Controversy about GM Foods

The development of genetically modified food products has created a certain amount of controversy in the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the world. The level of controversy, however, differs substantially. According to a poll published by the Pew Research Center in late 2003, for example, about a third of all

This farmer is growing a genetically modified form of barley. (Chris Knapton/Photo Researchers, Inc.)

Americans said that they know "a great deal" or "some" information about GM foods, a 10 percent decline from a 2001 poll on the same subject. Opposition to the introduction of GM foods into the American food supply also dropped during the same period, from 58 percent in 2001 to 48 percent in 2003. However, that opposition tends to be strong among a certain minority of the population, with a slight decrease from 35 percent in 2001 to 31 percent in

2003.

A similar Pew study conducted in 2003 of attitudes about GM foods in seven nations (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States) found strikingly different—and more negative—results. Nearly 9 out of 10 of those interviewed in France, for example, say that genetically altered fruits and vegetables are "bad." Comparable results for the other six nations are shown in the chart on page 115.

Critics have a range of objections to the genetically modified foods. The fundamental problem posed by these objections, however, is the variety of GM products now available: A host of GM products have

< ATTITUDES ABOUT GENETICALLY ALTERED
FOODS IN SEVEN NATIONS, 2003 V
NATION	OPINION REGARDING SCIENTIFICALLY ALTERED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
NO
GOOD (%)	BAD (%)	OPINION (%)
United States	37	55	8
Canada	31	63	6
Great Britain	27	65	8
Japan	20	76	4
Italy	17	74	9
Germany	17	81	2
France	10	89	1
Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Broad Opposition to
Genetically Modified Foods."

been developed with a wide range of characteristics. It is difficult to generalize about the threats posed by GM foods when there are so many of them and they are so different from each other. It is not possible to say that all genetically altered foods are inherently harmful to the environment or to human health in some way or another. In fact, it is very difficult to pinpoint specific examples of ways in which any specific GM food is a risk to either human health or the environment. There are simply no scientific studies that support such concerns about any GM agricultural product currently available to farmers or consumers.

Some critics of GM foods have a more general concern about altering natural products. They feel there is something inherently wrong with efforts to change the composition of natural foods by recombi-nant DNA or other "artificial" procedures, even if it cannot be demonstrated scientifically. The occurrence of food-borne diseases unrelated to genetic engineering of foods has heightened such concerns. The outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (more commonly known as BSE or mad cow disease) in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s engendered a generalized concern about food safety in the European Union for well over a decade. People who may never have thought very seriously about food safety before the BSE episode began to think more carefully about how their foods were being grown and raised and what steps should be taken to increase food safety for the general public. In this regard, it is hardly surprising that Europeans, who were most at risk during the BSE epidemic, are relatively more suspicious of the possible risks posed by GM foods.

In spite of the uncertainties surrounding GM foods, observers have raised some legitimate scientific concerns about the risks they may pose to human health or the environment. Human health risks of GM foods relate to allergens, toxins, and inadvertent gene transfer to people. Possible environmental risks are that stray genes will form "superseeds," that insect pests will develop resistance to modified plants, and that modified plants will harm unintended species.