Genetically engineered plants or animals, often called GMOs, were developed through biotechnology and often carry genes from a bacteria or virus. Biotechnology has been used to help crops better withstand drought, be resistant to insects or be better suited to control weeds. Genetic modifications can help animals to better utilize the feed they eat. Find out What foods have been genetically modified?

GMOs and Sustainability

In this series, we are looking at sustainability and the inherent tradeoffs and benefits of specific practices in farming and food production.

To learn more about biotechnology, we reached out to Dr. Pamela Ronald, a distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California-Davis. She has gained worldwide recognition for her work in genetically engineering rice to better withstand plant diseases and flooding.

“Rice is an important staple food crop for more than half the world’s people, so it’s really important to work with,” Dr. Ronald said. “Even a small change that you can make in the ability of the plant to survive stress or resist disease can have an impact on millions of people.”

Are GMOs good or bad?

That depends.

First, Dr. Ronald said the biotech foods are safe to grow and to eat. “There’s no question about that. They’ve been planted for 25 years now,” she said. “They have reduced the use of chemical insecticide, and I think that’s really important for people to know.”

Find out more about GMOs and human health.

Dr. Ronald also explained that biotechnology is just one of the tools farmers can use to help produce food. When farmers have access to a variety of tools or techniques, they can choose the ones that work best for each crop, for each location and for each situation.

“All farmers rely on seeds to grow their crops, and farmers are looking for seeds that help make agriculture more productive and sustainable,” Dr. Ronald said. “They want to use less land, use water more efficiently, use soil more efficiently. They want to reduce the use of harmful inputs. Every type of contribution can be really important for farmers.”

Dr. Ronald’s husband is an organic farmer. She noted that every type of farming has tradeoffs. As an example, in order to grow a crop, the soil must be disturbed and native plants are removed.

The key is weighing the impacts, tradeoffs and benefits, and then making an informed choice. “We farm because we have to eat,” she noted. “It’s a huge tradeoff. How do we farm more sustainably and try to minimize our impact on the environment?”

Some farmers have found that GMOs can contribute to making farming more sustainable. Dr. Ronald gave an example of farmers in Bangladesh growing eggplant. Previously, farmers needed to spray insecticide several times a week during the growing season to save the crop from destructive insects. In recent years, they have planted a genetically modified eggplant seed that contains a gene from a bacteria that prevents the insects from reproducing. As a result, the farmers use much less insecticide spray, the crops have yielded more eggplant from the same amount of land and families have a better income. You can learn more about it in Dr. Ronald’s Ted Talk.

Because there is a lot of misunderstanding and incorrect information about GMOs, Dr. Ronald encourages those with questions to explore reputable sources of information, such as the National Academy of Sciences. or the USDA.

“I think it’s important to realize that all farmers rely on seeds that have been genetically altered in some manner. The method is not important. What matters is what kind of trait that’s being imparted to the plant,” she said.

“It’s always good to just think about the challenges faced by farmers. Floods come through, which is predicted to occur more frequently with climate change. Then some farmers can’t grow their crops because there’s not enough water. Some farmers’ crops are devastated by insect pests. So anytime you can develop crops that are resistant to insects, it can have a massive benefit to farmers.”

Weighing the Benefits and Tradeoffs

GMOs and biotechnology have both benefits and tradeoffs. The benefits are that GMOs can help plants or animals grow more efficiently, which means more food produced using fewer natural resources. GMOs can reduce the use of insecticides and harmful herbicides.

On the other hand, GMO crops often involve the use of the herbicide, glyphosate, which is concerning to some consumers. Some perceive that food produced through GMOs is less natural, because of the modification process and introduction of genetic material not native to the original organism. Some people have concerns that genes from the modified plants or animals could transfer to other organisms. There are also concerns that farmers’ reliance on certain types of GMOs could contribute to biodiversity loss or cause over-production.

In the United States, some people have reservations about biotechnology that is owned by corporations, and they worry this could put small companies or farmers at a disadvantage. In other countries, such as in the case of Bangladesh’s eggplant, the seeds were generated by non-profits and distributed free to farmers.

Biotechnology should not be viewed as a one-size-fits all solution to farming challenges. It must be managed in conjunction with other techniques.

“It’s not that once you choose biotech over another approach, that’s it. It really depends on the particular farming system and what’s being used at the time,” Dr. Ronald said.

Science is a continuum with each researcher’s work building on others. Biotechnology can be part of the solution to make agriculture more sustainable around the world.

GMO involves the genetic modification of plants and animals to improve crops and food production. With any practice, there are tradeoffs and benefits. Many experts concur that GMO technology offers tools and solutions that farmers can use to make food production more sustainable.

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All fries begin life as a potato, so how do they grow?

Dr. Douches: “The potato from a crop perspective is unusual in that it is vegetatively propagated (the new plant is grown from the original plant) rather than through a seed. However, over time the potatoes accumulate viruses from growing in the field and they start to degenerate. If you save an actual seed from this starchy vegetable, you don’t maintain the variety. The unique genetic combination you have is lost.

“Potato breeding remained largely unchanged for 50 years until recently. When USDA and universities invested in public potato breeding efforts, they started making crosses and taking those families to the field and making selections, going through cycles of evaluation selection to sort through and find the best potatoes.”

How have potatoes developed over time?

Dr. Douches: “It was a Rev. Goodrich in upstate New York who got some potatoes and started making crosses. Our Russet Burbank potato, which is used for making french fries, comes from that lineage. Russet Burbank actually came from a chance seedling that was selected by Luther Burbank in the 1860s. That potato hung around for a while and a Russet mutation was found in it in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Russet Burbank potato was well adapted to growing in the Pacific Northwest and so during World War II, they were using that to make potato flakes for the war effort. It was after World War II that the frozen fry industry started up as an innovative idea.”

How does genetic engineering play a role in making better potatoes?

Dr. Douches: “Having the ability to insert genes allows us to improve the traditional breeding practice because we can make a selection and have the potential to improve it further for certain key traits, like what has been done with the Innate potato. Some of those things are difficult, if not impossible, to do conventionally, as is the case with the insect resistance trait. Genetic engineering gives a tool to correct varieties that have some deficiencies and make them better for consumers, farmers and even processors, depending on the trait. Plus, we now have DNA sequence on the potato, which has allowed us to develop more analytical breeding schemes to follow certain genes in the potato. That’s really changing the landscape for the breeding.”

How can we know these GM (genetically modified) potatoes are safe to eat?

Dr. Douches: “They have to go through the federal regulatory agencies to get approval, which is a very extensive examination to determine whether the potatoes are safe to eat or safe to grow in the environment and whether they have any genes that may have an effect on the organisms in the environment. They look at insect-resistant genes, virus-resistant genes, and disease-resistant genes and whether they’re going to have any negative effects on the environment. Our non-GM food crops are not put through that gauntlet of analysis, so the most tested food we have out there is our GM-developed crops.”

What can we expect from potatoes in the future?

Dr. Douches: “They’re going to be self-driving and they’re going to fly like drones! No, what’s happening is the consumer is going to continue to get potatoes that are more healthful and are packed with more nutrition. But what they won’t see is that these potatoes are also performing on the farmers’ fields, giving them more resistance to the biotics problems like diseases and insects and also to problems like water needs or climate stresses.”

Potatoes are part of the equation; it also takes oil to give a french fry its flavor and texture. To learn more about innovation in oil, we went to Best Food Facts dietitian Sarah Downs.

What is new in frying oils?

Downs: “High-oleic soybeans are varieties developed with farmers and end-use consumers in mind. They have the same yields as other soybeans but offer higher-functioning soybean oil that remains stable in high-heat conditions, can add shelf life to products and, most importantly, contains less saturated fat, no trans-fat and has the highest amount of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat available in soy. Ultimately, high-oleic soybeans have a healthier oil profile and increased oil stability.”

What sets it apart from other oils?

Downs: “It has oil stability and contains monounsaturated fats. Many oils naturally are high in monounsaturated fats but are not very shelf stable.”

Does that mean it is healthier than other oils?

Downs: “There are many types of oils that can provide health benefits in moderation (canola and olive oil are two), and ultimately it depends on how you are using them because different oils are best for different types of cooking. High-oleic oil is a good choice because it is high in unsaturated fats, low in saturated fat and has no trans fat. Monounsaturated fats have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) without lowering HDL cholesterol (the good kind), which may help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.”

French fries and frying oils are truly a story of food innovation. Check out the infographic below to learn more about the evolution of the french fry.

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We wanted to know more about this technology, so we reached out to Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, Cooperative Extension Specialist in Animal Genomics and Biotechnology at the University of California-Davis, for some insight into what this technology is and why it’s being used on some foods.

What is CRISPR?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regulatory Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats.” It refers to a specific type of gene editing that can precisely edit or change the genetic code, or DNA, within a specific living animal or plant. In the same way that spell check identifies and corrects single-letter errors in a word or grammar errors in a sentence, gene editing can be used to identify and change the letters that make up the genetic code.

Is gene editing the same as genetic modification/engineering?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Gene editing is different from traditional genetic engineering. Continuing with the analogy of a word processor, genetic engineering enables a gene sequence of “foreign DNA” to be “cut and pasted” from one species to another; typically, the location where the new DNA sequence inserts into the genome is random. Gene editing can, delete, or replace a series of letters in the genetic code at a very precise location in the genome. If editing is used to add some letters, they may or may not be a sequence from the same species.

What can CRISPR gene-editing technology be used for?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: The basic idea behind gene editing is the ability to introduce, delete or replace letters in the genetic code, which could be helpful in correcting certain diseases and disorders, or for selecting specific desired traits (for example, a mushroom that doesn’t brown).

Are there any regulations surrounding the use of this technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires all food placed on the market to be safe irrespective of the breeding method that was used to produce that food. That requirement is inescapable. Plants and animals produced using conventional breeding techniques require no special pre-market safety review, although they are required to be safe. In the case of plants where biotechnology has been used in the breeding process, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Biotechnology Regulatory Services has a specific “Am I Regulated?” process to determine if the new plant variety may pose a pest risk to plants. If it does not, then it is not considered a regulated article. The response of APHIS to other “Am I Regulated” letters is available here.

With regard to animals, at the current time it is unclear whether gene editing will be formally regulated by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine as a “New Animal Drug,” as is the case with animals that have been produced using genetic engineering. Animal breeding per se is not regulated by the federal government, although it is illegal to sell an unsafe food product regardless of the breeding method that was used to produce it. Gene editing does not necessarily introduce any foreign genetic DNA or “transgenic sequences” into the genome, and many of the changes produced would not be distinguishable from naturally-occurring variations. As such, many applications will not fit the classical definition of genetic engineering.

What is CRISPR’s potential impact to food and agriculture?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Gene editing could be used to target many different traits in agricultural breeding programs. For example, it has already been used to produce genetically hornless Holstein dairy cattle and to generate pigs that show resilience to devastating diseases such as African Swine Fever. Recently, a paper was published showing that gene-edited pigs were protected from Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus, a particularly devastating disease of the global pork industry. It has also been used in plant breeding to produce non-browning mushrooms by knocking out the gene responsible for producing the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which causes browning in some fruits when they are exposed to air, but otherwise lacks any indispensable role in plant metabolism.

Are there any risks associated with use of the technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: There are potential risks and hazards associated with any technology. In this case, the most obvious potential hazard might be off-target changes in the genome — meaning a change in the DNA code at a location other than that targeted. This same hazard is associated with conventional breeding techniques like mutagenesis. In fact, gene editing is much more precise than random mutagenesis, which has been used in the development of over 3,000 varieties of plants. Random naturally-occurring mutations happen in every species, including our own, every generation. They are the basis of the genetic variation we see in natural populations and are in fact the driving force of evolution and agricultural breeding programs.

Why was CRISPR used on mushrooms?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: According to the letter submitted to the USDA, CRISPR was used to produce non-browning mushrooms. As previously mentioned, the researched inactivated the gene that codes for polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which causes browning in some fruits when they are exposed to air. A similar naturally-occurring mutation in the same PPO gene happened in grapes in Australia in 1962 in a grape line called “Sultana.” The fruits were pale and exhibited a significant decrease in PPO activity and were used to produce golden sultanas. This PPO enzyme is also the one that was turned off in the Innate non-browning potato and the Arctic Apple. Such non-browning food products will help reduce food waste.

What do consumers need to know about foods made using CRISPR technology — mushrooms, for example? Are they safe?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: As with all breeding methods, the safety of food derived from new varieties depends on the attributes of the end product, not the breeding method that was used to derive them. It is illegal to sell an unsafe food product regardless of the breeding method that was used to produce it. Every meal we have ever consumed contains genetic variation. A bite of apple has a very different protein and DNA makeup than a bite of banana. The digestive process breaks down DNA irrespective of its origin — and DNA is GRAS (generally regarded as safe), which is good as ALL food contains DNA. The sequence of the DNA does not matter from a food safety perspective. When turning off a protein like the PPO gene, there is no new protein being introduced into the mushroom — the plant just does not produce the PPO protein that is normally consumed and digested when people eat mushrooms. Breeders are often changing the DNA and protein composition of common plants and animals — a Golden Delicious apple has a different composition than a Granny Smith apple, for example, but they are both safe to eat.

What other foods could benefit from this technology?

Dr. Van Eenennaam: Really, all domesticated plant and animal breeding programs could benefit from breeding methods that enable breeders to more precisely improve key traits like disease resistance and resilience. Such improvement are likely to be increasingly valuable given projected climate variability and extreme weather events.

_{The image “DNA” by Caroline Davis2010 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

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To help answer these questions, we talked with Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, Cooperative Extension Specialist, Animal Genomics and Biotechnology at the University of California-Davis.

How does genetically engineered salmon differ from conventional salmon?

Dr. Van Eenennaam:

The AquAdvantage salmon is a fast-growing Atlantic salmon. It is able to reach market weight in about half the time it takes conventional salmon and, as a result, requires about 20 percent less feed. This means a fillet of salmon can be produced more efficiently using less feed, decreasing the environmental footprint.

Why was this salmon genetically engineered?

Dr. Van Eenennaam:

This salmon was designed to continuously grow throughout the year, rather than decreasing growth in the winter months. Wild salmon typically grow more slowly due to feed scarcity in the colder winter months. AquAdvantage is growing its salmon in tanks, and will provide adequate feed to allow for consistent growth.

Does GE salmon offer any benefits?

Dr. Van Eenennaam:

This salmon enables a more sustainable approach to the production of Atlantic salmon. Currently, Atlantic salmon makes up over half of the salmon consumed in the U.S., and it is farmed in ocean-based net pens and imported from countries including Scotland, Chile and Canada. These facilities have some deleterious environmental impacts including pollution, escapement and the transmission of disease and pests from wild fish to the cultured fish, and vice versa. The efficiency of AquAdvantage allows for land-based production of Atlantic salmon to become a cost-effective proposition. The company is planning to grow the fish in contained tanks, which will preclude some of the environmental concerns associated with net pen-based aquaculture.

AquAdvantage Salmon enables a more sustainable approach to the production of Atlantic salmon.
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How is the salmon genetically engineered?

Dr. Van Eenennaam:

Over a quarter of a century ago, a construct that contains a snippet of DNA encoding a growth hormone from the king salmon connected to DNA regulatory sequences from the ocean pout was added to the eggs of an Atlantic salmon spawn. A fast-growing fish was selected out of that spawn and was shown to be carrying the construct in its DNA. Since that time, the construct has been stably transmitted through normal inheritance over many generations, in the same way that I passed on my blue eyes to my kids.

Are there any safety concerns regarding consumption of the GE salmon?

Dr. Van Eenennaam:

The salmon is basically a fast-growing fish. This is a trait that is selected in many breeding programs. Because this particular line was produced through genetic engineering, it underwent a mandatory evaluation by the FDA. They found the fish was as safe to eat as conventional salmon and, under the proposed land-based growing conditions at a farm in the highlands of Panama, posed minimal risk to the environment. As with all technologies, risks need to be considered in comparison to existing production systems, and weighed against benefits. There are some known risks associated with existing production systems, such as the fertile lines of selected lines of Atlantic salmon escaping from ocean net pen-based aquacultural systems.

_{The image “Salmon” by Ján Sokoly is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

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OSF sent us a few of the Golden Delicious variety of Arctic Apple for us to try. To find out if there was a difference in taste between the genetically modified apple and a traditional apple you can currently find at the grocery store, we put them to the test with our Best Food Facts team. Here’s what they said:

Neither this video nor the taste test was sponsored by OSF. The opinions shared are those of the taste testers.

_{The image “In one movement….” by storebukkebruse is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

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1. Should I Wash Fresh Fruit in Vinegar? – Fruits and vegetables are important components to any diet, so we’re glad to know that you’re concerned with how to clean your apple before taking a bite.
2. Consumer Question – Is It OK to Use Leftover Onions? – We first received questions about this topic back in 2011…and four years later it still seems to be a concern for some of you. Luckily, we were able to chat with Dr. Ruth MacDonald from Iowa State University to get some advice on what to do with that half of an onion you have in your fridge.
3. What’s Healthier? Pork Bacon or Turkey Bacon? – Trying to be health-conscious when it comes to your morning protein? We spoke with a meat science expert to find out about all things bacon – including whether turkey bacon is actually healthier.
4. Egg Prices on the Rise – Earlier this year several cases of avian influenza broke out across the United States affecting millions of hens. Not only were poultry farmers affected, but everyday consumers such as yourselves. We sought out some answers in regards to fluctuating egg prices.
5. The Beef with Hormones – and 8 Other Foods You Might Find Them In – We’ve noticed that consumers are increasingly curious about what goes into producing their food, with hormones in meat being a top concern. We reached out to an expert to learn more about hormones in beef and a few other foods we don’t usually think of as containing hormones.
6. What Foods are Genetically Modified? – When it comes to the food we’re eating, many consumers are curious about genetically modified foods and where they are found. We put together an easy-to-understand infographic explaining which foods are actually genetically modified and commercially available in the United States.
7. Is Apple Cider Vinegar a Health Cure-All? – Miracle health cures are all over the web these days and one that we saw frequently this year was apple cider vinegar, which has been said to aid with diabetes, high cholesterol and even cancer as well as other diseases. We reached out to a registered dietitian and nutrition expert to get the facts on the nutritional benefits of regular apple cider vinegar consumption.
8. Spittin’ Seeds? Not with Seedless Watermelons – Contrary to popular belief, seedless watermelons are not the product of genetic modification. We checked in with Dr. Kevin Folta to learn more about the process behind seedless watermelons.
9. Understanding Processed Foods – Are processed foods really bad for us or just misunderstood? To better understand processed foods, we spoke with nutrition scientist Connie Weaver, PhD, from Purdue University.
10. Why is the United States the Only Country to Allow Hormones in Food Animal Production? – Spoiler alert: It’s not.

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To answer this, we reached out to Denneal Jamison-McClung, Associate Director – Biotechnology program at University of California-Davis.

Dr. Jamison-McClung:

There are only a few GM crops found in the fruit and vegetable aisles of the supermarket – squash, papaya and sweet corn. All of the other fruits and vegetables are not “GMO.”

Given what we know about the specific modifications made to GM squash, papaya or sweet corn, it is extremely unlikely that these foods would cause an allergic reaction. Food allergens have common characteristics (specific amino acid sequence, protein size/shape, abundance in the food, etc.) and all GM crops are screened to make sure that their proteins do not share characteristics with known allergens (Goodman, 2008). Specific techniques to assess allergenic potential in new crops, both GM and conventional, include detailed bioinformatic comparisons, immunologic assays and protein analyses (Houston 2013, Picariello 2011).

In the case of GM squash and GM papaya, both were developed because of viral diseases that threatened the crops. This gets a bit sciencey, but bear with me. To address that viral disease, genes that encode viral RNAs were incorporated. When the plant makes these RNAs, it triggers a cellular defense response at the start of infection (RNA homology-dependent gene silencing) that is somewhat like the immune response a vaccinated person would have against a specific disease (Morroni 2008, Collinge, 2010). In any case, neither of these GM crops expresses a GM protein with allergenic properties.

Sweet corn is engineered to express Bt protein in order to resist insect herbivores. Bt protein is safe for human consumption and is widely used by organic farmers as a spray. Bt proteins are non-allergenic, with the protein breaking down in our stomach acid within ~30 seconds (Adel-Patient 2011, Fonseca 2012).

It does sound like this reader may have a food allergy. My suspicion is that a common food allergen, such as egg in the salad dressing, may have been the cause of the reaction. The eight most common food allergens are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat (Mayo Clinic). I became allergic to eggs in adulthood, which was a surprise, as they were a significant part of my diet growing up. Unfortunately for me, eggs are found in all mayonnaise-based salad dressings and many other processed foods, making them difficult to avoid. People experiencing food allergy reactions, such as hives and rash, should follow up with a physician to receive testing for a panel of common food allergens. It is not possible for a medical provider to visually inspect a rash and pinpoint a specific allergen that caused the reaction – immunological tests, such as an IgE serum test, must be performed.

_References:

• _{Adel-Patient 2011 – Immunological and Metabolomic Impacts of Administration of Cry1Ab Protein and MON 810 Maize in Mouse}
• _{Collinge 2010 – Engineering Pathogen Resistance in Crop Plants: Current Trends and Future Prospects}
• _{Goodman 2008 – Allergenicity assessment of genetically modified crops – what makes sense?}
• _{Fonseca 2012 – Characterization of maize allergens – MON810 vs. its non-transgenic counterpart}
• _{Houston 2013 – Quantitation of Soybean Allergens Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry}
• _{Morroni 2008 – Twenty Years of Transgenic Plants Resistant to Cucumber mosaic virus}
• _{Picariello 2011 – The frontiers of mass spectrometry-based techniques in food allergenomics}

_{“Canola Bokeh” by Leigh Schilling is licensed under CC BY.}

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Consumers are becoming increasingly more interested in where their food comes from, and they have a right to know what they’re eating. Should foods containing GMOs be labeled so that consumers are aware of whether their foods contain them, and so they can have the choice to purchase them or not?

Dr. Byrne:

In an ideal world, consumers would be well informed about the pros and cons of GMOs and would make rational decisions about whether to purchase or avoid them. In my experience, the general public, as well as groups that one would expect to be better informed (such as high school science teachers) are very poorly informed. The anti-GMO groups have been so diligent in spreading fearful messages about GMOs that I expect a label would be interpreted as a warning that there is something dangerous about GMOs in food.

In an ideal world, consumers would be well informed about the pros and cons of GMOs and would make rational decisions about whether to purchase or avoid them
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified GMOs as Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS), so do we really need to label food products containing GMOs?

Dr. Byrne:

The FDA does require labels in cases where a GMO food has altered allergenic, toxic, or nutritional properties compared to the conventional counterpart. GMOs, like any new technology, have potential risks that should be carefully evaluated before they are de-regulated. The risks will vary depending on the crop, the trait and the specific transgene involved. Therefore, it is important to have a regulatory system that carefully evaluates risks and benefits and acts to ensure public safety.

Are there currently any GMO labeling requirements?

Dr. Byrne:

In addition to what’s mentioned above, FDA has published guidelines on voluntary labeling of GMO-containing foods or foods without GMO ingredients.

What benefits are there for labeling GMO food products?

Dr. Byrne:

If a consumer chooses to avoid GMO-containing foods for whatever reason, he/she would be able to do so by paying attention to labels. Labeling could open up markets for non-GMO foods.

What disadvantages are there for labeling GMO food products?

Dr. Byrne:

Although there are many uncertainties about the cost of labeling, there would certainly be some increased costs involved, due to the need for testing and segregation of products. The costs would be imposed on the whole food system, not just those concerned about the issue. The US food system infrastructure is currently not capable of segregating GMO and non-GMO ingredients and products. The restriction on GMOs in the form of labeling would likely discourage investment in future development of GMO crop varieties. This would be unfortunate, because for certain traits and crops GMO technology might be the most environmentally beneficial and cost-effective solution to a problem such as drought stress or insect damage.

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