality of health studies on GMO’s, I instead base my negative opinion on them on the industry workings of chemical and seed companies (I use them interchangeably because these days they are one in the same) like Bayer, Syngenta, and BASF.
When GMO’s were first introduced onto the marketplace in the 90’s, they were touted as the best way to reduce hunger and nutrition deficiency around the world. But this potential was never acted upon. Two decades later we see that few of these nutrient-rich foods were ever funded to completion. Instead, the main GM developments have been the money makers: commodity crops. Right now, some of the most commonly genetically modified crops are corn, cotton, soybeans, rapeseed, sugar beets, and alfalfa, because they’re the most commonly grown monocultures in America, often due to support from government subsidies. The most common modification? To be more pest and weed resistant; or more accurately, more resistant to whatever brand-name pesticide or herbicide the chemical company sells alongside the seeds, such as RoundUp. This means GM crops are sprayed with far more of these chemicals, which have been proven to have ill effects on not only consumers but agricultural workers who inhale them all day in the fields. These additional chemicals are also terrible for surrounding wildlife, not to mention the rich microbial flora in the soil.
Although pest resistance may sound convenient, GM seeds are making life harder for farmers everywhere. Modified foods are always sold with the promise of increasing yields, so when farmers oblige and take government subsidies to plant nothing but rows of GMO corn for instance, they’re left with such a surplus supply that the price of that item plummets, making their crop nearly worthless. And in our globalized market, this low price can and has put organic corn farmers out of business in countries we trade with such as Mexico, displacing thousands from the only occupation they know.
And once farmers switch to GMO, they’re trapped in a costly subscription. Seed companies recognized that natural seeds cannot be profitable if their offspring seeds can be saved year-to-year and shared. So, most genetically modified crops are also modified to be impotent after just one year, binding the farmer in a permanent cycle of buying more products and eventually more artificial nitrogen fertilizer because their soil is depleted from heavy chemical use. (Side note: chemical fertilizer run-off down the Mississippi has created an algae bloom that eats up oxygen in the water, leaving a dead zone of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, which Florida recently declared a state of emergency).
And for what are we destroying our ecosystem and creating farmer dependency? In short: junk food. Regardless of how dangerous (or not) GM foods are themselves, they are most often turned into cheap, packaged foods that accelerate chronic disease and obesity. Take rapeseed for example, this crop is later processed into the shelf-stable canola oil which is a primary ingredient in many brands of crackers, cereal, chips, bread and candy. Or corn, which is used for ethanol or the infamous high-fructose corn syrup. Many of these crops, including corn, cotton, alfalfa and soy typically end up as cheap feed for livestock, which is a senseless and wasteful process, as it takes 12 pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef, and because cows are designed to eat a free resource called grass.
When asked what my opinion is on genetically modified foods, I try to explain that my problem is not with the technology itself, but with how the technology is currently being used by big agribusinesses. I believe gene splicing could have wonderful ramifications when used to promote nutrition and not just resistance to chemicals. Oh, and until then, I’d like for GM foods to be labeled so I can avoid buying them.