By Utsa Chaturvedi
World hunger has been on the rise for decades. According to the World Food Programme, the food-assisted branch of the United Nations, climate change, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic caused the number of undernourished people to grow by as many as 150 million in the last three years. Moreover, according to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the world will have to grow 70 percent more food by 2050 to keep up with population growth. Climate change will make large portions of the world’s arable land (land that is suitable for growing crops) more difficult to farm.
With issues like climate change and world hunger constantly worsening, it is important for us to find ways to either entirely change our consumption habits, or find new methods of food production. One such potential solution is genetically modified foods (GM foods), though it faces controversy. GM foods are foods derived from organisms whose genetic material, or DNA, has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally; for instance, through the introduction of a gene from a different organism. Currently available GM foods stem mostly from plants, but it is likely that foods derived from genetically modified microorganisms or animals will be introduced in the future. Today, GM foods are a highly debated topic among the scientific community.
GM foods have many benefits, as they have been specifically developed to combat issues with food production. For instance, genetic engineering can improve crop yield, and crops can even be engineered to be more nutritious, providing critical vitamins to populations that struggle to get specific nutrients needed for healthy living. Furthermore, GM foods are also useful in controlling the occurrence of certain diseases, and allergy-causing properties in these foods are also eliminated due to modifying their DNA system. David Zilberman, a U.C. Berkeley agricultural and environmental economist, says that the use of genetically modified crops “has increased farmer safety by allowing them to use less pesticide”, and has “raised the output of corn, cotton and soy by 20 to 30 percent, allowing some people to survive who would not have without it.” He believes that adopting GM foods widely would lead to lower food prices, and fewer deaths due to hunger. Furthermore, the safety of GM foods has also been proven countless times - the European Commission, the administrative body of the E.U., has funded 130 research projects on the safety of GM crops, and none of those studies found any special risks from GM crops. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association and the National Academy of Sciences have all backed GM crops. Hence, GM foods provide a variety of benefits if chosen to be utilized.
However, despite the many supportive stances on genetically modified food, there are many who believe that the risks outweigh the benefits. Genetically engineering foods is a relatively new practice, which means the long-term effects on safety are not yet clear. More generally, public perception of GM foods is plagued by concerns of safety, from the potential for allergic response to the possible transfer of foreign DNA to non-GM plants in the area. None of these concerns are backed by evidence, but they still persist. Throughout Asia, governments have yet to approve most GM crops, and in Africa, several nations have refused to import GM foods in spite of their lower costs. David Williams, a cellular biologist who specializes in vision, says, “A lot of naive science has been involved in pushing this technology…Inserted genes can be transformed by several different means, and it can happen generations later.”
Though genetically modified foods are not the cure-all for world hunger - the path to eradicating global hunger is more complex than only addressing food quantity or quality - they can certainly be one part of the solution to addressing it. It is important to take action towards understanding the effects of genetically modified foods at a deeper level, and to change people’s perceptions towards them. Scientists, governments, and consumers will have to work together to ensure a future where humans can benefit from genetically modified foods’ significant benefits.
References
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Bawa, A. S., & Anilakumar, K. R. (2012). Genetically Modified Foods: Safety, risks and public concerns—a review. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 50(6), 1035–1046. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-012-0899-1
Freedman, D. H. (2013, September 1). The truth about genetically modified food. Scientific American. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-genetically-modified-food/
A Global Food Crisis: World Food Programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis
Is it safe to eat GM crops? Royal Society. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/gm-plants/is-it-safe-to-eat-gm-crops/
MediLexicon International. (n.d.). Pros and cons of GMO Foods: Health and Environment. Medical News Today. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324576#cons
Pew Research Center. (2020, August 27). 3. public opinion about genetically modified foods and trust in scientists connected with these foods. Pew Research Center Science & Society. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/12/01/public-opinion-about-genetically-modified-foods-and-trust-in-scientists-connected-with-these-foods/
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Food, genetically modified. World Health Organization. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.who.int/health-topics/food-genetically-modified#tab=tab_
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