GMOS 101: Your Basic
Questions Answered
GMO foods have been available to consumers since the early 1990s. Since then,
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have worked together to ensure
that crops produced through genetic engineering are safe for people, animals, and
the environment. Despite there being a wide range of foods—GMO and
non-GMO—available to consumers, there is some confusion around what GMOs
are and how they are used in our food supply.
Is it called GMO or
something else?
“GMO” has become the common term
consumers and popular media use to describe
foods that have been created through genetic
engineering. This term is not generally used
to refer to plants or animals developed with
selective breeding, like the common garden
strawberries available today that were created
from a cross between a species native to North
America and a species native to South America.
While “genetic engineering” is the term typically
used by scientists, you will start seeing the
“bioengineered” label on some of the foods
we eat in the United States because of the
new National Bioengineered Food Disclosure
Standard.2
feed your mind Why do we have GMOs?
Humans have used traditional ways to modify
crops and animals to suit their needs and tastes for
more than 10,000 years. Cross-breeding, selective
breeding, and mutation breeding are examples of
traditional ways to make these changes. These
breeding methods often involve mixing all of the
genes from two different sources. They are used to
create common crops like modern corn varieties5
and seedless watermelon.
Modern technology now allows scientists to use
genetic engineering to take just a beneficial gene,
like insect resistance or drought tolerance, and
transfer it into a plant. The reasons for genetic
modification today are similar to what they were
thousands of years ago: higher crop yields, less
crop loss, longer storage life, better appearance,
better nutrition, or some combination of these traits.
Do GMOs affect your
health?
GMO foods are as healthful and safe to eat as
their non-GMO counterparts. Some GMO plants
have actually been modified to improve their
nutritional value. An example is GMO soybeans
with healthier oils that can be used to replace
oils that contain trans fats. Since GMO foods
were introduced in the 1990s, research6 has
shown that they are just as safe as non-GMO
foods. Additionally, research7 shows that GMO
plants fed to farm animals are as safe as
non-GMO animal food.
Do GMO plants reduce
pesticide use?
Some GMO plants contain plant-incorporated
protectants (PIPs)8 to make them resistant to
insects, reducing the need for and use of many
spray pesticides.9 As another safety measure,
EPA works with developers and scientists to help
develop GMOs that will resist insects for as long
as possible through their Insect Resistance
Management program.10 Other GMO plants are
developed to tolerate certain weed killers, which
allows farmers a wide variety of options for weed
control. Some people are concerned that
farmers who grow these GMOs will use more
weed killers. While this is sometimes the case,
EPA regulates the safety of all weed killers that
farmers use on GMO crops and non-GMO crops
alike. EPA also shares information11 to help
farmers who are concerned about weeds
developing resistance to weed killers.
March 2020 — 1
What makes it a GMO?
A GMO (genetically modified organism) is a plant,
animal, or microorganism that has had its genetic
material (DNA) changed using technology that
generally involves the specific modification of
DNA, including the transfer of specific DNA from
one organism to another. Scientists often refer
to this process as genetic engineering.1
What GMO crops are
out there?
Only a few types of GMO crops are grown in the
United States, but some of these GMOs make up
a large percentage of the crop grown (e.g.,
soybeans, corn, sugar beets, canola, and cotton).
In 2018,4 GMO soybeans made up 94% of all
soybeans planted, GMO cotton made up 94% of
all cotton planted, and 92% of corn planted was
GMO corn. Most GMO crops are used in food for
animals like cows, chickens, and fish. They are
also used to make ingredients that are then used
in food products like cereal, snack chips, and
vegetable oils. Even though you won’t find many
GMO fruits or vegetables in the produce section
of your grocery store, GMOs are a common part
of today’s food supply.
