Debate on GMOs Luxury to Developing World

By Elen Eubanks

Food is at the bottom of the pyramid of human needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy, yet global hunger is extremely prevalent in developing nations and contributes significantly towards mortality and morbidity. Starving children in Africa seems especially ironic when compared with the obvious trend in child obesity and eating disorders in the United States. However, developed nations have the luxury of free time that nourishes innovations, and collaborative efforts between these countries are mandatory to find quick yet enduring solutions to solve hunger crises.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are currently a heated topic among both scientists and politicians, but for the inhabitants of the sub-Saharan Africa, this rhetoric is completely irrelevant. Impoverished countries are given the best opportunity if sustainable agricultural methods are introduced, but naturally there are a variety factors that cause impediments to progress. Perhaps one of the most viable concerns with the utilization of genetically modified (GM) food crops is the chance that the transgenic organisms may cross-hybridize with neighboring farms or with the natural vegetation. Plants are often quite amenable to crossing with even distantly related species; therefore this would be one of the most important considerations in growing GMO’s.

There are a variety of proposed methods for addressing the problem of cross-hybridization, but one that is both feasible as well as controversial is through the use of terminator technology. Terminator technology involves the use of modern recombinant DNA techniques to produce seeds that are only able to grow a single season. Transgenic plants would be sterile upon maturity while still maintaining the same nutritional content. Three genes are incorporated into the plant genome to produce this result: a gene that encodes the tetracycline repressor, a recombinase protein gene, and a gene which is turned on in late embryogenesis that leads to sterility. These genetic manipulations are relatively basic and widely employed in the field of molecular biology. Therefore, while the fear may be that terminators place too much power in the hands of the distributor, competition from industrialized economies would keep prices low and provide incentive for high quality products. Through the use of terminator technologies in combination with crops bearing other genetic enhancements, available land and resources could be efficiently put to use for human consumption while also protecting the surrounding vegetation.