Signal to Noise Special Edition: GMOs and Our Food
GMO Basics
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Chelsea Powell |
Gabriel Rangel |
GMOs and the Environment
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GMOs and Natural Genetic Diversity
Heather Landry |
The Technology and Safety of Bt Crops
Matthew Niederhuber |
Roundup Ready Crops and the Environment
Jordan Wilkerson |
GMOs and Our Health
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The Allergenic Effects of GMOs
Charles Xu |
Jennifer Hsiao |
Megan L. Norris |
GMOs, Health Policy, and Culture
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Wen Zhou |
Adam Riesselman |
Jessica Lau |
Feeding the World
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Christopher Gerry |
Mary E. Gearing |
The Future of GMO Technology
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Genome Engineering: An Interview with Dr. Dan Voytas
James Angstman |
New Technology in GMOs: Epigenetics & RNAi
Pierre Baduel |
Words from the editors:
We all have strong opinions about what we eat and how it affects our health, and with such a large portion of land dedicated to growing our food, many are also concerned about the environmental impacts of feeding billions of people. For this reason, the discussion about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food is a highly politicized topic. When we started this project, we had heard a lot about GMO foods, but much of it seemed to come from people with a mission: the agrotech companies and food safety advocates. As scientists, we believe that the best way to really understand an issue is to go back to the primary sources. So we started with a list of questions we had about GMOs, and we asked members of our scientific community to do just that. This Special Edition is a presentation of what we found.
The articles here start from the basics: what foods are genetically modified, and how long have we been doing this? We next look at the GMO foods available now: how does eating GMOs affect organ toxicity and allergies? And what’s the health impact of the pesticides that we use on GMO crops? We also asked about the environmental effects of growing Roundup Ready and Bt crops, and the potential for GMOs to have an unintentional effect on genetic diversity. We looked at legal and policy issues—how does the patenting process affect companies and farmers? How are GMOs regulated in the US and in Europe? How have GMOs changed farming culture? And finally, we took a look at the future of GMOs: How can GMOs help us to fight world hunger and nutritional deficits in the developing world? And what technologies will we see in the next wave of genetically engineered crops?
So, did we find that GMOs are good or bad? The answer is complicated. The overwhelming majority of scientific evidence suggests that eating food with genetically modified DNA has no effect on human health, but there is also ample evidence that some GMOs have negative environmental impacts, such as the creation of superweeds. And while GMOs have not yet been wildly successful in providing solutions to an ever-growing global population and changing climate, there are certainly promising technologies in the works. It seems to us that GMOs have the potential to do great good, but in order for this to happen, research must proceed conscientiously, with consideration of the environmental risks of introducing engineered plants into our farms. But that’s just our opinion—we encourage you to put aside what you think you know about GMOs and read on to develop your own.
August 10, 2015.
Happy reading,
Signal to Noise Editorial Staff
Special thanks to…
The editing team: Eryn Blass, Alix Chan, Morgan Furze, Mary Gearing, Alexis Hubaud, Nick Jikomes, Entela Nako, Adam Riesselman, Jessica Sagers, Yutong Shan, Kevin Sitek, Lindsay Theodore, Kelsey Tyssowski, and Katherine Wu
The graphic editors: Kaitlyn Choi, Brian Chow, Krissy Lyon, Anna Maurer, Shannon McArdel, and Kristen Seim