gmos

Genetically engineered organisms are the product of a laboratory process in which genes are extracted from the DNA of a single species and then synthetically inserted into the genes of unrelated animals or plants. The alien genes could come from humans, plants, pigs, viruses, or bacteria. According to the World Health Organisation, genetically modified foods first appeared on the market in the mid-1990s with herbicide-resistant soybeans. The paper, therefore, investigates the intention of the genetic engineering of crop plants and domestic animals, the creation of GMOs, whether such foods are safe for human consumption, and the regulations that are in place for the GMO foods.

The Purpose of Genetic Engineering

The scientists do carry out the genetic engineering of crop plants and domestic animals for many reasons. First and foremost, the primary purpose of the genetic modification is to come up with the crop durability and to solve the problem of food insecurity. The scientists always develop the genetically modified plants through the introduction of the genes that are capable of killing the insects or weeds that might hamper their growth or even protect the plants from the harmful viruses thus prolonging their durability. Generally, some genetically modified plants demand less water thus facilitating their growth in parts of the globe where water is scarce or during the drought periods. When farmers lose fewer crops to the pests, famine, diseases, or even weeds, there is always an abundance of food for the market sales and hence able to keep up with the demand of the ever-escalating global populace (Mortensen, 2017).

Another intention of the genetic engineering is for the economic and environmental benefits as they usually grow and multiply at a faster rate. For instance, the GM crops often take shorter duration to mature and ripen therefore giving the farmers a chance to cultivate more plants all over the year, augmenting their income whereas keeping the prices moderate for the public. According to the PLOS Biology article published in June 2014, there could be the engineering of the plants to manufacture further their nitrogen thus demanding fewer stimulants thereby reducing the expenses and the harm caused to the soil through the use of fertilizer.

The Creation of the GMOs

The first stage in making a GMO is by constructing a plasmid that carries the gene that one need to introduce to the organism. The plasmids are tiny, circular DNA strands found within the bacterial cells and are capable of self-duplication. There is then the isolation and treatment of the plasmids with the restriction enzyme thereby cutting the DNA’s circular threads at known spots. The new genes are subsequently appended to the cut plasmids together with the ligation enzymes thus closing the ends of the plasmids and reforming the DNA circle. While creating the plasmids, they should also contain the marker gene to enable the identification and selection of the cells that have productively acquired the newly assembled plasmids, and the standard markers are the antibiotic resistance genes as per the ASU’s School of Life Sciences. After the introduction of the plasmids into the organism one wishes to modify through a process known as transformation, they are then nurtured in a medium that has antibiotic. The cells that don’t contain the plasmid will not survive but die, allowing for the isolation of the plasmid containing ones (Wolfe, 2017).

The Safety of the GMO Foods

Roughly 70% of the foodstuffs in the supermarket do have the genetically modified elements. The soy products such as soy flour, soy protein concentrate, and isolates, the corn products such as corn oil and the sugar beets among others are examples of products that contain GMO. The majority of critics claim that the DNA within the genetically modified products is harmful to human consumption. However, the DNA has always been part of the human diet, and its digestion happens in the stomach along with other foodstuffs and has no trace of poison. That was according to Alison Van Eenennaam, the Ph.D., cooperative extension specialist in animal genomics and biotechnology at the University of California, Davis (Siegel & Verity, 2017). Also, a group of scientists carried out an broad assessment of research on the security of the GMO foods in the past ten years and found no significant harm as regards the genetic engineering. All the previous information verifies that the genetically modified foods cannot hurt people and the worst can only be mild allergies.

The Regulations for the GMO Foods

The FDA control the safety of food for the animals and humans, and that is inclusive of foodstuffs generated from the genetic modification. According to FDA, it is always illegal to produce, process, accumulate, distribute or sell to the people unhealthy foods. There is also the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that reviews whether the foodstuffs taken into the market contain the introduced pesticide material. Another existing rule for the genetically engineered food is the premarket notification proposal from the FDA that demands the developers to present a systematic and dogmatic evaluation of the GMO foods 120 days before their marketing (FDA, 2017).

References

FDA. (2017, October 17). Food from Genetically Engineered Plants. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GEPlants/default.htm

Mortensen, K. (2017, September 25). What Is the Purpose of GMOs? Retrieved from https://healthfully.com/purpose-gmos-6633930.html

Siegel, K., & Verity, S. (2017). GMOs: Food for Thought. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-gmos#7

Wolfe, M. (2017, April 24). How Are GMOs Made? Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/gmos-made-6453138.html