There’s a Frankenstein in my Soup — Thoughts on Genetically Modified Food and the Paranoia Surrounding it

It all started during a lecture on food security a year and half ago. The class was a nice mix of students from development studies, food supply chain (like myself), agriculture economics, and some others. We were to discuss whether growing genetically modified crops would help improve the food security in Africa.

The debate was a well informed and active one (like it usually is for classes that give credits for participation). Monsanto, USAID, duping small farmers, and the EU’s blanket ban on GMOs were all discussed at great length. After a point, these seemed to be the only things mattered and we stopped discussing Africa and its food system completely. And then it happened. Out of the blue, I stood up and launched into a small, unplanned speech.

“You do realize that the US and the EU are not the only places in the world that have an opinion on the genetic modification of crops, right? India has been growing Bt cotton for a while without letting Monsanto turn farmers into scapegoats. It’s just a matter of separating church and state. The problem is not with GM, the problem is with greedy corporations trying to make money and equally greedy lobby groups trying to scare people into thinking there’s a Frankenstein in their soup.”

There was a round of applause. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the church and state analogy struck a chord with my mostly European, seemingly liberal classmates. Anyhoo, the positive reinforcement led me to develop an interest in GM food and I started reading up about the social acceptance surrounding it. All the literature I have read since then has only fortified my convinction about advanced plant breeding techniques being one of the few ways it would be possible to feed the ever increasing number of mouths. Of course, this opinion comes with a healthy dose of scepticism and I’m all for the “each case should be considered individually” approach.

That is not the point of this story though. What I am here for is to talk about the irrational, unscientific, and widespread fear of GM food. I’ve had friends from the university doing their post-grads point to an ugly looking veggie and cry out “GMO!!” (mind you, this is Europe where growing or importing GM food is prohibited). My standard answer to that is “if it was GM, it would be anything but ugly”. They usually ignore this and go on to pick the most wholesome looking vegetables from the lot. A vegetable that looks nothing like its ancestor because of decades of selective breeding. A vegetable that gives more than its ancestors could.

Genetic modification is carried out to develop species that require less pesticide, are enriched with certain nutrients, are resistant to disease, and other things that I don’t know about becasue I am not a biotechnologist or a plant breeder. But I do know that apples which don’t brown easy, rice enriched with beta carotene, and bananas that can survive tropical diseases better are not poster children for GMO food. Salmon that walks on two legs, tomatoes with elephant genes, and corn with spiky teeth are.

For years now, NGOs like Greenpeace have indulged in fear mongering resulting in legal bottlenecks for several potentially beneficial GMOs. Their reasons for opposing genetic modification are more dogmatic than data driven and seem to be based on the belief that “natural is better”. They do not, however, have answers to questions like “what is the definition of natural?”, “is natural going to feed the world?”, “is natural sustainable, given the limited resources at hand?”, “can the poor afford natural?”.

To sum up, I am going to quote Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, University of Cambridge.

“GM is a tool, and how we use it is up to us. It certainly does not have to be the monopoly of a few multinational corporations. We can and should have adequate regulations to ensure the safety of any new crop strain (GM or otherwise) to both ourselves and the environment, and it is up to us to decide what traits in any new plant are acceptable. People may be opposed to GM crops for a variety of reasons and ultimately consumers will decide what they want to eat. But the one in nine people in poor countries facing malnutrition or starvation do not enjoy that choice. The availability of cheap, healthy and nutritious food for them is a matter of life and death.”