Why Frankenfood

are more like

Fortified Foods
Catie Wram

Frankenfoods, or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), are often thought to be

dangerous foods made by a mad scientist in a lightning storm here to terrorize our
natural crops. What even is a GMO?? Most people hear that they are unnatural and
cautioned to stay away from them. That genetically modified foods often a cause for
concern because they contain foreign DNA and just like bacon will probably give
you cancer. This just like the idea of Frankenstein is unsettling to many people.
GMOs are not as unnatural
as you might think. The
basic idea of genetically
modified organism is your
friendly neighborhood
scientist discovers a gene
from a plant, bacteria, or
animal and decides that it
could do something truly
amazing and helpful if it
happened to be placed in a
different plant. Sometimes
genes are not even taken
from a different species, but
from the same species. In
that case scientists are just
trying to speed up normal breeding. When trying to do the same thing using normal
breeding can take decades; much more time and effort with less than perfect
results.

When a scientist is using a gene from a different organism it is

usually to do something that will help the plant or animal be
resistant to a pathogen or to increase nutrient content the
crop. A great example of this is research done by Dr. Subhara
Chakraborty and her colleagues from the Centre for Research
on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development, Madras,
India. Dr. Chakraborty and her colleagues found a gene in an
ornamental plant, Prince-of-Wales, that when placed in a
potato would help to increase the amount of protein in
potatoes! This helps to make potatoes more nutritious.
Amazing.
Besides making more nutritious potatoes,
GMOs are also helping to solve one of the
worlds difficult problems, immunizing
children against deadly diseases in
developing countries. For decades health
care providers, scientists, and world leaders
have been trying to find a way to bring
vaccinations for the six deadly disease to
the developing world where healthcare is
unavailable or minimal. These diseases
include polio, measles, whooping cough,
tetanus and tuberculosis. A scientist, Charles Arntzen, at Texas A&M University
had they idea of putting the DNA and proteins necessary for a vaccine in food like
bananas, potatoes, or tomatoes in order to make vaccines more accessible in these
developing counties. Currently at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
at Cornell Univerity they are working to grow banana and tomato plants with
vaccines. Trials of these vaccines have been successful and hopefully soon they
will help to save childrens lives all over the world!
Like any other food that appears in your local grocery store food from any GMO has
to be FDA approved. The FDA, or the US Food and Drug Administration, is a great
federal organization that helps to ensure the safety and quality of our food. As part
of FDA approval process any food is subject to rigorous scientific testing to make
sure the quality and safety is top notch. The FDA works with the food developers to
conduct safety assessments including comparing nutrient
levels of the GMO food to food from a traditionally bred
crop. The FDA also accesses the varying components
added to the GMO to make sure they are safe for
consumption.
Many people are worried that when you eat a GMO crop you are eating this foreign
gene and it will used by our own body. But not to worry, all of the food we eat has
DNA, from the egg you ate for breakfast to the apple you will eat for a snack later.
Our bodies being as efficient as they are use every part of the food we eat to make
energy. So when we eat DNA, from GMOs or Non-GMOs, our body breaks it up
into the basic components nucleic acids. When DNA is broken up to nucleic acids it
cant be put back together. So those genes we consumed from GMOs can never be

used in our bodies, but rather there broken down components are used to help
make energy.
Much like the story of Frankenstien, GMOs have been around for hundreds of
years. Believe it or not traditional breeding is a form of genetically modifying an
organism. Through traditional breeding, like taking the best corn plant and
breeding it with another good corn plant, humans are genetically modifying corn
and evolving the corn plant faster than what would occur naturally. This is how
we are able to produce enough quality crops that are drought resistant, pest
resistant, and the most nutritious.
A great example of this genetic modification is the wild cabbage Brassica
oleracea. Through generations of breeding humans have made this one wild
cabbage into a variety of foods we love: broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower
and kale. Scientists through the advancement of technology have just figured out
how more quickly and efficiently make nutritious and diversified crops! So next
time you enjoy your cauliflower crust pizza or a delicious kale salad you can thank
GMOs.

YUMMM...

Works Cited
Pictures:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/887c4310f1eda5610889a73ef4ee7fe491090f040ca4c8059215abe0b60e
a6d2.png
http://www.fda.gov/ucm/groups/fdagov-public/documents/image/ucm352115.png
http://healthyhomegardening.com/images/fadinha/celosia_oj3_069.jpg
http://recaphealth.co.uk/wp-content/frankenstein-cartoon-movie-583.jpg
http://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2010/10/bananas_1.jpg.638x0_q80_crop-smart.jpg
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/GEPlants/ucm461805.htm
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/fears-not-facts-support-gmo-free-food/?_r=0
http://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3724.long
https://www.mcdb.ucla.edu/Research/Goldberg/HC70A_W12/pdf/EdibleVaccines.pdf