Genetically Modified Foods: Impact on Human Health— Boon or Bane?

Abstract
Genetically modified organism is outcome of modern biotechnology in which foreign gene is
inserted to the host organism to get desired trait. Several agricultural crops are genetically
modified to acquire resistance to abiotic/biotic stress, improving nutritional quality, production
of pharmaceuticals etc. In current short review, authors have covered brief history, areas,
products, benefits and risk of transgenic crops.

Introduction

Ever since humanity began farming, they have been practicing a form of selective genetic
engineering. Everything grown today has been affected by this millennia-long program of
modification. Simply by selective breeding, by keeping the best-performing seeds from every
crop, the plants we eat have changed. Further efforts in hybridization ushered in the Green
Revolution of the mid- to late- 20th century, with the yields from some crops doubling. These
grain and cereal crops at the heart of the Green Revolution are not varieties found in nature. They
are wholly the product of human ingenuity. At the same time, though, hybridized wheat is still,
essentially, wheat. It is not some sort of chimera of strawberry and flounder.

Genetically Modified (GM) food and organisms go beyond the selective breeding
practiced since the dawn of agriculture. They are transgenic organisms, where genetic material
from one organism is inserted into the genetic makeup of another organism. The idea is to
transplant favorable characteristics from one to another.

Some examples of genetically-modified foods include soybean modified for herbicide

resistance, corn modified for herbicide and pest resistance, cotton modified for pest resistance,
and many others.

According to the manufacturers of these GM crops, using theses seeds will yield a
number of benefits, including increased yields and decreased costs. They push GM crops as a
second “Green Revolution”, in a world with billions of hungry mouths to feed.

There are definite benefits from GM crops. Varieties have been bred that are pest-
resistant, in fact to be toxic to defined pests. Some other types are resistant to certain herbicides,
requiring only one or two applications to control a field, rather than 4-6 on conventional crops.

Some are bred to be resistant to disease and bacterial infections. Some, like the
aforementioned strawberry and flounder chimera, are more resistant to cold. Some are
engineered for drought resistance, while others can tolerate higher salinity.

Some other potential benefits of GM crops are added nutrition, like “Golden Rice” that
has high level of beta carotene to provide vitamin A, while a related variety also provides iron.
 In the future, researchers hope to be able to provide vaccinations and medicines in GM
foods, which can provide medications to people in developing countries more easily.
Medications incorporated into food are easier to transport and store than conventional medicines.

With all these benefits, why are some protesting? The European Union has enacted strong
regulations regarding indentifying products as genetically modified, and indeed has banned many
GM foods.

At the core of these concerns is safety. The opponents of GM foods feel that there hasn’t
been enough testing of GM foods to ensure that they are safe, for people or for the environment.
Studies by the American Food and Drug Administration have some GM foods to be safe for
human consumption, however, there are independent studies that indicate otherwise. In the
minds of the skeptics, this is ample cause for further testing.

As important as human safety is, environmental safety is critical as well. Simply put, no
one knows if the transgenic genes of the GM crops will find their way into wild populations, or
even non-wild, but non-GM. Some independent studies suggest that they will, and again, there is
ample cause to investigate this. If the genes can spread, then there exists the possibility that they
can become widespread, and produce a dangerous vulnerability

From a social-economic standpoint, GM crops have an added concern. GM foods are

considered intellectual property under law, and this restricts access and use. Users of GM crops
are often locked into exclusive contracts for seeds and herbicides.

In the green world of the future, GM crops may well have a place, as their ability to resist
pests and require less herbicides makes them more attractive. However, they are far from a
second Green revolution at the moment, and until they can meet thet promise, further testing and
research seems very prudent.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND GENESIS

Human behavior and human likings are strange. It craves for more and more and wants to
be better too. On the one hand, it is good to try to improve for the better, but on the other hand,
craving for more is not a good thing. Playing with “mother nature” has always contributed to
bringing the doomsday near. However, attempts at eugenics (use of practices with the aim to
improve the genetic composition of a population or race) have been rekindling the thoughts of
the mankind and scientists. Euthenics is on the contrary improvement through altering and
controlling the external environment, viz. education, nutrition, etc. The emphasis on euthenics or
eugenics is a vast debate, beyond the scope of this text. However, it has been continuing for a
long time, and scientists have been trying to improve the quality of human beings employing
both.

Gregor Johann Mendel is credited with conducting experiments on pea plants in the
1860s and studying inheritance of attributes in successive generations. Based on his experiments,
were laid the Mendelian principles of inheritance, which form an important step, wherein our
understanding of genetic inheritance began. Mendel’s experiments remained in oblivion for over
quarter of a century, but were rediscovered in 1900. Allelic inheritance contributing to salient
traits could be understood and the inheritance patterns for many diseases could be outlined.
However, the polygenic inheritance is still baffling.

Nearly a century after Mendel’s experiments, Watson and Crick identified the molecular
structure of DNA in 1953 and got the nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1962. Restriction
enzymes were developed in 1960s, which helped cleave DNA into small fragments and develop
DNA sequences of interest, which could then be added to other genomes or plasmids. The next
decade saw the development of DNA sequencing techniques and in the subsequent decade,
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed which helped produce millions of copies of a
particular sequence/stretch of DNA. In 1990, the human genome project began which was
completed in 2003. In the 1990s only, gene therapy experiments began, searching for genetic-
mediated cure for human diseases. Man did succeed in developing gene therapy for monogenetic
disorders. However, the craving to control the environment and to enrich nonhuman living things
continued. Around the same time in 1980s, agriculture scientists had succeeded in targeted gene
modification and developed genetically modified (GM) foods in 1990s. The attempt to improve
edible plant species was not new. Man has been practicing plant breeding since the dawn of
agriculture about 10,000 years ago. In the beginning, this was made possible by repeatedly
pollinating with a better yielding plant and over successive generations, a stable lineage of much
better yielding plants would eventually emerge. This is a process of natural selection. The
survival of the fittest as enunciated by Charles Darwin. Over successive generations, those
species with distinct traits survive. Similarly, in plants too, those varieties which are resistant to
herbicides or pesticides would thrive. But it is a tedious and time-consuming process. Most of
the present day wheat, rice, maize crops have emerged in this way.
However, in the latter half of the twentieth century, faced with ever-increasing population and
the rising requirement of food grains, high yielding dwarf varieties of rice were developed in
India by cross-breeding local varieties with Japanese varieties, leading to the green revolution.
Scientists have been consistently trying to employ genetics in agriculture experiments to enrich
the agricultural products and also produce high-calorie or high-protein foods or produce
pesticide/herbicide resistant strains. This led to the emergence of GM foods in the 1990s. These
changes, like introducing a bacterial gene into a brinjal DNA, would have been almost
impossible naturally.

DEFINITION AND CONCEPT OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

Genetically modified foods or as they are called in short GM foods refer to crop plants
and their products which are created for consumption of mankind or animals employing
molecular biology techniques (genetic engineering techniques).1,2 The purpose of employing
molecular biology techniques is to incorporate desired traits, which could be helpful in either
growing of crops (in making the crop resistant to herbicides) or in improving the nutritional
content or in making the food more palatable. These GM foods are modified in the laboratory to
incorporate desired traits. As already mentioned, the enhancement of traits was earlier being
achieved by breeding. Breeding generations of plants, as was done by Mendel, is time
consuming and requires a lot of resources. However, manipulation of genetic material requires a
well-set-up laboratory; but is neither time-consuming, nor requires multiplicity of resources. In
fact, genetic manipulation (read genetic engineering) can help in developing plants with the
desired traits very effectively with great accuracy and rapidity. Hence, identifying a gene
resistant to moths/pesticides from a particular plant, extracting it and then inserting it in another
plant variety will help make the latter moth-resistant/pesticide-resistant. Similarly, identifying a
gene resistant to drought-tolerance and then inserting it in another plant will make it resistant to
drought. This technique has been successfully adopted by the agricultural scientists and has
resulted in evolution of GM foods. In fact, genes from nonplant organisms can also be used for
incorporating traits in plants and developing GM plants.
Conceptually, there is nothing wrong in development of GM foods, since they are
supposed to be more sturdy or nutritious, depending if a pest-resistant or a nutrient gene has been
inserted; they are supposed to be developed with specific qualities and that is a plus point.

The first commercially grown genetically modified whole food crop was the tomato
(called Flavr Savr), which was made more resistant to rotting by Californian company Calgene.
The tomatoes were released into the market in 1994 without any special labeling.3
The commonest GM food that has made news in India is the Bt brinjal and Bt cotton.4 Bt refers
to Bacillus thuringiensis. B. thuringiensis is a naturally occurring bacterium which produces
crystal proteins lethal to insect larvae. Bugs called bollworms and fruit and shoot borers are the
main destroyers of cotton, brinjal and corn plants. These Bt crystal protein genes have been
successfully transferred to cotton, brinjal and corn plant DNA. The cells wherein these genes are
transferred are allowed to grow into a plant. This plant, so-grown, is resistant to being eaten by
insects that die when they try eating this plant. The seeds produced by this plant also carry this
gene and are pest-resistant.
Similar changes can make a plant resistant to weedicides so that spraying does not
damage the crop even as weeds are killed. All kinds of other changes have been tried including
making sweet potatoes more sweet, increasing vitamin A in rice and so on.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Since the first GM seeds were developed and used in 1994–1996, about 25 countries in
the world are using GM seeds in an area spanning about 125 million hectares (mha), which is
about 8% of the world’s 1.5 billion hectares of total cultivated land. Over half of this GM crop
area is under herbicide-tolerant soyabean (65.8 mha) and a quarter is under various types of
maize (31.6 mha). Bt cotton (9 mha) and canola (5.9 mha) are the other major GM crops in use.
North and South American countries mostly use GM crops, mainly soybean, maize, canola and
sugar beet. Half of the world’s total area under GM crops is in the United States. The European
Union has been much more careful and has imposed a ban on their unregulated cultivation. Only
three countries in Asia and three in Africa use GM crops, but under tightly-regulated conditions.
In India, about 7.6 mha is under GM crops, mostly under Bt cotton.1 Bt brinjal was the only
edible GM crop produced in India, but a moratorium has been put recently on its cultivation, so
India does not produce any GM food now.
BENEFITS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

The main benefits for which GM crops are being developed include resistance to pests,
pesticides and herbicides, better tolerance of extreme weather conditions (like drought or
extreme cold), longer shelf-life, and an increase of certain nutrients or quality (like vitamin A-
infused rice or sweetness in sweet potato).
An outline of the advantages and disadvantages is being tabulated in Table 2.5
As it will seem from the above statistics, the world is being very cautious about the use of GM
crops. But why is there such a lot of hue and cry about the GM foods? There are certain issues,
which will be alluded to in certain detail:
 Safety testing: While small scale experiments were held in late 1980s without large-scale
experiments, large scale operations (industrial productions) were started in the late 1990s. The
long-term effects on the human health, on the environment and also on the future of the crops
have not been studied at all. In fact, the government of India has acknowledged that there were
no large scale field trials on the Bt cotton and Bt brinjal and the mass production of Bt brinjal has
been stopped in the country very recently.
 Adverse effects: All things, whether natural or unnatural, whether food or drugs can have
adverse effects, viz. too much sunshine can cause sunburn, too little can cause vitamin D
deficiency; eating less food can cause under nutrition and vitamin deficiencies; and overeating
can cause indigestion and in long-term obesity. GM foods cannot be an exception. Except for
two GM products which failed initial safety testing because of allergic reactions, no side effects
have been reported after consumption of any marketed GM foods. However, long-term studies
are distinctly lacking with any GM foods, though they have been in vogue for nearly 15 years.
Many companies which own the patents or are marketing GM foods have, in fact, refused
permission for testing. One organization, GM Free Cymru has stated that independently-funded
researcher, Professor Bela Darvas of Debrecen University was refused Mon 863 Bt corn to use in
his further studies. Professor Bela Darvas had earlier published about a different variety of
Monsanto corn being lethal to two Hungarian protected insect species and to another insect
which was classified as rare reported with any GM food approved for sale.6 It clearly indicates
that the production companies are afraid that their products could be identified to be toxic to
other species, hitherto unreported. Monsanto is a name which is heard often in context of GM
foods. Monsanto is a publicly-traded American multinational agricultural biotechnology
corporation headquartered in Missouri, USA.
 Biodiversity at stake: A very strong issue is one of biodiversity. Using polycultures of,
say rice would be far better than using a singular variety of GM rice. We can have GM rice
which is resistant to the present day known pests; but supposing a new pest comes by way of
natural selection (nature induces genetic change in that pest for its survival), one can well
imagine that in the absence of biodiversity and cultivation of large lands of only singular variety
of GM food, we will only be staring at a big famine.
 Effect on natural ecosystems: The effect of excessive killing of pests by cultivating GM
crops can obviously disturb the balance in the ecosystem. Moreover, there exists the risk that
these genes can be transferred to the species existing in natural ecosystems.
Nutrition
 Social injustice: Apart from health and environment concerns, there is social ju
stice at stake. With the rising cases of farmer suicides in India, the availability of GM seeds
cannot be condoned. It is to be made clear that GM seeds come at the price which is all
inclusive of fertilizers and pesticides and machinery cost for developing these seeds. Apart
from this cost, the irrigation cost is probably more than the usual cost. This all calls for social
justice. In fact, organic farming could be a possible option, wherein the organic methods are
employed to provide the plants healthy environs so that they become stronger and resist attack
by pests and herbs and do not require too many synthetic fertilizers. Obviously, a plant grown
like this would have more nutrient value since it has faced much less hurdles; just akin to the
child who in his infancy or childhood does not fall sick time and again, is bound to be
healthier than his/her counterparts.
 Corporate control of food supply: There is a large section which believes, and genuinely
so, that the whole concept is market-driven. It is argued that India was self-sufficient in food
after the green revolution and no GM foods/crops were required, had it not been due to
commercial or political reasons. The argument seems justified because instead of shortage of
food grains, there is a problem in equitable distribution. Obviously, the poor in our country die of
malnutrition, because they cannot afford even two square meals, and hence, will not be still able
to purchase their meals, be it GM foods or non-GM foods. However, better yield with GM foods
and significant fall in pesticide use, were probably the plausible reasons why these were
permitted in India, and led to large areas of Bt cotton cultivation in India about a decade back.
However, it has only resulted in crop failure (in 71% of the area in 2011 Kharif season), stagnant
yields (despite increase in cultivable area, (the yields have been static for the past 7 years),
primary pest resistance, new pest and disease attacks, need for high requirement for farm inputs
(fertilizers, pesticides, water for irrigation) and a spate of tragic farmer suicides in the cotton belt.
Monsanto is the multinational company which has provided the seeds for Bt crops in India.
The corporate control has been so evident by the fact that the seeds had to be taken from the
company; specific fertilizers had to be procured from the company; once the pests started eating
the crops, the pesticides too had to be procured from the company; but unfortunately, once the
crops failed, the companies washed away their responsibility and the compensation was provided
by the government, which in any case was much less than what the losses were. Moreover, the
GM foods that have been marketed have a terminator gene incorporated in them, which ensures
that these plants die off once the plant productivity finishes. Therefore, there are no seeds which
the farmers can use the next season and they are left with no option but to purchase new seeds
next season, again from the same company.
The corporates are just pushing in the costlier GM foods. The same GM seeds that were
being used in the temperate countries of US, were supplied to India and 10 years since, have
failed.
 Improved shelf-life is definitely worth the money invested. But firstly, who will like to eat
rice stored for years. Where would the space for storing such huge amounts of rice come from,
i.e. the space for such huge granaries. Another thing is the farmers will sit idle for years till such
huge stocks are consumed. Does it not suggest that farmer suicides are only going to make more
headlines?
  Gene flow into non-GE crops or organisms (including humans) is another perceived
disadvantage of GM foods. British scientific researchers in a small study7,8 demonstrated that
genetically modified DNA from crops found its way into human gut bacteria, suggesting possible
health concerns. It was found that the antibiotic-resistant marker genes, which are inserted with
GM material, were transferred to human gut bacteria of persons who consumed the GM foods.
These bacteria will therefore be resistant to antibiotics and the person would then be resistant to
antibiotic medicines.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS-RELATED DECISIONS IN INDIA

As already mentioned above, a moratorium has been imposed on Bt brinjal production in India in
2012, so now no GM food is being produced in India. Only the areas under cultivation of Bt
cotton exist.

 Social injustice: Apart from health and environment concerns, there is social justice at stake.
With the rising cases of farmer suicides in India, the availability of GM seeds cannot be condoned. It
is to be made clear that GM seeds come at the price which is all inclusive of fertilizers and pesticides
and machinery cost for developing these seeds. Apart from this cost, the irrigation cost is probably
more than the usual cost. This all calls for social justice. In fact, organic farming could be a possible
option, wherein the organic methods are employed to provide the plants healthy environs so that they
become stronger and resist attack by pests and herbs and do not require too many synthetic fertilizers.
Obviously, a plant grown like this would have more nutrient value since it has faced much less
hurdles; just akin to the child who in his infancy or childhood does not fall sick time and again, is
bound to be healthier than his/her counterparts.
 Corporate control of food supply: There is a large section which believes, and genuinely so,
that the whole concept is market-driven. It is argued that India was self-sufficient in food after the
green revolution and no GM foods/crops were required, had it not been due to commercial or
political reasons. The argument seems justified because instead of shortage of food grains, there is a
problem in equitable distribution. Obviously, the poor in our country die of malnutrition, because
they cannot afford even two square meals, and hence, will not be still able to purchase their meals, be
it GM foods or non-GM foods. However, better yield with GM foods and significant fall in pesticide
use, were probably the plausible reasons why these were permitted in India, and led to large areas of
Bt cotton cultivation in India about a decade back. However, it has only resulted in crop failure (in
71% of the area in 2011 Kharif season), stagnant yields (despite increase in cultivable area, (the
yields have been static for the past 7 years), primary pest resistance, new pest and disease attacks,
need for high requirement for farm inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, water for irrigation) and a spate of
tragic farmer suicides in the cotton belt. Monsanto is the multinational company which has provided
the seeds for Bt crops in India.
The corporate control has been so evident by the fact that the seeds had to be taken from the
company; specific fertilizers had to be procured from the company; once the pests started eating the
crops, the pesticides too had to be procured from the company; but unfortunately, once the crops
failed, the companies washed away their responsibility and the compensation was provided by the
government, which in any case was much less than what the losses were. Moreover, the GM foods
that have been marketed have a terminator gene incorporated in them, which ensures that these plants
die off once the plant productivity finishes. Therefore, there are no seeds which the farmers can use
the next season and they are left with no option but to purchase new seeds next season, again from
the same company.
The corporates are just pushing in the costlier GM foods. The same GM seeds that were being used
in the temperate countries of US, were supplied to India and 10 years since, have failed.
 Improved shelf-life is definitely worth the money invested. But firstly, who will like to eat
rice stored for years. Where would the space for storing such huge amounts of rice come from, i.e.
the space for such huge granaries. Another thing is the farmers will sit idle for years till such huge
stocks are consumed. Does it not suggest that farmer suicides are only going to make more
headlines?
 Gene flow into non-GE crops or organisms (including humans) is another perceived
disadvantage of GM foods. British scientific researchers in a small study7,8 demonstrated that
genetically modified DNA from crops found its way into human gut bacteria, suggesting possible
health concerns. It was found that the antibiotic-resistant marker genes, which are inserted with GM
material, were transferred to human gut bacteria of persons who consumed the GM foods. These
bacteria will therefore be resistant to antibiotics and the person would then be resistant to antibiotic
medicines.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS-RELATED DECISIONS IN INDIA

As already mentioned above, a moratorium has been imposed on Bt brinjal production in India in
2012, so now no GM food is being produced in India. Only the areas under cultivation of Bt cotton
exist.

notification published on June 5, 2012, has made an amendment to make labeling of every
package containing GM food mandatory from January 1, 2013. It says, “every package
containing the GM food shall bear at the top of its principal display panel the words ‘GM’.9
However, the grey area is about unpackaged foods and processed foods and the lack of credible
testing laboratories to check for GM ingredients in foods. Also, how to ensure enforcement of
law in India has always been the big question.

CONCLUSION
Scientific advancement, no doubt, is welcome, but the basis of science is reasoning.
Therefore, it is pertinent to question each and every aspect of GM foods especially since they
have not been proven to be much of benefit in the 15 years of their existence. A lot of research
needs to be put to allay the environmental and human safety concerns, which appear so very
genuine at present with the advent of GM foods. GM foods are a major advancement, but they
have to be evaluated in the right perspective. GM foods cannot be a blanket therapy for all
nations. Each nation will have to develop specific GM foods tailored for that environment and
specific to the weeds or pests prevalent in their regions. Again it has to be a continuous process,
with development of resistant species of pests; GM foods will also require modifications. They
cannot and need not be pushed as a universal remedy, but need to be evaluated very carefully on
a case-to-case basis, keeping in mind the regional social, geographical and environmental
concerns and safety issues for human beings.
REFERENCES

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timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-06/science/ 28135180_1_gm-food-gm-crops-brinjal.
[Accessed October, 2012].
3. Disabled World News (2009-09-22)—Genetically modified foods information including list of
GM foods with DNA changes and pros and cons of GM food. [Online] Available from
www.disabled-world.com/ fitness/gm-foods.php# ixzz29fIHRLJB. [Accessed October, 2012].
4. India GM Info. Get acquainted with GM crops in India. [Online] Available from
www.indiagminfo.org [Accessed September, 2012].
5. Genetically Modified foods and organisms: Human Genome Project Information. [Online]
Available from www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/ Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml [Accessed
October, 2012].
6. Genetically modified food controversies. [Online] Available from en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Genetically_modified_food_Antroversies [Accessed September, 2012.
7. Davison C. Disadvantages of GM foods to human health. [Online] Available from
http://toostep.com/trends/disadvantages-of-gm-foods-to-human-health [Accessed October,
2012].
8. Study shows disadvantages of GM foods to human health. [Online] Available from
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/millenium/ disadvantagesgmfoodhealth.php. [Accessed
October, 2012].
9. Parsai G. Centre makes labelling of GM foods mandatory. [Online] Available from
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article 3551679.ece.
 Aurora Pioneers Memorial College
(FORMERLY: Cebuano Barracks Institute)
Aurora Zamboanga Del Sur

Genetically Modified Foods: Impact on Human Health— Boon or Bane?

Submitted to:

HASSEL A. ABADILLA

Submitted by:

JELLY ROSE J. COLLADO

BSEd – 1

October 16, 2018