Are Biotech Foods Safe?

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In contrast to the statements of biotech advocates, FDA scientists and independent researchers affirm that genetic modification is not just an extension of the conventional breeding techniques that have been used by farmers for millennia. Genetic engineering transfers genes across natural species barriers, using imprecise laboratory techniques that bear no resemblance to natural breeding. Furthermore, the technology is based on outdated concepts of how genes and cells work.

Gene insertion creates widespread and unpredictable changes to an organism. Gene insertion is done either by shooting genes from a “gene gun” into a plate of cells or by using bacteria to invade the cell with foreign DNA. The altered cell is then cloned into a plant. These processes create massive collateral damage, causing mutations in hundreds or thousands of locations throughout the plant’s DNA. Natural genes can be deleted or permanently turned on or off, and hundreds may change their levels of expression. The inserted gene itself is often rearranged during the process.

In the 1980s, a contaminated brand of a food supplement called L-tryptophan killed about 100 Americans and caused sickness and disability in another 5,000-10,000 people. The source of contaminants was almost certainly the genetic engineering process used in its production. The disease took years to find and was almost overlooked. It was only identified because the symptoms were unique, acute, and fast acting. If all three characteristics were not in place, the deadly GM supplement might never have been identified or removed.

Scientists predict that any risks associated with ingesting GM foods are magnified for high-risk groups in our population, such as pregnant women, children, the sick, and the elderly.  The long-term studies needed to identify GMOs as the source of the many increasing health problems associated to diet in the Unites States are not being done.