GM Food—A Challenge Facing the Food Industry

“A genetically modified (GM) food is a plant that has a genetic change in each of its cells that a researcher has introduced. The modification may add a gene from a different species and thereby create a transgenic plant, or it may over-express or silence a preexisting plant gene.”(Ricki 2015) In the US, there is a long time debate about the safety of GM food since it has been introduced to America, for that it may be a new trend of future agriculture; but the GM food is indeed a challenge faced by food industry, especially for the farmers. Because some facts and experiments proved that the GM food may harm people’s health, contaminate other crops, and the FDA in the US has not passed the law yet to label the GM food to remind the customer, in this way the market acceptance is reduced and the farmers’ economic risks are raised. So the GM food may harm the benefits of both the consumers and the producers in the US food industry.

The GM food may harm the health of people, for that when moving a kind of gene from a kind of plants to another kind of plants, some people may be allergic to the gene in the former one, but in this way the customer will not discover when purchasing it, which may cause allergy. Furthermore, some GMO themselves are allergic there are also animal experiments proved that the GM food may cause infertility and cancer in the long run. Take the corn in the US as an example, “In July 1999, a study of Ohio crop pickers and handlers found that Bt (A bacteria spliced in corn) can provoke immunological changes indicative of a developing allergy. With long-term exposure, affected individuals may develop asthma or other serious allergic reactions. This led to fear that perhaps it was dangerous even if you did not consume the food.” (Grubinger 2000) And also some scientists found that mice had fewer babies when fed by GM corn. Rats fed by corncob bedding made from GM corn neither bred nor exhibited reproductive behavior, and their breast and prostate cancer cell cultures rates are higher than the normal one. (Nutrition411 2011) So these experiments and facts proved that people may be allergic to certain gene which hides in the other plants, and some of the GM corn may cause infertility and cancer, as well as the US have not passed the law to label the GM food, people will be scary of the food that have GM verities. A survey by the International Food Information Council, a Washington DC foundation, indicates that “When asked questions biased toward favorable responses, a significant portion (21 to 43%) of the 1,000 people interviewed still said they would not be likely to purchase such food.” In that case, the consumer acceptance of GM crops in the US domestic marketplace will be a problem for farmers. And the people get more and more angry, and they think the proper focus of the government and producers is consumers’ expectations and whether the consumers are being deceived. Because consumers do not expect foods to be genetically engineered absent special labeling, and they consider that their right to know what is in their food is being taken away by government policies.

Besides, the GM crops like corn have been proved that may contaminate other crop gene and soil environment during cultivation, transportation even storage. And if it happens, the crop farmers will bear high economic risks. “Transformed corn plants with genetic material from the bacterium Bt have been reported to represent a risk because most hybrids express the Bt toxin in pollen which could be further deposited on other plants near such corn fields causing non-target organisms that consume these plants.”(Yu & Shepard, 1998).  The GM corns not only harm soil fertility and other crops’ growing environment during cultivation, but also contaminate other crops during transportation and storage, for that it is common knowledge that pollen may happen during these processes. Worse still, the only measure the farmers can do to eliminate contamination is to segregate the GM crops and Non-GM crops during transportation and storage, but this will remarkably increase the farmers’ costs. In addition to the segregation cost, the high cost of the GM seed and the low market acceptance may lead the farmers, the producers suffer a lot from economic lost. Worrying about genetic contamination, many consumers, especially environmentalists are reluctant to purchase GM food, which cause low market acceptance, and they urge the US government to label the GM food.

Other than technical solutions such as crop segregation and evolutes the genetic modified techniques, there are two solutions to this problem, one is to label the GM food mandatorily, and the other is to label the GM food voluntarily but have the responsibility and must answer the truth when inquired by consumers.

“A properly set-up mandatory labeling system would be the best method to provide information about GE foods.”(Jaffe 2002) Because when labeling becomes mandatory, the producers and sellers must label the GM ingredients list, in this way the consumers will be informed with accurate and value-free information, and people’s dissatisfaction with the producers and government will be eliminate without expressively increasing the food costs.  And it will satisfy consumers’ need and desire, so that the consumers could purchase food with or without GM ingredients, especially for religious people who have to avoid the animal ingredients and the people who are allergic to certain GM ingredients. Instead of requiring warning statements, the producers only need to label the GM ingredients list, and the costs will not increase. So it is a good solution both for the consumers and producers. (Jaffe 2002)

The second solution is the producers can label the GM food voluntarily but have the responsibility and must tell the consumers the GM ingredients in the food when inquired by consumers. The food producers need to discuss with consumer organizations to provide the information about the GM ingredients in this product and answer the questions and solve the confusion of the consumer representatives. Moreover, the producers also need to take the responsibility to give the GM ingredients list in the product when individual consumer inquires by phone, e-mail and other kind of media. Though this kind of solution is not as effective as mandatory labeling, it guarantees maximizing the protection of consumers’ profits and will insure the consumers who have concerns about the GM food free access to the information they need for informed choice decide whether to purchase the GM food or not. (Jaffe 2002)

Although the GM food still has its problems, it can yet be regarded as a good choice for the future agriculture if well-regulated, since the US and the world’s population are still growing. And basically, I think if the US government and companies can cooperate to tell the people the truth, label the GM food as well as insist in improving the quality and safety of the GM food, customers in the US will gradually accept the GM food in the future.

Reference

Lewis, Ricki. "Genetically Modified Foods." Genetics. 2003. Retrieved April 23,2015fromEncyclopedia.com:http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406500125.htm

Grubinger, Vern (2000). Summary of Concerns about Transgenic Crops. The University of Vermont, http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/transgenic.html (September 2000)

Nutrition411(2011). Genetically Modified Soy: Cause for Concern?. Nutrition411, http://www.nutrition411.com/content/genetically-modified-soy-cause-concern (Tuesday, 11/01/11)

Yu, D. W., & Shepard, G. H., Jr. (1998). Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Nature, 396(6709), 321-322.

Jaffe, Gregory(2002). Labeling Genetically Modified Foods: Communicating or Creating Confusion? Cspinet, http://www.cspinet.org/biotech/pew-forum.html (June 27, 2002)