You don’t have to live in a cave to know that there is plenty of negative press on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s). For some time now I have been telling my co-workers that I am going to write something in my weekly column about GMO’s.

For starters what is a GMO? By definition a GMO is an organism that has been genetically modified through the addition of a small amount of genetic material from other organisms using techniques of genetic engineering. For example, a small section of DNA from a soil bacterium is inserted into the corn plant. The plant recognizes it as its own DNA and translates it into protein. That protein only affects certain pests or weeds; there is no scientific evidence that it affects people or animals. When we eat GMO plants, the DNA and protein are broken down just like all the other DNA and protein in the plant.

One of the first GMO plants or crops introduced in the U.S. commercially was Bt corn almost 20 years ago. The Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis which is a naturally occurring soil bacterium, so the donor organism is a natural bacterium in the soil. This bacterium produces a particular protein that causes disruption within susceptible insects in their digestion of the Bt crops they eat. The European corn borer is a susceptible insect to Bt and a significant damaging pest to corn.
This protein is very selective, generally not harming other insects, such as beneficial insects that eat other insect pests. The Bt bacterium is considered safe for humans, other mammals, fish, birds, and the environment because of its selectivity. Remember that Bt is naturally occurring in the soil. I can’t help but think of how many of us as very small children ate some soil when playing outside.

Before the Bt corn was introduced, corn growers would have to spray an insecticide on the corn to kill this devastating pest so that it would not rob many bushels of grain from the farmer. Now thanks to Bt corn, much less insecticide is sprayed on corn fields, protecting higher yields.

Are GMO’s safe to eat? We eat DNA and protein every day! They are a part of every plant, animal and microorganism. The practice of plant breeding to improve crops has been ongoing since the beginning of agriculture. Today’s science speeds up these improvements. Foods from GMO plants have been declared safe with no negative health effects associated with their use by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, American Medical Association, World Health Organization, Health Canada, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Academy of Sciences.

The World Health Organization says no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of biotech foods. There has been no scientific evidence linking food allergens among humans to the consumption of biotech/GMO food ingredients. Since 1982, the European Commission has invested over 300 million euros on research on the bio safety of GMO’s. According to the projects’ results, there is no scientific evidence associating GMO’s with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms.

The companies developing and selling the GMO crop seeds have been criticized that they are too expensive for poor farmers in developing countries to purchase. Just the opposite has occurred. These companies have discounted the price of GMO crop seeds to farmers in developing countries to assist them in growing higher quality and higher yielding crops.

Many know that the expected population will increase by 2 billion more people in roughly 30 more years. To frame it another way–every day 180,000 more people are added to the planet. I realize that throughout the world that hunger issues run much deeper than just poor farmers having the resources to grow the crops and feed the livestock, i.e. government corruption and unmerciful dictators starving the economies and peoples of their countries. But did you know that every day over 20,000 people world-wide die of hunger related illnesses and that one billion people in the world today are food insecure.

And to top it all off–the challenge is to continue feeding a growing population in a resource stressed world (No more new land or water). This will require the use of many technological advances and we in Agriculture have our work cut out for us.