Health Effects of GMO

A GMO is a genetically modified organism, with its recombinant DNA altered to introduce new properties, like resistance to pests. A GMO can be as simple as a soybean or as complex as a steer. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes it, the public does not have a good grasp of what "genetically modified" means, but understands the more common terms of "genetic engineering" and "biotechnology." FDA does not recognize any health effects upon humans of GMOs, but organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and consumer activist groups do. The WHO in particular has outlined numerous potential concerns for human health.

Allergenicity

• The WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are concerned that gene transfer from an commonly allergenic plant (for example, peanuts) to another plant will introduce allergic effects in the recipient plant. To date, WHO has not recognized such an occurrence.

Gene Transfer

• WHO and FAO suggest that, although the probability is low, the antibiotic-resistant properties of some GMOs could transfer to the human digestive system, leaving people without the protection of antibiotics.

Outcrossing

• This is "crossbreeding" between genetically-modified crops to those that are not modified, or to plants in the wild. WHO reports that this has already happened, between maize farms. Thus, any health risks associated with GMOs can reach beyond their boundaries to affect other food sources.

Recognized Risks

• Neither WHO nor the FDA recognizes any incidents of harm to humans by GMOs. WHO states that GMOs "have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks to human health" but still recommends that "individual GM foods and their safety should be assessed on a case by case basis."

"Food, Inc."

• The 2008 documentary "Food, Inc." blamed GMOs for unhealthy animals, human obesity and an upswing in diabetes, and the spread of virulent strains of E. coli bacteria (for example, at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in 1993) with resultant deaths in humans. The documentary "Super Size Me" (2004) similarly blamed GMOs for human obesity and higher incidence of diabetes among children and Type 2 adult-onset diabetes.

Frankenfood

• Professor Norman Borlaug of Texas A&M University wrote, in a preface to the 2004 book "The Frankenfood Myth," that given the lack of evidence thus far as to the health risks of GMO, the risks assessed by GMO detractors are "overtly inaccurate" assumptions by "anti-business, anti-establishment anti-globalization agendas of a few activists, or by the self-interest of bureaucrats."