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Answers

Question

If GMOs are the holy grail to food and feeding the world then why are you so dead set against labeling them??

Submitted by: Kevin Rooney


Answer

Expert response from jcohen1

Friday, 07/11/2014 15:56

I personally view food security and labeling as two unrelated issues, so I’ll talk about feeding the world first and then provide our perspective on labeling.

 

If only we could be so lucky as to have a “holy grail” or “silver bullet” to sustainably solve the world’s hunger and malnutrition problems. Unfortunately, this does not exist. While GMOs are a very useful and important tool that can be utilized to help combat food insecurity — for example, through biofortification of staple foods or increasing yields in poorly developed regions — this one technology won’t solve all the problems we’re facing in terms of feeding a growing population while combating climate change and preserving nature’s heritage.

 

One of the things I enjoy about my job is that I get to learn about all the incredible, innovative, ingenious and resourceful agricultural tools and methods that are being developed and implemented around the world. This “silver buckshot,” to borrow a term from David Festa with the Environmental Defense Fund, includes high-tech solutions, like genetic engineering and precision agriculture, and those considered to be more traditional systems, such as organic farming and agro-ecology. If you’re curious at all about the different pieces that may constitute this buckshot approach, I recommend checking out Grist’s series “The United States of Sustainable Food” and National Geographic magazine’s feature “The Future of Food.”

 

An important thing to remember is that all of these solutions for agricultural development, improved nutrition and sustainable food and farming don’t necessarily have to exist in opposition to each other. It would be great if we could get to the point where we could move past ideological differences and marry multiple solutions to address these problems more comprehensively, a tactic advocated by Pamela Ronald, a geneticist at UC Berkeley, and her spouse, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmerThis approach also was recently by proposed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. So perhaps all of us working together is the “holy grail.”

 

Now, about labeling. In our previous posts on GMO Answers, we’ve noted our support for labeling of GMOs — any foods, in fact — if there is a health and safety risk, like foods that are known to cause allergies in certain populations. We also support labeling of GMOs, specifically, if there is a change in composition, nutrition, smell or flavor of a product in comparison with its conventional counterpart. And we support voluntary labeling for anyone wanting to market the presence or absence of GMO foods or ingredients.

 

However, as Cathy Enright states, “we cannot support the mandatory labeling of GM food just because the food in the market was produced using genetic engineering — for example, in wine, yogurt or bread made with GM yeast, vegetable oil made from GM soybeans or cereal sweetened with GM sugar. These foods are as safe and nutritious as their non-GMO counterparts, as determined by recognized authorities around the world, including the American Medical Association, the US National Academy of Science, the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.”