Gene Talk #5: Genetically Modified Food

This week’s Gene Talk excerpt is a passionate one about genetically modified food from My Front Porch by Nick Wright in Missouri.

They make these GMOs by inserting a virus or bacteria that takes apart the host’s DNA and inserts whatever DNA they’re wanting into it.

So since you literally are what you eat, how long is it before one of these GMO seeds’ DNA starts showing up in humans? Sounds far fetched I know. But our bodies take the building blocks that makes up those foods and turns them into us!

How long will it be before someone’s baby’s born with a full head of corn silk instead of hair? How long will it be before that pimple that’s gettin’ ready to burst turns out to be a kernel of corn instead?

First of all, Nick, I’d recommend you read Weekly Genetics Quiz #41: Eating DNA. It may not have crossed your mind before that you eat DNA every day even in “organic” fruits, vegetables, and meat. Genetically engineered DNA does not have super-powers that allows them to escape being digested by the acid in your stomach.

Secondly, humans have been manipulating the DNA in plants since they learned to grow crops. That’s why we even have edible corn today. As yet, my hair does not resemble corn silk even if I did ask the hairdresser to make it so!

For more information, take a look at a previous Genetics and Health post: Genetically Modified Food: Pros and Cons.

Enjoy the outdoors, Nick! But keep in mind that the DNA of every living thing around you is continually evolving and changing and humans are often the stimulus for such change*.

*What a coincidence. I just read the May 2006 Atlantic Monthly that refers to the “anthroposphere” – the idea that the earth’s physics, chemistry, and biology are now driven by human habits and desires.

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