Are we making a meal of GM foods?

Twenty years ago, there was widespread anxiety about genetically modified (GM) foods. Newspapers referred to them as ‘Frankenfoods’ and consumers were suspicious of them, in part because of a vociferous campaign against them by some environmentalists. This campaign continues, most notably in the case of ‘golden rice’.

Yet, while the EU and UK have been tied up in knots about the wisdom of growing GM crops, the rest of the world has embraced them. According to the Royal Society: ‘In 1996, just 1.7 million hectares (MHa) were planted with GM crops globally but by 2015, 179.7 million hectares of GM crops were grown, accounting for over 10 per cent of the world’s arable land.’ By 2023, that had increased further to 206 million hectares.

The Royal Society notes the kinds of GM crops being grown and where, including ‘potato (USA), squash/pumpkin (USA), alfalfa (USA), aubergine (Bangladesh), sugar beet (USA, Canada), papaya (USA and China), oilseed rape (four countries), maize (corn) (17 countries), soya beans (11 countries) and cotton (15 countries)’.

Yet concerns remain about the long-term consequences for health and the environment. Greenpeace argues that GM crops ‘encourage corporate control of the food chain and pesticide-heavy industrial farming. GM plants can also contaminate other crops and lead to “super weeds”. This technology must be strictly controlled to protect our environment, farmers and independent science.’ Furthermore, as influencers turn to sourdough and home-grown vegetables, the organic movement opposes GM-food along with anything else ‘highly processed’.

Most controversially, perhaps, the anti-GM campaign has held back the development and application of ‘golden rice’, which contains a modification that means that rice plants produce beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. Lack of vitamin A is a widespread cause of blindness and diminished immunity in developing countries, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Being able to get vitamin A via a staple food could be very beneficial. Yet environmentalist protesters have trashed test fields and, earlier this year, the Filipino Court of Appeals revoked the biosafety permits for golden rice, with the case brought in part by Greenpeace.

Are GM foods safe, both for health and the environment? Why has there been such resistance to them in some parts of the world while they flourish elsewhere? Is it time for the UK and Europe to fully embrace GM? Do we need to utilise every means to increase food production when the world’s population is heading towards 10 billion?