Critics of biotech food believe that the techniques employed in its production fail to sufficiently protect consumers, and claim that the FDA is subject to pressure and influence by the industry. Some say that a novel crop may include unintended changes as a result of the insertion of new genetic material. But plant scientists, backed by the results of modern profiling of crop composition, point out that crops modified using biotech techniques are less likely to have unintended changes than regularly bred crops.
The first biotech crop, a tomato, was sold in 1994. It takes about six to 12 years for a crop to be tested before it is made available on the market. Today, the most popular biotech crops are corn, soybean, cotton, and oil. In 2006, 89% of the soybeans grown were biotech, 83% of cotton was biotech, and 61% of corn was biotech. And if you thought that you don’t consume biotech foods, think again. At least 70% of processed foods on the store shelves contain ingredients from biotech crops. They don’t taste differently from other foods and are comparable to organic foods. Scientists predict that in the future, biotech foods may even be more nutritious than organic foods.
The United States isn’t the only country growing and marketing biotech crops. At least 63 nations around the world have been involved in some type of biotech plant research and development. As a matter of fact, in 2005, amongst the top producers of biotech crops were Argentina, with 42 million acres involved; Brazil, with 23 million; Canada, with 14 million; and China, with 8 million.
Biotech crops are also said to require less pesticides and herbicides for their protection than regular crops. Studies by the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy (NCFAP) found that in 2004 eleven U.S. biotech crop varieties combined to reduce pesticide applications by 62 million pounds per year. Biotech crops enable farmers to reduce consumption of fuel and the emission of greenhouse gasses, thus improving the living habitats for birds and other wild animals.
There are biotech versions of several crops currently in development, including the sweet potato, maize, golden rice, and transgenic rice. Transgenic rice was developed to aid oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea. Milk proteins found in the transgenic rice plant have been shown to work as intended, according to a recent 2005-2006 Peruvian study.
Although there’s been a decrease in the number of people who are confident about the safety of biotech food, this is only because biotech foods are widely misunderstood. But once they are explained to consumers, their production is heavily supported.
