In 2014, a national audit in South Korea raised concerns about the safety and distribution of GMO foods. However, the negative effects of GMO foods have not yet been scientifically proven, and the need for GMO foods to solve the food shortage is emphasized.
On October 7, 2014, a national audit by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety pointed out that it is difficult for consumers to get accurate information about domestic soy sauce, cooking oil, and starchy sugars that contain GMO ingredients. The rationale was that long-term consumption of GMO foods can have various effects on the body, such as weakening the immune system and triggering allergies, and that consumers should get accurate information before purchasing food. But what are we talking about here, and do GMO foods have negative effects on the human body, as claimed in the report? And if these claims are true, why are we selling foods that contain GMO ingredients?
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism that has had some of its genes modified for a specific purpose by combining useful genes from one organism with another using recombinant DNA technology. Foods made from these organisms are called genetically modified organisms (GMO foods). A large proportion of GMO foods are agricultural products, most commonly soybeans, corn, and cotton, but more recently sugar beets, potatoes, wheat, melons, tomatoes, and squash have been developed. These GMO foods are grown and distributed in Europe, Southeast Asia including Vietnam, the United States, and many African countries. There are opposing views that the distribution and consumption of these GMO foods may have negative consequences, such as disrupting ecosystems or causing genetic mutations in the organisms that consume them. However, these claims are still hypothetical, and we believe that GMO foods should be allowed to be consumed for the following reasons.
First of all, it has not been scientifically proven that eating GMO foods has any adverse effects on humans. The allergic reactions, weakened immunity, and cancer that opponents of GMO foods claim have not been shown to be caused solely by eating GMO foods. In fact, it has been about a decade since humans first consumed GMO foods, and there has been no evidence of any adverse health effects. Furthermore, the claim that GMO foods have adverse effects on humans is further discredited by the fact that animals that were fed GMO feed around the world before they were consumed by humans have also not shown any abnormalities. More recently, studies have been published explaining that the genetic modification used to create GMO foods does not harm humans who consume them. The “10-year study of EU-funded biotech crops” published in 2010 concluded that GMO foods are safe and should be allowed to be distributed and consumed to solve future food problems.
In order to prove that GMO foods can have a negative effect on humans, the scientific method requires that a hypothesis be developed to explain the phenomenon, and that experiments be repeated under that hypothesis to obtain the same results. In other words, to prove that eating GMO foods causes changes in the body, we need to control for all other variables. Of course, there are practical difficulties in conducting long-term experiments in which humans are fed only GMO foods. Even with these difficulties, the claim that eating GMO foods affects the human body is still only a hypothesis, so I think it’s overstated to argue against eating GMO foods altogether.
Next, we believe that GMO foods are necessary to solve the global food crisis. With the steady growth of the world’s population in recent years, with a projected global population of 9 billion by 2050, the issue of depleting the world’s food resources has become a major concern. Therefore, there is a natural interest in whether there are enough food resources to feed all human beings in line with the rapid growth of the world’s population. However, as the world’s climate is warming due to extreme weather events such as global warming, we are increasingly moving away from warmer climates where crops can be grown. Warmer temperatures are also melting polar ice caps and raising sea levels, reducing the amount of arable land available for farming. Unchecked industrial development is also causing much of the land to become deserted, making arable land significantly less available, which is also affecting the habitat of fisheries resources, reducing their supply. Ultimately, the world’s population is growing and there is less food production to feed it, which means that food shortages are bound to occur. With the continued use of fossil fuels accelerating global warming, and industrial development becoming more unchecked, food shortages are likely to become a reality in the near future.
The scientific community sees the continued development of GMO foods as the only viable alternative to solving the food shortage. Developing food resources with enhanced productivity through genetic recombination technology, or developing them to be more immune so that they can produce more, could be the most direct solution to solving this food problem. In fact, many countries allow the distribution of GMO foods, and in recent years, several countries in Africa and the Middle East have increased the amount of arable land under genetically engineered crops, especially in Africa, where large areas of desertification have made arable land scarce. Genetically modified corn, cotton, soybeans, and other GMO foods that have been adapted for production in the region have been distributed to help address the endemic food shortages. The argument against this is that monopolization of GMO food production by certain companies could accelerate food shortages, but this can be addressed by government regulation to prevent monopolization. For example, we can consider publicizing or forcing competition among GMO food producers, and we can address patents on GMO foods by establishing a system of financially-financed right to practice, just as patent law has a system of financially-financed right to practice for pharmaceuticals.
Finally, GMO foods developed through genetic manipulation processes such as transformation, transgenesis, splicing, and cell fusion will have positive effects in many ways. Genetic manipulation can result in organisms with enhanced functions. For example, salmon with faster growth, corn with herbicide resistance, or produce with greater resistance to disease. A classic example of a GMO food is the rainbow papaya. In order to make conventional papaya resistant to the ringspot virus, which is spread by aphids, a portion of the virus’s genes were injected into the papaya tree like a vaccine. The result is a genetically modified papaya that is immune to the virus. Although there was no significant difference in taste when compared to conventional papaya, the immunity to the virus resulted in it replacing the conventional product. As this example shows, advances in genetic engineering have made it possible to modify productivity, immunity, composition, and more to suit human needs. Genetically modified crops with immunity can help farmers increase productivity, which in turn will increase the supply of crops and lower prices. Consumers will also benefit, as many people will be able to purchase food at a lower price. In addition, while the agricultural and marine products that can be obtained are limited by the environment of the region where crops are grown or fish are caught, if genetic recombination technology allows plants that cannot grow in the region to grow, it will be possible to obtain a variety of agricultural and marine products from each region without the need for export and import, resulting in economic effects such as lower food costs. Furthermore, if genes can be manipulated through genetic recombination to make them more palatable, we will be able to enjoy a wider variety of flavors.
Advances in genetic engineering have enabled us to eat GMO foods that have been enhanced with desired features, such as vegetables with more vitamins and crops that are more resistant to pests, which are of great benefit to many people. With ongoing research in this area, the concerns of those who oppose the distribution and consumption of GMO foods are not far off. The world’s population is growing rapidly, having already surpassed 7 billion in 2013 and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. This means that we will need food resources to feed two billion more people in the next 30 years. However, due to reckless land development and global warming, the area of arable land available for growing crops is shrinking rapidly. Not only are crops shrinking, but so are the environments in which fish stocks can thrive, making food scarcity a growing problem in more ways than one. The global food crisis we’ve only seen in textbooks may become a reality in the near future. GMO foods are one of the most direct solutions to this shortage. While we shouldn’t be unconditionally opposed to GMO foods, if we are interested in them and continue to research them, the current concerns about the effects of GMO foods on the human body will disappear, and we will be able to solve the problem of food resource shortage in the future.
