The GMO Controversy

Genetically modified organisms (GMO) technology, which allows the genes of plants to be modified in a laboratory, is making rapid gains in market share across the world. The firms that market GM seeds aggressively promise higher crop output with superior nutritional value. Opponents argue that pesticide use has risen dramatically, and as  farmers do not save their seeds, the latter have to rely completely on seed companies. The nutritional value of GMO is also questioned.

Since farming started at about 10,000 BCE, humans have been selectively modifying the genome of plants to create plant species that possess traits favourable for human consumption and preferences. With the introduction of methods for controlled cross-breeding in the nineteenth century by Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, we have been able to help plants create seeds that produced offsprings that possess the “good” traits of their parents while culling the unwanted “bad” traits. However, in the latter half of the twentieth century, GM (genetically modified organism) technology takes seed development to a different level by manipulating plant gene at a laboratory instead of getting plants to naturally pollinate under a controlled environment as is the case of hybrids. GM crops are planted in many countries, including USA, Australia, Canada, China, India, Spain, South Africa and Argentina. Plant varieties include maize, soybean, cotton, canola, sugar beet, eggplant, alfalfa, papaya and squash. Some species of GM plants are, however, banned in European countries such as Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Poland and Romania. As a matter of fact, the European Union has a comprehensive and strict legal regime on GMO, where “O” is for organisms. Due to the controversy surrounding GMO, and the possible implications it might have on our health, economy and environment, we Malaysians need to understand the debate before we allow GM plants to get a hold in our local food production or even with regards to our consumption of GMO sourced foodstuff. I first declare though that I have strong reservations about GMO. If you do not already know much about GMO, I believe that you are quite likely to feel rather concerned as well if you read through this article.

Gene splicing, where specific genome sequences are inserted into the genome of other plants, has allowed seed companies to introduce characteristics that are alien to plants in their offsprings. These include crops that are resistant to certain insects or even pesticides. A popular example is the plants that are resistant to the pesticide glyphosate. Monsanto’s “RoundUp Ready” crops are tolerant to their popular glyphosate based weedkiller, thereby allowing farmers to use the pesticide freely. Both Roundup and the seeds are sold as complementary goods, i.e. goods that go together. As a result, farmers can now spray massive amounts of the poison Roundup on the plants without killing them. On this basis, GMO has been touted by its promoters as the solution to global hunger. It is claimed that, with the ability to spray more pesticide, the yield of crops is now increased. Unfortunately, this is only short term yield. The massive spraying of RoundUp destroys the plant ecology. Besides killing earthworm and fungi that break down dead plant material into fertilisers, the chemicals also pollute the ground. This causes farmers to then become more dependent on chemical fertilisers in subsequent sowings.

In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), listed the glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup and Dow AgroSciences’s “Enlist Duo”  as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” i.e. it is probably cancer causing. With the ever increasing use of such pesticides, humans increase their risk of becoming more exposed to these probable cancer causing substances as they get more and more into our food chain.

To protect their control over seeds, GM seed developers also introduce measures to make plants infertile thereby ensuring that the farmer does not collect seeds, but instead returns to the company for more seeds. The barnase ribonuclease, which damage a cell’s RNA, has been widely introduced into the genome of plants to create male-sterile crops. In other words, barnase kills the pollen cells, thereby rendering the plant male-sterile. This has two effects. Firstly, together with the reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, farmers are now also unable to save their seeds from GM plants. They now become ever more dependent on GM seeds for future crop sowing. Opponents of GM in India, for instance, have associated GM agriculture to the suicides of hundreds of thousands of farmers as farmers become unable to afford the high cost of GM seeds.

The supporters of GMO claim that GM plants are nutritionally superior to naturally pollinating plants. For example, the yellow coloured “golden rice” has been promoted as the food source that can provide poor societies with much needed nutrients for treating vitamin A deficiency (VAD) because this rice contains beta-carotene, the latter being a source of vitamin A. In 2012, the results of a study, supported by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), on children between the age of six and eight in China were published in an American journal to support these claims. On discovering this, Greenpeace expressed alarm by calling this study a scandal for the tests were carried out on children without following proper procedures. A subsequent investigation by the Chinese government punished the Chinese collaborators of the study, the affected children were compensated, and a new set of rules for experimenting on humans was established. The golden rice claims still lay unproven. Bangladesh, on the contrary, has been successfully treating VAD, which was once considered their worst health problem, by simply introducing vitamin supplements and home gardening.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, with GMO is that no one really knows how these plant modifications will affect our health and environment in the long run. One gets the suspicion that GM seed companies are not very forthright in their manner of business, being concerned only in their market share and profits. The industry is dominated by a few very large companies, and these companies do not support the independent research of GMO. On the one hand, they claim that their seeds are so unique that they need to be patented. On the other hand, they fight tooth and nail against any GMO labelling, testing and regulation attempt by claiming that their seeds are similar to traditional seeds.

No one can say what will happen if seeds from GM crops get blown by the wind and “contaminate” our traditional varieties. The outcome could be catastrophic. With this risk in mind, policy makers need to create multiple seed banks to store our traditional seeds in case these crops get destroyed in the process. We, as citizens of the planet, also have an important role to play. We need to decide if we want GMO in our food supply, and if we don’t, we must support it with political and consumer actions.