Written By: Emily Osborne
If you’ve walked down the aisles of a grocery store recently, it’s likely that you’ve passed products with “non-GMO” written on the label. Maybe it’s played into your decision of whether or not to buy the product. Or maybe you’ve thought, “What’s that three letter acronym I keep seeing on my food!” Even if you fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, let’s break down what a GMO really is.
GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism, which The New Oxford American Dictionary defines as, “an organism containing genetic material that has been artificially altered so as to produce a desired characteristic.” So what’s the benefit? GMOs were originally developed as pesticide and herbicide resistant crops. It was envisioned that GMOs could solve world hunger by helping farmers improve their yields while reducing their costs.
Tomatoes were the first vegetables to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for genetic engineering and commercial production in 1994. Since then, Monsanto has become America’s largest GMO seed producer and is now responsible for 80-90% of the corn, cotton, canola, and soy crops grown in the U.S. Monsanto not only produces the resistant seeds, but also the pesticides that the crops are modified to resist. Some bugs and weeds have become immune to the GMO chemicals, which requires more use of pesticides rather than less. Monsanto professes to be a “Sustainable Agriculture Company,” although it has been attacked for monopolizing the agriculture industry and causing small farms to go bankrupt.
While there have been some immediate economic benefits for GMO companies, many scientists have raised environmental concerns regarding the crops. Research has exposed that fields of GMO crops lead to soil degradation and the pesticides that accompany them pose a threat to the ecosystem. There is ongoing debate over the health and safety issues involved in GMO production, which has not yet been thoroughly investigated.
Due to their widespread use, GMOs are now found in most processed foods, although most products containing GMOs are not labeled as such. The Non-GMO movement is urging government regulation for the labeling of GMO products to increase public awareness. While much remains unknown, it’s important to understand what goes into the food we consume and make the best consumer choices we can!