GMOs and Bioengineered food. What’s it all about? 

Bioengineered food is a complicated topic in both science and public policy. Bioengineered food is a type of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO). You may have noticed that it is becoming increasingly common to see the phrase “contains bioengineered food ingredients” on food products. This is due to a recent change in food labeling which requires products to disclose the usage of bioengineered ingredients. These updated labeling requirements also brought about a terminology change: Bioengineered is now replacing the term GMO (Hernandez, 2022). 

Bioengineered food requires scientists to change the very DNA of plant cells.

What is a bioengineered food? 

At the very core of this issue is the genetic modification of food sources. The United States Department of Agriculture explains that bioengineered food contains modified genetic material that could not have occurred naturally. Genetic modification occurs when a cell’s DNA is changed. This is commonly done by adding small amounts of DNA to a plant cell. As the cell grows it multiplies through a process called mitosis. In this process the cell duplicates itself—also duplicating the added DNA. As the cells duplicate the plant grows which results in a genetically modified plant. Once a successful modification has been made, the plant can be grown in substantial amounts. According to the USDA’s June Agricultural Survey, 93% of the corn grown in the United States in 2023 was genetically modified. These types of modifications must be performed by humans in laboratories and do not occur naturally.

Pros and Cons of genetically modifying plants: 

The Purdue University – College of Agriculture explains that genetic modification is often done to increase a plant’s resiliency to pests or weeds. They explain that the risk of eating genetically modified food is low and unknown. However, the Non-GMO Project seeks to educate about and protect access to non-GMO foods. You may even recognize the butterfly label from some of your food products.

Non-GMO Project label commonly found on products.

The Non-GMO project holds that much of the research supporting GMOs/Bioengineered food is funded by the same industry that profits off GMOs. Therefore, they believe that the risk of bioengineered food is downplayed and under-researched (Waddell, 2023). 

Regardless of your stance on bioengineered foods, it is important to recognize that it is a newer development. Because of this, we are still learning what is safe and what regulations should be in place. It is also important to pay attention to implicit biases in research. Questions such as: “Where did the funding for this research come from?” and “Who benefits from the findings in this research?” are crucial to ask in any high-profit science industry. 

Next week we will shift our focus to look at the academic side of science as we prepare for finals. Firstly, we will take a look at how to read a science textbook.

Thanks for reading! 

      -Kate 

Resources used in this article: 

Do GMOs harm health? (n.d.). Purdue University – College of Agriculture. https://ag.purdue.edu/gmos/gmos-health.html 

Hernandez, J. (2022, January 5). GMO is out, “bioengineered” is in, as new U.S. food labeling rules take effect. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070212871/usda-bioengineered-food-label-gmo 

USDA ERS – adoption of genetically engineered crops in the U.S. (n.d.). https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-u-s/ 

USDA (n.d.) What is a Bioengineered Food? PDF https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/BE_Consumer.pdf 

Waddell, M. (2023, May 18). The Science on GMOs Isn’t Settled — Here’s Why – The Non-GMO Project. The Non-GMO Project – Everyone Deserves an Informed Choice. https://www.nongmoproject.org/blog/the-science-on-gmos-isnt-settled-heres-why/