GM Foods
Feeding the World
Various Applications of GM Crops
Biofortification
Deficiencies in micronutrients such as zinc, iron and vitamin A (VA) can cause profound and irreparable damage to the body. Blindness, growth stunting, mental retardation, learning disabilities, low work capacity, and premature death are also the effects of VA deficiency! Deficiencies in micronutrients is commonly called “hidden hunger”. People in impoverished countries typically suffer from from micronutrient deficiencies not because they don’t have enough food to eat, but because their food is not as nutritious as it needs to be. The genetic modification of staple food crops such as rice, corn, beans, etc. can increase the amount of micronutrients contained in the crop and subsequently make the crop more nutritious. This process is known as biofortification and has the potential to improve the diets of millions of people. Biofortification could potentially cure hidden hunger and all of its effects on hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries.
GM foods such as the Orange fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) have shows promise as they are engineered to be more micronutrient rich. OFSP, when coupled with community nutritional education, provides high levels of vitamin A to vulnerable populations, especially women and young children. One small boiled root of most OFSP varieties provides 100% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A for children and one medium root provides all of the needs for most women of reproductive age. The International Potato Center (CIP) is working to bring the nutritional benefits of OFSP to nearly 2 million households in countries across sub-Saharan Africa affected by vitamin A deficiency.
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Potential to Lessen Pesticide Use
The main reason farmers use pesticides is to protect their crops and yields from insects. The World Health Organization reports 220,000 people die every year worldwide because of pesticide poisoning. Although most pesticides (80%) are used in the rich countries, most of the poisonings are in poor countries. This is because safety standards are poor, there may be no protective clothing or washing facilities, insufficient enforcement, or poor labeling of pesticides.
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Timeline of the introduction of Bt corn into cornfields and the concurrent reduction of insecticide usage in these fields. The two quantities are strongly anti-correlated, suggesting that this Bt crop has made synthetic insecticides unnecessary
Luckily, crops can be genetically modified so that they themselves can be resistant to some forms of insects. For example, some crops such as corn, cotton, and soybeans have been genetically engineered to express the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene which is naturally occurring in bacteria in the soil. Bt produces proteins specifically active against certain insects. As shown in the figure below, the two quantities of percent hectare Bt corn and Insecticide use are strongly anti-correlated, suggesting that this Bt crop has made synthetic insecticides unnecessary. GM crops have the potential to eliminate the need for pesticides all together which could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths globally.
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Giving Crops Resistance to Viruses
The lush Tropical Islands of the Hawaiian chain are an ideal place to grow fruit. Papaya is the second most important Hawaiian fruit crop (pineapples are the first). In spite of ideal growing conditions, plant diseases are also present. Papaya ringspot virus was first detected in the 1940s and began affecting crop yields by the 1950s. By the late 1990s, papaya ringspot virus had affected every papaya producing region, resulting in production dropping by over 50% between 1993 and 2006.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture began funding research into a genetically modified variety of papaya that would be resistant to the ringspot virus in 1985. By 1992, field trials had began to gather data about how successful the GM papaya would be in resisting the ringspot virus. The success of field trials led to the 1995 submission for regulatory approval to commercially produce GM papaya. Within two years of production approval, GM papaya accounted for over half of all the papaya production. Ten years later, GM papaya accounted for over 90% of papaya production.
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