Is food biotechnology a miracle cure for world hunger or an environmental and human health scourge? The answer is neither of these. Biotechnology – or, to be more specific, recombinant DNA technology – is nothing more than a tool for making precise modifications to the genetic code of living organisms. The safety and usefulness of its products can only be judged on a case-by-case basis, after considering the characteristics of individual products. The process itself is no magic bullet, but neither is it inherently safe nor dangerous.
Genes are small segments of DNA that provide the cellular blueprint for making proteins. The purpose of all plant breeding – whether by cross-breeding two plants of the same species, by modern biotechnology, or by any of the more or less sophisticated techniques in between – is to alter the plant’s DNA by adding or deleting certain genes. The “safeness” of a particular modification depends, therefore, on exactly what change has been made. The addition of a gene that codes for a toxic or allergenic protein, for example, can pose environmental risks or make food from that plant unsafe to eat, whether it is done by biotech or conventional methods.
Indeed, because most crop plants contain low levels of natural toxins, allergens, or antinutrients, the essentially random recombination of genes in cross-breeding and other conventional methods can unintentionally boost the level of endogenous chemicals or introduce new ones into the food supply. In just the last few decades, two conventionally bred varieties each of squash and potato and one of celery were found to contain dangerous levels of endogenous toxins and had to be recalled from the market. But, despite intense scrutiny by public health authorities around the globe, there is no evidence that a single illness has ever been caused by biotech foods.
Importantly, recombinant DNA methods let plant breeders isolate individual genes and study the safety of the proteins they help make before they are transferred into crop plants. This arguably makes modern food biotechnology more safe than conventional breeding, not less. A review of eighty-one separate research projects, conducted over fifteen years and funded by the European Union, found that bioengineered crops and foods are just as safe for the environment and for human consumption as conventional crops, and in some cases even safer, because the genetic changes in the plants are much more precise.
This confidence has been validated by the excellent safety record of the biotech crops and the food derived from such crops since their commercial inception over a decade ago. And countless scientific bodies – including the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and dozens of others – agree that, because of the comparative precision of recombinant DNA methods, it is therefore easier to ensure the safety of biotech foods.
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