Gentically Modified Foods

GM Foods and World Hunger

The world population is over 6 billion and is expected to double in the next 50 years. To ensure an adequate and reliable source of food for this amount of people is going to be a challenge. The argument that hunger is a complex socioeconomic phenomenon, tied to lack of resources to grow or buy food, is correct. Equally correct is the argument that existing food supplies could adequately feed the world population. But how food and other resources are distributed among individuals, regions, or the various nations is determined by the complex interaction of market forces and institutions around the world. Unless our civic societies can come up quickly with an economic system that allocates resources more equitably and more efficiently than the present one, 50 years from now we will be faced with an even greater challenge. Calorie for calorie there will not be enough food to feed the projected population of about 12 billion. With the purchasing power and wealth concentrated in the developed countries, and over 90 percent of the projected population growth likely to occur in developing and emerging economies, it is not difficult to predict where food shortages will occur. Unless we are ready to accept starvation there really is only one good alternative: discover ways to increase food production from existing resources. Bottom line is that may want to argue against Western-style capitalism and market institutions if they so choose to--but their argument is hardly relevant to the issue of biotechnology.

Moral and Ethical Dimensions of Scientific Literacy

SPRING 2004 VOL. 13, NO. 1

Troy D. Sadler

Why use Genetic Engineering?

From the standpoint of the Food and Drug Administration, the important thing for consumers to know about these new foods is that they will be every bit as safe as the foods now on store shelves. All foods, whether traditionally bred or genetically engineered, must meet the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Proponents of genetic engineering claim many potential benefits of this new technology. Current medical applications include genetically engineered human insulin, human growth hormone, gene probes to detect genetic diseases, Hepatitis B vaccine, monoclonal antibodies to diagnose infections, and tissue plasminogen activator to dissolve blood clots. Some of the more controversial applications of genetic engineering are in the area of food production. The promised benefits of genetically engineered food production include:

* Reduced use of pesticides

* Reduced use of herbicides

* Reduced use of fertilizers

* Enhanced nutrition

* Drought resistance

* Better appearance

* Longer shelf-life

* Better flavor

* Temperature resistance

* Disease resistance

* Increase in food supply. Decrease in world hunger.

To let both the public and companies know how these new foods would be regulated, FDA published a detailed statement explaining how foods derived from new plant varieties such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and their byproducts, and vegetable oil will be regulated under the act. The statement contains a thorough scientific discussion, complete with carefully designed flow charts, to help plant developers ensure food safety in genetically engineered products.

Genetically Modified Organisms

http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/gmo.html

A Publication of the Institute of Food Technologists

December 1999

GM hens could fight disease

Scientists have created the first ever genetically modified hen which is capable of laying eggs that could be used to fight cancer and other diseases. By adding human genes to the chicken's DNA, the team has created a transgenic bird that lays eggs containing medicinal proteins in the whites of the egg. They created a number of different poultry lines, with each one producing different antibodies and proteins that could fight multiple sclerosis, cancer or arthritis. The long-term vision is to have poultry units set up specifically to house transgenic hens laying eggs carrying therapeutic proteins. It is likely that the hens would be housed under specific pathogen free conditions so they would be more sophisticated than standard units. The main benefit of this transgenic scientific development is that the flocks would allow the mass production of drugs at a fraction of the current cost. This is an intriguing development and anything that has the potential to cut drug costs will be welcome in the current financial climate. The challenge for researchers will to realize this potential and turning this work into proper treatments that can be used in humans.

GM hens' medicinal eggs aid cancer fight

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1990566,00.html