0.14 Related issues in sustainable development and the environment  (Page 7/7)

Opponents claim that GM foods cause cancer. That was the claim made in a now discredited article in 2012 in publication Food and Chemical Toxicology. The article was retracted on November 28, 2013, and the claim labeled as false. No other study has found health risks in mammals from eating GM food. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that transgenic crops are as safe as unmodified ones. Mark Lynas “Some GMO Crops Are on the Same Side as Their Opponents”, MIT Technology Review, December 17, 2013.

Still, throughout Europe, genetically modified foods are called “frankenfoods,” after the famous monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel of the 19 ^th century several U.S. states have restricted GMO foods. In Africa owing to European examples many poor nations have refused to allow planting of genetically modified seeds and have even refused to allow import of shiploads of genetically modified grains, even when the grain is offered as foreign aid to the importing country. For example, Zambia, where starvation was widespread in 2002, refused donations of genetically modified corn in that year. People starved as a result.

There are actually two types of genetically modified foods. First, humans have been breeding crops since agricultural societies replaced hunter gatherers societies over 3,000 years ago. Breeding of corn, rice and other products, then and now, genetically alters them. So humans have been consuming one form of genetically modified food for several millennia, without arousing phobias.

The second type of genetically modified food dates back only a few decades, to the dawn of biotechnology For a cogent discussion of the benefits of genetically modified crops, see Nobel Laureate Marc Van Montagu,: The irrational fear of genetically modified food,” WSJ October 24, 2013. . Seeds are developed in laboratories to create crops that have such desired characteristics as resistance to drought, disease, insects, pesticides and herbicides, or to otherwise increase the productivity of harvests, as for example. Requiring less water for cultivation.

It is this second type of genetically modified food that has attracted virtually all the attention from opponents of genetically modified foods who view Genetically modified foods as unhealthy. But there is an absence of documented scientific evidence showing that genetically modified food causes cancer or any other diseases. In addition, there is a decades-long safety record in applying biotechnology to improve food crops. If so, the fear of genetically modified food can be labeled only as irrational and poorly founded, especially given that almost two-third of processed food products already on sale in grocery stores contain genetically modified ingredients.

This irrational fear has consequences both for nutritionals well as environmental degradation especially in poor tropical nations. Restrictions and prohibitions on planting genetically modified food have, by restricting supply, raised the cost of commercialization of the genetically modified foods. Higher prices for food grains – especially prevalent in the years 2007-2011, reduce accessibility of food to the poor, especially the poor in the poor nations.

In addition, restrictions on planting or consumption of genetically modified foods in Africa and elsewhere among emerging nations yield ecological damages. When genetically modified seeds displace traditional ones in say, Africa, several positive environmental consequences can emerge. Where fresh water is scarce, genetically modified crops can reduce the water intensity of crops. Genetically modified crops can help conserve precious soil endowments allowing no-tillage farming (planting crops without the need for deep furrows that cause topsoil loss). Genetically modified crops can materially reduce the need for insecticides and risks of contamination of groundwater and topsoils.

Where genetically modified foods have not been fully blocked, as in India, the consequences for economic development have been quite positive. There, insect resistance genetically modified cotton has allowed India, once an importer of cotton, to become an exporter. Elsewhere in India, insect resistant GM crops have reduced contaminants from insecticide spraying by more than 25%, and as much as 60% in other regions. Even in the face of evidence of the benefits of genetically modified crops to poor countries, opponents continue to incite irrational fears through bogus reports on their effects. Such as the discredited study that claimed that consumption of genetically modified crops cause cancer. Another example was the widespread rumor, propagated on the internet, that genetically modified cotton caused suicides among Indian farmers. This myth was totally discredited by a study in 2008 mounted by a consortium of 64 governmental organizations and NGO ^s .

It is clear that the irrational fears of genetically modified foods, which first arose in Europe and then spread to several African countries, has had serious negative implications both for nutrition and for the environment in poor nations.