Genetically Modified Food

 by Siha Hoque

The influence of technology has spread into our everyday lives, to a near unavoidable extent. We use it to make our methods for completing tasks more efficient and effective. The most obvious examples of this include using dishwashers and smartphones - yet sometimes more subtle forms of it end up with us.

For example, recently genetic modification has become common within some of our plants and animal species. Genetic modification is not the same as selectively breeding, which utilises the genes already present in a population. This means that the organism has specific genes inserted or edited so that some of its characteristics can be adjusted or improved very precisely. ‘GMO’s are genetically modified organisms. Some GMOs many people have consumed include salmon. This type of fish is known as AquAdvantage salmon, and was developed in the late 1980s, and approved by several countries in the early 2000s. It grows to marketing size far quicker than the average Atlantic salmon (usually three years, but after genetic modification, eighteen months) making the farming of salmon more efficient and productive, as well as meeting the then growing demand in the market for fish.

Genetic modification isn’t just present in farming animals though. Papayas have also undergone genetic engineering to make them more disease resistant - and by 2010, over 50% of Hawaiian papayas were genetically modified. Researchers had developed the ‘SunUp papaya’ which is resistant to the papaya ringspot virus. This disease affected the growth of the fruit, preventing it from reaching the ideal size for marketing. They did this by covering gold particles with a thin layer of the coat protein gene of the virus, and then firing them into the cells of the natural fruit - a process known as particle bombardment mediated transformation. The papayas, now containing gene sequences from the virus, are not unaffected by papaya ringspot disease and able to grow to their full size.

The usage of GMO food is controversial; there are many potential risks that come with genetically editing what we consume, such as: if these GMO salmon were released into the wild (they are currently contained in hatcheries), they would compete against the wild Atlantic salmon for food and habitats and thus disrupt the ecosystem. As well as this, there is a link between certain types of cancer and a growth hormone that the AquAdvantage salmon contains higher levels of; a big risk for consumers. Even the SunUp papaya may have long term negative effects on health that may not be known of. However, the key advantage of using genetically modified foods include a potential decrease in the overall price of it, making this a more accessible food, and also by growing faster it uses less supplies. 

The usage of genetic modification demonstrates to us that as the capabilities of technology continue to evolve, the environment around us will too, in ways that are positive and negative.

The process for making AquAdvantage salmon involved transferring genes  - specifically those coding for growth-promoting hormones and proteins - from the DNA of a Chinook salmon to the fertilised eggs of Atlantic salmon. DNA that controls the expression of genes, also known as promoters, are taken from another species of fish, known as the ocean pout and added too. The eggs will continue to develop normally to the typical size, albeit with the addition of the enhanced growth speed.