Kyle Beckley

NFSC 320
12/21/15
Food Biotechnology: Position Statement
As a food and nutrition professional , my professional statement about food
biotechnology, specifically GMOs is in favor of more scientific research to ensure the safety of
GM foods to both human health as well as the environment. Humans have been selectively
breeding plants for 10,000 years and this new technology appears to be an extension of our
evolution with plants, however, it is still undetermined wether or not GM crops are completely
safe. The science of genetically engineering plants using the specific technique of gene
insertion from foreign species, was introduced to the world in 1973. This new technology has
proven to offer great promise to the advancement of modern agriculture such as spending less
money to produce food because of increased yields along with less pesticide and herbicide use.
However these rewards may come with unforeseen consequences such as the development of
super weeds, gm cross-contamination into non-gm food supply, and whether there are
potential health risks associated with consumption of gm grown crops. Regardless of the pros
and cons, GM crops have already been implemented on a mass scale over the last few
decades particularly in North America. Eventually we will see the effects of these crops on
humans and the environment after a few generations and more scientific research. At this point
not enough time has passed since GM crops were applied on a mass scale to see conclusive
evidence of them being beneficial or hazardous. A joint statement from over 300 independent
researchers stated that GMOs cannot be concluded to be unsafe or safe because there is no

consensus on GM food safety (Hilbeck et al, 2015). As a food and nutrition professional , I
believe it is our responsibility to carefully observe and monitor how these crops are effecting our
health and the ecological environment, and until we can ensure their complete safety we should
use traditional hybrid breeding technologies as opposed to GM.