UGEC2210 Food and Hunger

What are genetically modified foods?

What is the difference between GM foods and conventional foods?
Which are GM Foods?
Do you feel safe to eat the GM strawberry?
Why GM foods?
Ethics of GM foods?
Benefits & potential risks of GM Foods?
Is GM Food labeling a must?
Will GM foods eliminate the world hunger?

Genetically Modified Technology:

Biotechnology
Is not a set of products
Is a set of technologies for
- creating new products
- improving existing products
- conducting basic research

Biotechnologies in Agriculture

GMOs can be defined as organisms in

which the genetic material (DNA) has
been altered in a way that does not
occur naturally.

A food product containing some

quantity of any genetically modified
organism (GMO) as an ingredient.
GM Foods are
Foods that contain an added gene sequence
Foods that have a deleted gene sequence
Foods that contain an added gene sequence and
have a deleted gene sequence
Animal products from animals fed GM foods

How is Genetic Modification Possible?

The components of DNA are the same in all organisms.
Sequences of these components can be moved from one
organism to another to achieve a desired trait.

How to add an insect-resistant gene to a corn?

Isolate
the gene

Extract
DNA

Recombination DNA
Marker gene

Clone into
vector

Put into
bacteria

Many =
bacteria

Many
constructs

Bt corn
Corn that contains a chemical normally found in a
bacterium (Bacillus Thuringiensis) that is toxic to
insects but not to humans.

Corn hybrid with

a Bt gene

Corn hybrid
susceptible to corn
borer

How are plants targeted?

Gene Gun
A gun is used to shoot small bits of metal
coated with the gene into the plant.
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Features of GM Crops
Insect resistance
Herbicide resistance
Disease resistance
Drought resistance
Cold tolerance
Salt tolerance
Increase shelf-life
Nutritionally enhanced foods

Herbicide Resistant
Roundup Ready Soybeans
Development of herbicide resistant crops allows the
elimination of surrounding weeds without harm to the crops

Virus Resistant Crops

Papaya infected with the
papaya ringspot virus

Virus resistance
gene introduced

The Freedom II squash has a

modified coat protein that confer
resistance to zucchini yellows
mosaic virus and watermelon
mosaic virus II.

Nutritionally Enhanced GM
Golden Rice
Rice that contains beta-carotene (Vitamin A), which is
not found in regular rice.
Over 250 million people worldwide are at risk from
permanent blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency.

Increase Yields

Crops can be modified to optimize

growth conditions:
improve nitrogen assimilation
increase oxygen absorption
efficient photosynthetic pathway
Transgenic plant
modified to have
increase yield

Unmodified
control plant

THE NEED FOR GM

TECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE
Over 1 billion people inaccessible to sufficient
food.
Increasing population
In addition to lack of food, deficiencies in micronutrients are widespread.

What are the differences between breeding

hybridization and GM technology?

Hybrid rice

Development of GM Foods
1st Generation
increasing crop yield

2nd Generation
improving food nutrition

3rd Generation
providing medicinal function

Edible Vaccines
There is hope to produce edible vaccines in tomato, potato,
banana, which are grown extensively throughout the
developing world.
Vol. 19, No. 3
Feb. 1, 1999

<<>>

,
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A Little Bit of History

First on the shelf

The first commercially available GM food approved by FDA appeared on
the market in 1994 in USA.
The Flavr Savr tomato was genetically modified to keep it firm for longer.

GM Crops Production Worldwide

In 2006, over 111.7 million hectares
grown in over 22 countries were
planted with GM crops.
Worldwide, 9 percent the global
primary crop production from
genetically modified crops in 2006.
As of 2011, there were approximately
160 million hectares worldwide
cultivated with the crops (James
2011).

Worldwide GM Crops by Trait

Main GM Crops Worldwide

Herbicide- and insect-resistant soybean, maize, cotton, and canola.
64% of total soybean crop and 24% of the global maize crop in 2006

2006

Data: Clive James 2006

The United Sates shares the largest portion

GM Crops in the U.S.

75% of the cotton crop
71 kinds of plants and
micro-organisms until 2005

rice

sugarbeet

squash

tomato
papaya

potato

GM Crops in China

Non-Bt cotton

Bt cotton

GM Cotton plants have been commercialized since 1997.

Bt cotton areas in China,

1996-2003 (thousand hectares)

More than 5 million farmers adopted Bt cotton in 2003

Cotton yield (ton/ha): Bt vs non-Bt cotton

Major findings on Bt cotton impacts

in 1999-2001 (per hectare)

Reduce pesticide use:

Increase yield:
Increase seed cost:
Reduce labor input:

Increase net income:

34 kg
9.6%

923 yuan
930 yuan
570 yuan

41days

574 yuan

1283-1857 yuan
(US$ 155-225)

A net increase of about 30%

Bt rice pre-production in 2002

20025861
18

3m

Bt Rice in China
Higher crop yields
Yields of Bt rice was 9 times greater than non-Bt rice

Reduced use of pesticides

Bt rice: pesticides applied less than once per season
Non-Bt rice: pesticides applied 3.7 times per season
Quantity of pesticides applied to non-Bt rice was 8-10
times as high as that applied to Bt rice

Common GM Foods

Genetically Modified Foods

Prospects
Increased production efficiency
Labour savings

Increased production function

Improved crop quality and yield
Improved nutritional value
Improved flavour and taste
Elimination of allergy-causing properties

Genetically Modified Foods

Prospects
Reduction of wastage and cost
Reduced maturation time
More efficient processing
Expiry date
Mar 05

Environment friendly
Reduced use of pesticides and herbicides
Conservation of soil, water, and energy
Reduced strain on nonrenewable resources

Expiry date
Jan 05

Genetically Modified Foods

Prospects
Easing of world hunger
Production in more marginal
environments
Increased nutrition and yields
Increased food security

Improving pure research

More understanding of life processes

Potential Benefits
Insect resistance
Herbicide
resistance
Cold tolerance

Improved
farming

Drought
tolerance

Increased nutrition
Edible vaccines

Cheaper
food
More food

Reducing
world
hunger
and
improving
world
health

Controversies
Potential human health risks
Harmless protein in one organism can be harmful in another organism.
Potentially introduce or create allergens
Compromise human immunity
Unknown health risks
Biological processes involve a lot of INTERACTIONS
It is often difficult to identify every possible interaction.

Potential environmental hazards

Gene transfer to non-target species
resulting in "superweeds and superbugs

Unknown effects on other organisms

Loss of biodiversity

Potential Environmental Hazards

BT corn on Monarch Butterfly

Harm to other organisms

Pollen from Bt corn was shown to
cause high mortality rates in
monarch butterfly larvae.

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Controversies
Access and intellectual property
Domination of GM food production by a few companies
Sterile seeds
GM seeds are patented
Chemical company Monsanto dominates the 70%-100% market share for
various seeds of GM crops
Other companies: Pioneer, Syngenta and Bayer

Increasing dependence on Industrialized nations by developing

countries

Society
New advances may be skewed to interests of rich countries
Elimination of competition

Why not more GE Crops in Africa??

Controversies
Ethics
Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values
Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species
Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa
Concerns: Playing God ; Man-made evolution

Ethically Sensitive Genes

The committee on the Ethics of Genetic Modification and
Food Use identified three areas of potential ethical
concern:
1.

The transfer of human genes to animals used as food

2.

The transfer of genes from animals whose flesh is forbidden to

certain religious groups to animals that are permitted as food

3.

The transfer of animal genes to crop plants, which might then

become unacceptable to vegetarians.

Labeling GM Foods
Regulatory systems
To provide consumers correct information on GM crops
To ensure Right-to-Know and Right-to-Choose

Critics of GM Food Labeling

Providing GM information is costly.
Maintaining identity preservation is logistically difficult.
It is unclear that consumers would use the labels.
Labels would be interpreted as Warnings.

Advocators of GM Food Labeling

Not substantially equivalent to non-GM
Labeling indicates process used
Consumers right to know and choose
Countrys right to know and choose
Must use precautionary principle

Views from WHO and FAO

The use of modern biotechnology does not result in food
which is inherently less safe than that produced by
conventional techniques.
In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as
a result of the consumption of such foods by the general
population in the countries where they have been approved.

No adverse effects?
Ms. Nina Fedroff:
Adviser to the US Secretary of State

Despite dire predictions, no adverse effects of

GM crops on health, biodiversity and the
environment have been documented to date.
Phnom Penh Post, 24/12/2008

Canada and United Sates

Substantially Equivalent
GM foods should be treated the same as all other foods
GM crops are no different from those breed traditionally
Exception on
Introduction of know allergen
Change in nutrients or composition
Change in identity
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA))

EU Countries
All products containing GM foods have to be labeled since
1998.
Conventional foods with adventitious presence of GM
materials of higher than 0.9% should be labeled.

Japan
From April 2001, 5 designated agricultural products and 24
processed food items containing GM materials should be
labeled at 5% level.
In January 2003, 6 more designated processed food items
are required to be labeled.
Labeling is not required for oil and sauce, where the
original GM materials can no longer be detected.

Republic of Korea
GM corn, soybean and bean sprout which contain
more than 3% GM materials have to be labeled
from March 2001.
GM potato which contains more than 3% of GM
materials were also required to be labeled from
March 2002.

Situation in Hong Kong

Issues to be considered in setting up a labeling
system
Cost implications to the food trade
Limitation of detection methods
no standard analytical method
Not all GM foods can be identified by end-product analysis.

Practices of the food supply

International practices

HKs GM Food Labeling Regulation?

Pre-reading material:
Environmental Resources Management (2003), Regulator Impact Assessment
on Labeling of GM Food, HK: Food and Environmental Hygiene Department