What is a GMO?

By: Madelyn Ostendorf

From food science to agronomy to economics, researchers, professors and concumers have taken an interest in genetically modified organisms. In grocery stores, aisles are peppered with “GMO-free” labels, and consumers may or may not be aware of what that means. What even is a GMO? First, it’s important to note that though many crops in the United States are GMOs, most of those crops are used for animal feed. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the following foods and their byproducts are classified as GMOs:

• Corn • Soybean • Cotton • Potato • Papaya • Summer Squash • Alfalfa • Apple • Sugar Beet

Each of the above plants has been genetically modified for a very specific reason, and generally for the health of the plant. Many of the crops are now naturally resistant to insects and need fewer pesticide treatments, causing less damage to the environment and decreasing pesticide resistance in insects. Some crops are modified to combat crop-specific viruses that would have destroyed them, like the papaya, according to the FDA. Genetic modification saved the papaya industry on Hawai’i that would have been otherwise wiped out by the ringspot virus in the 1990s, according to Cornell University.

Most often, people are attracted to these labels of “GMO-free” because if a product is boasting that it doesn’t have something, that thing must be somehow bad, right? GianCarlo Moschini, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor and professor of economics at Iowa State University, published an article debating the positives and negatives of putting into place mandatory labeling of GMOs in food. In his opinion, if labels are required, consumers may see them as more of warning labels than ingredient indicators, stating, “If [consumers] are accustomed to seeing mandatory disclosures only when their need is unquestionable (e.g., tobacco packaging warning messages), consumers may rationally infer that if a GMO label is required it must be because these products are objectively risky.” Still, consumers are likely curious as to what exactly a GMO is. As defined by the FDA, a GMO “has had its DNA changed using technology that generally involves the specific modification of DNA, including the transfer of specific DNA from one organism to another.” This kind of DNA sharing also occurs in nature, but through a process called natural hybridization. Rather than a lab splicing DNA together, two species cross-pollinate and create a new species that share the traits of both original species. Stores often don’t label them as natural hybridization, usually because we either aren’t aware that they are hybrids or because they are considered more natural than the lab-created GMOs. Examples of natural hybridization include “Better Boy” tomatoes, sweet corn and many species of cactus. According to the FDA, over 24 countries grow and produce GMOs. Though approval processes for the crops differentiate by country, they all have the same core value: GMOs should be safe for human and animal health and the environment. All the GMO crops produced in the United States have GMO-free versions available, and consumers are well within their right to pick whatever they wish to buy. But the next time you walk down the aisle of a grocery store and see that GMO-free label, remember what goes into a GMO and make your own informed choice.