Over the years, humans have transformed all sorts of foods and evolved many new varieties. For example, corn used to be only 19 millimeters long, taste like dry potato and was found only in Central America.
Now, it is 190 millimeters long, has a juicy taste to it, and is grown in 69 countries.
Watermelons’ diameters were about 50 millimeters, tasted bitter and were found only in Namibia and Botswana (in Africa). Now, they are bigger than a foot in diameter, really sweet, and grown in 15 countries.
Peaches were 25 millimeters in height, tasted “earthy” and a little bit “salty” and were found in China. Now, peaches are 100 millimeters in height, sweet and juicy and grown in 13 countries.
This has been because humans have used selective breeding to make their
foods better.
Selective breeding is when humans saved the seeds of the “better” foods. For example, let’s say farmers in the scenario grew a bunch of watermelons. There might’ve been a few watermelons juicier than the rest, maybe because of a mutation. The farmers would then make sure to save the seeds of the juicier watermelons and plant those specific ones. Then, the offspring would consist of watermelons that are juicier and the generations would continue with the farmers handpicking what traits they like and then planting mostly those traits.
A more advanced way to change the traits of foods is through genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is used in a vast area of studies: bacteria are engineered for medications, mouse models are engineered for biomedicine and foods are engineered for agriculture. Step 1 to genetically modify something: Identify the desired trait. Step 2: Isolate the genetic trait. Step 3: Insert the trait into the genome. The genome is the complete set of DNA of an organism (DNA contains information on how to build the organism). Step 4: Grow the GMO (genetically modified organism). Have the new organism reproduce so that the desired traits will be passed down and can be used.
There has been much controversy over whether GMOs are safe to eat due to the fact that different genomes react to traits being inserted in them. David Zilberman of UC Berkley is an accomplished agricultural and environmental economist. He has great credibility both in the agricultural and chemical fields. He argues that the benefits of GMOs outweigh the risks. The use of GM crops has caused prices of foods to decrease. Less pesticide is needed because of GMOs. And, it has increased the number of crops that can be produced, which leads to more people surviving because more people can eat.
Genetically modified plants can be seen through the lenses of evolution. Engineering (or sequencing) of genes is carefully done and rigorously tested at each stage to make sure further good is done. Scientists and researchers across the globe collaborate to continuously evolve organisms. The goals are abundance, nutrition, richness and improved taste. GMOs have helped countries fight hunger and make more food available to eat. This helps more varieties of food to be available, and hence, it increases the diversity and richness of organisms. By applying the correct design principles, medicinal values can be induced in a specific variety.
The people arguing against the GMOs say that the mutating genes within the food can interfere with the human body. There is no concrete evidence of this. A lot of the research shows GMOs aren’t harmful but as medical researchers know, nothing can be 100% safe. Because GM technology is so precise, it is argued that every single gene can be monitored and hence “surprises” can be taken out. This is also compared to how viruses insert their DNA into organisms which helps explain why humans have a few traits that are of nonhuman origin and actually originate in viruses.
Would eating plants that had altered genes change our own if we were to eat them? The likelihood of that happening is very low. The US Food and Drug Administration has concluded that GM crops are not bad for people’s health.
All in all, technology that genetically modifies crops seems to have pretty good benefits.
Vaageesha Das is a sophomore at Morgantown High School. Today’s information comes from: Freedman, D. H. (2013, September 1). The Truth about Genetically Modified Food. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-truth-about-genetically-modified-food/; Fraser, A., Lundblad, L., Boi, S., Brenterella, V., Larson, B., Rico, C. T. muy, … Bio, H. F. (2015, August 11). How to Make a GMO. Retrieved from http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/how-to-make-a-gmo/; Plumer, B. (2014, October 15). Here’s what 9,000 years of breeding has done to corn, peaches, and other crops. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2014/10/15/6982053/selective-breeding-farming-evolution-corn-watermelon-peaches; What is a genome? – Genetics Home Reference – NIH. (2020, May 26). Retrieved from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/hgp/genome
