GMO: benefit or harm? Genetically modified foods and organisms. The legislative framework

The topic of this article is: "GMO: benefit or harm?". Let's try to understand this issue without prejudice. After all, it is precisely the lack of objectivity that many materials that are devoted to this ambiguous topic are sinning today. Today in many countries of the world (including Russia) the concept of GMO has been used when talking about "products that cause tumors and mutations." From all sides, GMOs are poured dirt on various occasions: insipid, unsafe, threaten the food independence of our country. But are genetically modified foods so terrible and what is it really like? Let's answer these questions.

Explanation of the concept

GMOs are genetically modified organisms, that is, modified by genetic engineering methods. This concept extends to plants in a narrow sense. In the past, various breeders, like Michurin, achieved useful properties in plants using various tricks. These included, in particular, grafting cuttings of some trees on others or the choice to sow seeds with only certain qualities. After that, it was necessary to wait long for the results, which only after a couple of generations were steadfastly manifested. Today, the desired gene can be transferred to the right place and thus quickly get what you want. That is, the GMO is the direction of evolution in the right direction, its acceleration.

The original goal of deducing GMOs

The goal of breeding GMOs was initially to increase the yield of different plants, increase their resistance to adverse factors (lack of nutrients, drought), the emergence of insensitivity to viruses, unattractiveness for insect parasites. In other words, scientists wanted to get plants that could grow at minimum costs, yield high yields and thus solve the food problem. And this issue is acute today in many countries of the world. Here is the main goal pursued by genetic engineering and biotechnology, creating GMOs.

How are GMOs created?

Several techniques can be used to create a GMO plant. The most popular method today is the method of transgenes. The necessary gene (for example, a gene for resistance to drought) for this is isolated in its pure form from the DNA chain. After this, it is introduced into the DNA of the plant, which must be modified.

Genes can be taken from related species. In this case, the process is called cystogenesis. Transgenesis takes place when the gene is taken from distant species.

It is about the latter that terrible stories go. Many people, having learned that wheat today exists with the scorpion genome, begin to fantasize about whether those who eat it, pincers and tail will not grow back. Numerous illiterate publications on forums and websites add fuel to the fire. Today the topic of GMOs, the benefits or harm of which are being actively discussed, has not lost its relevance. However, this is not the only thing that "experts", new to biochemistry and biology, frighten potential consumers of products containing GMOs.

Containing GMO products

Today, such products have agreed to call everything that is genetically modified organisms or any products in which there are components of these organisms. That is, GMO food will be not only genetically modified potatoes or corn, but also sausages, in which, in addition to liver and sodium nitrate, GMO soybeans are added. But the production of cow meat, which was fed wheat containing GMOs, will not be considered such a product.

The effect of GMOs on the human body

Journalists who do not understand such topics as genetic engineering and biotechnology, but understand the relevance and relevance of the GMO problem, launched a duck that, getting into our intestines and stomach, cells containing their products are absorbed into the bloodstream and then carried to tissues and organs , In which cancerous tumors and mutations are caused.

It should be noted that this fantastic plot is far from reality. Any food, without GMOs or with them, in the intestine and stomach, disintegrates under the action of intestinal enzymes, secretions of pancreatic and gastric juice into its constituent parts, and they are not genes or even proteins. These are amino acids, triglycerides, simple sugars and fatty acids. All this in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract is then absorbed into the bloodstream, after which it is expended for various purposes: to obtain energy (sugar), as a building material (amino acids), for energy reserves (fats).

For example, if you take a genetically engineered organism (say, an ugly apple that looks like a cucumber), then it will be chewed chewed and decomposed into its components in the same way as any other without GMOs.

Other GMO horror stories

Another bike, no less chilling the soul, refers to the fact that transgenes are built into the human genome , which leads to terrible consequences like infertility and cancer. For the first time in 2012, the French wrote about cancer in mice that were given genetically modified grain. In fact, Giles-Eric Seralini, the leader of the experiment, made a sample consisting of 200 Sprague-Dowley rats. Of these, one third fed GMO corn grain, another third - the herbicide-treated genetically modified maize, and the latter - ordinary grains. As a result, female rats, eating genetically modified organisms (GMO), gave rise to tumors in 80% within two years. Males have earned on such nutrition renal and hepatic pathologies. Typically, on a normal diet, a third of the animals also died from various tumors. This line of rats is generally prone to the sudden appearance of tumors, not related to the nature of nutrition. Therefore, the purity of the experiment can be considered questionable, and it was recognized as unsound and unscientific.

Similar investigations were conducted earlier, in 2005, in our country. GMO in Russia studied the biologist Ermakova. She presented at a conference in Germany a report on the high mortality of GMO-soyed mice. Confirmed in a scientific experiment statement after that began to spread around the world, bringing young moms to hysteria. After all, they had to feed their babies with artificial mixtures. And they used soybean GMO. Five experts from Nature Biotechnology agreed in the future that the results of the Russian experiment are ambiguous, and its reliability was not recognized.

I would like to add that even if a piece of foreign DNA is in the bloodstream of a person, this genetic information will not be embedded in the body in any way and will not lead to anything. Of course, in nature, there are cases of incorporation into the alien organism of pieces of the genome. In particular, some bacteria in this way spoil the genetics of flies. However, similar phenomena have not been described in higher animals. In addition, the genetic information and products without GMOs are more than enough. And if they have not been built into the genetic material of a person so far, then you can continue to calmly eat everything that the body absorbs, including containing GMOs.

Benefit or harm?

"Monsanto," an American company, already in 1982 brought to the market genetically modified products: soybeans and cotton. She also owns the authorship of killing all vegetation, except genetically modified, herbicide "Roundup".

In 1996, when Monsanto products were thrown into the markets, the corporations competing with it to save their incomes began a large-scale campaign aimed at limiting the turnover of GMO-containing products. The first to be persecuted was Arpad Pusthai, a British scientist. He fed GMO potatoes to rats. However, later the experts spread all the calculations of this scientist to the nines.

Potential damage for Russians from GMO products

No one hides that nothing is growing on the sown with GMO-grain lands, except for themselves. This is due to the fact that varieties of cotton or soybean, resistant to herbicides, do not seize them. Thus, they can be sprayed, achieving extinction of all other vegetation.

Glyphosphate is the most common herbicide. It is sprayed generally before the ripening of plants and quickly decomposes in them, not remaining in the soil. However, stable GMO plants allow it to be used in huge quantities, which increases the risk of accumulation of glyphosphate in GMO vegetation. It is also known that this herbicide causes bone growth and obesity. And in Latin America and the United States, there are a lot of people who are overweight.

Only a single crop is designed for many GMOs. That is, offspring will not give what will grow from them. Most likely, this is a commercial ploy, since in this way the marketing of GMO seeds is increasing. Modified plants that give the next generation, perfectly exist.

Since artificial mutations of genes (for example, in soybeans or potatoes) can increase the allergenic properties of the product, it is often said that GMOs are potent allergens. But deprived of the familiar proteins some peanut varieties do not cause an allergy even to those who tormented it earlier on this product.

Due to the peculiarities of pollination, GMO plants can reduce the number of other varieties of their species. If in two sites located near, plant ordinary wheat and GMO wheat, there is a risk that the usual will supplant the modified, pollinating it. However, it is unlikely that someone would have allowed them to grow near.

By abandoning their own seed funds and using only GMO seeds, especially disposable ones, the state will eventually end up in food dependence on the firms that hold the seed fund.

Conferences with participation of Rospotrebnadzor

After all horrors and stories about GMOs were repeatedly reproduced in all media, Rospotrebnadzor participated in many conferences on this issue. At a conference in Italy in March 2014, his delegation participated in technical consultations on the low content of genetically modified organisms in Russia's trade. Today, therefore, the course was adopted for the almost complete exclusion of such products on the food market of our country. The use of GMO plants in agriculture was also delayed, although the use of GMO seeds was planned to begin in 2013 (government decree of September 23, 2013).

Barcode

The Ministry of Education and Science went further. It proposed the use of a bar code replacing the label "Does not contain GMOs," in Russia. It should contain all information about the gene modification contained in the product or its absence. A good start, but without a special device, you can not read this barcode.

Genetically modified products and law

GMOs are regulated by law in some states. In Europe, for example, their content in products is not allowed more than 0.9%, in Japan - 9%, in the USA - 10%. In our country, products in which the content of GMOs exceeds 0.9%, is subject to mandatory labeling. For violation of these laws, enterprises face sanctions, up to the termination of activities.

Conclusion

The conclusion from all this can be done the following: the problem of GMOs (benefit or harm from using products containing them) is clearly bloated today. The real consequences of long-term use of such products are unknown. To date, authoritative scientific experiments on this issue have not been conducted.