SCIENCE unceasingly continues to explore and bring progress for the survival of our planet and its more than 7.3 billion inhabitants. By 2050, that number is predicted to be about 9 billion, with 24.5 million births per year. Today about 1.368 billion people live in China, 1.252 billion in India, 321.4 million in the United States, and 101.7 million in the Philippines.
Unless something is done today to improve the global food supply, a significant segment of the world population could face famine in the near future. This is where genetically modified organisms (GMOs) come in. Other terms used are: living modified organism or transgenic organism, modern biotechnology or gene technology, and sometimes recombinant DNA technology.
What is GMO?
Genetically modified organism is a term that denotes any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic-engineering techniques to create or produce medicines or other foods. The alterations may also protect plants to make them resistant to insect infection or infestation to eliminate the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals now used to protect plants and their fruits. GMO also increases the harvest in quality and abundance. This is a big boon to farming and for the peoples of the world.
How old is the original technology?
Genetic manipulation of foods started in about 10,500 to 10,100 B.C. when domestication of plants and animals began through selective breeding for desired traits. This is the precursor to the modern concept of GM. With the discovery of DNA in the early 1900s and the progress in genetic techniques in the ‘70s, the idea of altering the DNA and genes within food was born.
Exactly how is GMO used?
GM foods are those that are produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA, using genetic engineering. This allows for the introduction of new traits and a great control over traits than older methods like selective breeding and mutation breeding.
How old is GMO technology?
The first GMO application in food was approved by the US FDA in 1988. It was 22 years ago – in 1994 to be exact – when the first commercial sale of GM foods started. Calgene, a biotechnology company, first marketed the unsuccessful Flavr Savr delayed-ripening tomato, hoping to reduce spoilage by prolonging its shelf life. Cash crops (corn, soybean, canola, cotton seed oil) are high in demand by farmers. GM crops have been engineered to resist pathogens and herbicides, and make them better, larger, and yield more frequently than usual with improved nutritional values. The objective is to create ideal or nearly ideal medicines, plants, animals, and other living products for the health, well-being, and survival of the planet.
Are there GM animals?
Yes. The following are now available:
The enviro-pig, known as Frankenswine, is genetically modified and contains DNA from the mouse and E. Coli bacteria so it can process and digest phosphorus better, eliminating the former need to feed them added phosphorous. This eliminates high phosphorous in pig manure, which gets into the water and makes algae bloom and deplete oxygen, killing marine life.
Fast-growing salmon: Atlantic salmon is genetically modified (by adding the growth hormone of Chinook salmon and the gene from ocean pout, an eel-like fish) to grow twice as fast, maintaining the same quality, color, texture, and taste, as regular salmon. Its safety is currently being evaluated by the US FDA.
Another is sudden-death mosquitoes. Some mosquitoes are genetically-modified to fight malaria and Zika mosquitoes, which cause a million of death a year – a million deaths or millions of deaths? and infect an additional 300 million. Experts have created sudden-death mosquitoes, which pass their genes to their offspring, which die before reaching their sexual maturity. The bad side effect is that when all mosquitoes have been eradicated, the world ecosystem would be affected: bats and others that feed on mosquitoes would face extinction.
In web-spinning goats, scientists inserted a drag-line silk gene from spiders for the goat to produce biosteel, a strong web-like material that could be used for parachute cords, among other things.
Featherless chickens were invented in Israel, are much cheaper to raise, are more environmentally friendly, and need no plucking.
Mostly-male tilapia has undergone major modification to make them mature faster, grow larger and survive on smaller quantities of food. Farmers now prefer all-male tilapia, since the females store their eggs in their mouth and many times swallow them accidentally, resulting in lower and smaller offspring.
Glow-in-the-dark cats came about in 2011 when American and Japanese scientists inserted genes (with green fluorescent protein) in cats to help them resist the feline immunodeficiency disease (which is like HIV in humans). They are normal during the day, but sometimes glow in the dark in the night.
What is the current state of GMO?
According to WHO reports, 29 countries in 2010 had planted commercialized biotech crops, and an additional 31 countries had granted regulatory approval for transgenic crop to be imported. The United States is the leading nation in the production of GM foods in 2011, with 25 GM crops having received approval. As of 2015, 92 percent of cotton, 94 percent of soybean, and 92 percent of corn produced in the US were of genetically modified strain. Golden rice, created in 2000, now provides increased nutrient values. According to the USDA, “the number of field releases for genetically engineered organisms had grown from 4 in 1985 to about 800 per year; cumulatively, more than 17,000 releases had been approved through September 2013.”
Are GM foods safe to consume?
As always, safety is a concern when it comes to a relatively new technology like genetically modified foods and medicines. The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council in 2004 reported that “genetic engineering is not an inherently hazardous process and also stated adverse health effects from genetic engineering have not been documented in the human population, but the technique is new and concerns about its safety remain.”
Let us, in the meantime, continue to watch the developments in GMO and be vigilant. For more information, visit philipSchua.com or email [email protected].
***
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
