Frankenfoods vs. Organics

Genetically Modified Foods: Boon or Boondoggle?
U.S. regulators say they're safe, but critics aren't convinced
By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- When you bite into an apple, you pretty much know what you're getting. The same can't be said for many packaged foods, which often contain ingredients that have been "genetically modified."

Corn and soybeans, along with cotton and canola, are among the most common genetically modified (GM) crops in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an estimated 61 percent of the corn and 89 percent of the soybeans planted in 2006 were biotech varieties.

While the bulk of GM crops are destined to become animal feed, some of the bounty ends up in kitchens, restaurants and vending machines.

"Most of the processed foods that we eat -- cookies, chips, sodas, crackers -- all of those will contain some ingredients that are derived from corn or soybeans," said Michael Fernandez, executive director of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a nonpartisan source of information on agricultural biotechnology.

It's estimated, he added, that as much as 70 percent of processed foods contain an ingredient that has been genetically engineered. These ingredients include corn syrup, soy protein, canola oil, cottonseed oil and lecithin, a food additive derived from soy.

Genetically modified crops, first introduced for commercial production in 1996, take advantage of modern biotechnology. Scientists can select a desirable gene from one living organism and splice it into another. The gene for Bacillus thuringiensis, a toxin commonly used as an insecticide, for example, can be inserted into a plant to increase its resistance to diseases caused by insects. Other genetic modifications can boost a crop's resistance to a particular virus, say, or herbicide.

"They're now putting human genes into rice, for example, trying to produce pharmaceutical drugs," said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, an advocacy group of organic consumers and businesses. "They have put petunia genes into soybeans to make them [resist] a powerful herbicide," he added.

But could these combinations, which never occur spontaneously in nature, pose a threat to human health? See: Frankenfoods vs. organics