GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, have been a hotly debated topic in media over the past few years. Dr. Peter Goldsbrough, a botany and plant pathology professor at Purdue, said humans have been eating modified organisms for many decades. Recent developments in scientific ability to engineer foods have caused many people to ask: is it safe? Goldsbrough answered questions about GMOs Thursday evening during an informative presentation at the Morgan County Administration Building.
“This is something I’ve been interested in for a very long time,” Goldsbrough said. “Most people don’t understand what a GMO is and I think it’s important to try and help explain.”
To begin his presentation, Goldsbrough showed a video in which many people on the street were asked whether they consumed GMOs. Many of them said no, they didn’t think they were healthy. When asked why, most people couldn’t answer, and many of them didn’t even know what GMO stood for.
“There’s a huge lack of knowledge and a lot of information out there about what a GMO is,” Goldsbrough said.
He went on to explain the meaning of “biotechnology,” which is the use of organisms or anything created by an organism that helps make or modify a product. Examples included making beer, wine and bread. Sewage, he added, was also an example of biotechnology because microorganisms break down the contents of the product.
“New methods have allowed genes to be isolated and modified and this led to many new biotech products,” Goldsbrough said.
He said he arrived at Purdue around the same time the first genetically modified plant was created in 1983.
“People quickly understood they could take DNA from any organism and move them into another plant,” Goldsbrough said.
Typically, this is done to improve a plant or change a single characteristic. He said some of these characteristics included herbicide resistance, insecticide resistance and disease resistance.
“Most of these genes come from bacteria,” Goldsbrough said. “Bacteria can do a whole range of strange and wonderful things.” He said many people are divided on the issue of GMOs and he’s heard the nickname “franken-foods.” However, he doesn’t think it is harmful, and he said he’s yet to see a study that indicates any danger.
“Genetic modification is something we’ve been doing for thousands of years,” Goldsbrough said. “Human selection and things we have done have determined important traits for a crop.” He said bacteria evolved the ability to change plants over a very long period of time, and instead of natural selection, it falls into the category of “artificial selection.” He referenced Darwin when he mentioned that random mutations can change the way foods have formed over the years, like carrots, corn and bananas.
Goldsbrough said many of the current GMO plants on the market are soybeans, corn and cotton. Summer squash and papaya can also be genetically modified to fight insects or disease. He said a farmer might be interested in a “transgenic” plant, or a plant engineered to have new characteristics, because they expect to see some benefit. They may see more crop, reduced production costs and simpler production practices.
So what’s the problem with GMOs?
Goldsbrough said plants can become resistant to herbicide, and just adding more to the crops is not a sustainable solution. He said many people are concerned about health and nutrition consequences from GMOs, but in his experience, this isn’t something to worry about.
“A large number of scientific and medical organizations have said there are no specific health risks from our current use of GMOs,” Goldsbrough said. “I have no concern about things on the market now. They’re not going to cause harm to anyone. We’ve been consuming them for over 20 years with no documented health effects.”
He said many organic companies will label things as “GMO free,” but this can be largely for marketing purposes, as no study he’s seen proves GMOs to be harmful.
“If you’re concerned about it, buy organic food,” Goldsbrough said. However, he believes there are far worse things to be worried about when consuming food, like microbes.
“Chipotle recently went GMO free, but recently they’ve had numerous microbial outbreaks. Microbial contamination is what will kill you,” Goldsbrough said. “E-coli, Salmonella, Listeria. These are the killers.”
He added that he wasn’t trying to attack Chipotle, and he loves eating there, but wants people to be aware of the real dangers in their food. He believes the recent debate about GMOs has a lot to do with the internet, which often escalates opinions and false facts.
“It’s a lightning rod for people with completely polar opinions,” Goldsbrough said. “Food is a subject that’s near and dear to our hearts. No one cares that they’re wearing GMO cotton, which we probably all are. But food is very different.”
He added that he thinks people fear large corporations controlling all food production.
“For some people, the idea of putting something genetically modified in their body scares them,” Goldsbrough said. “But everything you eat has been modified in some way.”
He said that without GMOs, it’s likely there would be a decrease in the amount of crops farmers were able to grow, and the amount of insecticide sprayed on plants would increase.
“If this is really a concern for you, you can eat organic,” Goldsbrough said. When asked if there was any evidence that organic food was safer, though, he said he didn’t think so. “I’m not aware of any studies that say people who eat organic food are healthier.”