genetically modified foods

Foods produced using genetic engineering technology. Individual genes can be copied or transferred from one living organism to another, to incorporate particular characteristics into the organism or remove undesirable characteristics. The technology, developed in the 1980s, may be used, for example, to produce crops with higher yields, improved taste, resistance to pests, or a longer growing season. The first genetically modified (GM) food, the ‘Flavr Savr’ tomato, went on sale in the USA in 1994. GM ingredients appearing in foods on the market today include tomatoes, soya, and maize. However, there remain some doubts and reservations about GM products, and some companies and countries, including the UK, have taken steps to delay the growing of GM crops until risks have been assessed, and to introduce legislation forcing GM products to be declared as such.

The higher yields and increased nutritional content produced by the new technology may help in feeding the world's rapidly-increasing population, and it may be possible in future to produce health foods such as oil seeds that produce oils with lower saturated fat content. Other advantages are that higher yields mean less land will need to be given over to farmland in order to produce more food, and that reliance on pesticides will be reduced by creating crops that are themselves resistant to pests.

In January 2000, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced new restrictions on the planting of GM maize (corn). American farmers would be obliged to plant 20–50% of their acreage with conventional maize, and plant it upwind of GM varieties. However, this restriction did not prevent significant annual increases in the planting of GM crops in the USA. In 2002, the growth rate of planting GM soybeans and maize crops increased by 3.8 million hectares, or 10% per annum. By 2003 the USA grew 42.8 million hectares of GM crops, 63% of the world's total amount.

Concerns about GM foods While traditional agriculture uses selective breeding to determine the nature of the crops and animals produced, there is controversy over the use of the more aggressive and precise methods of genetic modification. Opponents of the technology argue that there is as yet insufficient knowledge of the possible side effects of the process to declare the food safe. For example, genetically modified foods may cause more allergic reactions (triggered by the genes introduced from other foods and thus unanticipated by the consumer). An unexpected international agreement, termed the Biosafety Protocol, was approved by 130 governments in January 2000. The protocol enables nations to ban imports of genetically modified seeds and crops as a precautionary measure while scientific proof of the safety of the crops is still being obtained.

Test results In December 1999, US biologists announced that maize plants genetically modified to produce the insecticidal protein Bt toxin (which make up 20% of the US maize crop) were contaminating the surrounding soil with the toxin. It can persist actively in the soil for up to a month, killing some organisms; the effects of this contamination on soil ecology are as yet unknown. In February 2000 Canadian researchers announced the first officially confirmed case of weeds becoming resistant to herbicide – the weeds had gained genes from crops genetically modified for herbicide resistance.

Despite these concerns, economic pressures continued to push more countries toward GM crops. Brazil and the Philippines approved the planting of GM crops for the first time in 2003. Brazil planted herbicide-tolerant soybean and the Philippines grew 20,000 hectares of GM maize. In 2003, 67.7 million hectares of GM crops were grown globally.

In 2004 it was demonstrated that genetically modified pollen had been carried by the wind for greater distances than ever recorded. US researchers monitoring the spread of pollen from fields of a genetically modified form of creeping bentgrass, in central Oregon, found that GM pollen had been blown by the wind up to 21 km/13 mi from the fields where the GM grass was growing.