How the technology works, and what it promises
Sunday, 22 May 2005
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What is it?
What is it?
Genetically modified (GM) food is produced from plants or animals that have had their genetic material altered by scientists. Scientists are able to extract genes from organisms with desirable properties - such as a particular colour or resistance to a disease - and transfer them to another organism.
The process has sharply divided opinion, between those who believe the technology will enhance our lives and those who fear it will prove an advance too far. By far the most commonly modified organisms are crop plants. But the technology has been applied to almost all forms of life, from pets that glow under UV light to bacteria that form HIV-blocking "living condoms", and pigs bearing spinach genes.
If GM lives up to the opinions of its most enthusiastic supporters, it could reduce the use of pesticides and fertilisers, allow people to farm in harsh environments and increase crop yields. It could also make our food healthier and more nutritious to eat.
When did it begin?
Investment began pouring into the fledgling biotechnology industry in the late 1970s, amid huge excitement about the new technology and potentially enormous profits. Then in 1981, Monsanto, famous for its Round Up brand of herbicide and a pioneer in the field, started a biotech unit of its own.
The first transgenic plant - a tobacco plant resistant to antibiotics - was created in 1983. It was another 11 years before the first commercial GM plant in the United States - a delayed-ripening tomato - and another two years (1996) before a GM product - Zeneca's tomato paste - hit British supermarkets. In 1993 the US Food and Drug Administration declared GM food was "not inherently dangerous", clearing the way for biotech companies to begin marketing genetically modified seed.
How much is it worth?
The global value of the GM crop market is projected at more than £2.8bn for 2005. The estimated global area of crops for 2004 was 200 million acres. But the biotech companies aren't yet making the profits they envisaged because the key European market eludes them.Europe remains as hostile as ever to the idea of modified food, and analysts are warning of a possible trade war with the US over the labelling of GM food.
What foods are available?
In 2003 the US Department of Agriculture reported that 101.5 million acres of GM crops were planted in the United States. It has been estimated that 75 per cent of processed foods in the US contain some GM ingredients.They include Bac-Os, bacon-flavoured soya bits, and Schwartz salad topping, a seasoning for salads, which uses bacon-flavoured GM soya chunks.
Even Cheshire cheese, made for vegetarians, uses a GM-derived enzyme.
In Britain, hostility to the technology has persuaded all the main supermarkets and manufacturers to withdraw GM ingredients, although genetically altered food may be available in some imported products.
