[Music] [FDA & DHHS logos]
[On-screen] Talk About GMOs: Experts Who Know Them and Grow Them
[Sue Wessler] A GMO is a genetically modified organism. It's an organism that has been changed initially.
Its genetic material has been changed in the lab, a laboratory where, a scientist,
whether it be in industry or in academics, has added a gene to the genome. It may improve
the yield or may improve disease or insect or fungal resistance. They could modify a gene so
that it makes more of a desirable product. My name is Sue Wessler. I'm a professor of
botany and plant sciences and genetics, at the University of California Riverside. I'm also
home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, which is half of my time.
One of the values of genetically modified crops, is to the farmer.
[On-screen] Farming with GMOs.
[Katie Pratt] My name is Katie Pratt, and my husband and I farm on Grand Prairie Farms in North Central
Illinois. We raise corn, soybeans, and seed corn with my husband's family and our two kids.
We choose to plant genetically modified seed on our farm because we've been able to achieve
efficiencies, and when I say that I mean, for example, my grandfather and father when they
were farming together back in the 70s and 80s… Each week they would do something different in
the field to help control weeds. They would go out and plow, they would have to spread
a different type of herbicide on the field. These days, because we have plants that are
able to resist certain herbicides, we actually go out one time during the growing season and we can
control the weeds for the entire growing season. That's huge, because we've reduced the amount
of times we're across the field, so our fuel efficiency is better. We are reducing the amount
of pesticides that we are spraying on our field, which is a really big deal because that costs
money, but it's also for the health of our soil, water, and ourselves. So, that's a huge thing.
If I consider the crops on our farm, corn specifically. So, our corn goes to ethanol
plants to create fuel for cars. It goes over to a processing plant where it's broken down
into three things. Corn oil, corn starch, and corn sugar, which that then are the ingredients
that we find in much of our processed foods. The cool thing though that I think of as a farmer
is that, not only am I providing fuel and food out in my fields, but feed for pets and livestock as
well, fiber. You know, corn oil, starch, and sugar can be found in 4,200 different products that we
either use as consumers or consume as consumers. I think that's pretty fascinating, because it's a
renewable resource. Corn farmers are really good at what they do and we do it well every single
year in spite of the challenges. So, we are able to provide for the masses in a variety of ways.
[On-screen] GMOs Go Global.
[Donald MacKenzie] So, the biggest impact that bioengineered crops, have had, particularly here in the U.S.,
and everywhere else, too, for that matter, has been the value that they bring to farmers,
whether they're large-scale farmers or small-scale farmers,
because bioengineering scales quite nicely. So, we've seen that farm productivity goes up,
which means that farm income goes up, and especially in the Global South,
when smallholder farmer income goes up, then it means that children can
go to school. Children don't have to be going out into the field to weed the crop,
they can be going to school, and that uplifts that family and all of society.
My name is Donald MacKenzie, I lead the Institute for International Crop Improvement,
here at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center was founded in 1998, as the vision of the late
William Danforth, and the Center was founded to use plant science to improve the human condition.
Bioengineered crops are being developed and deployed in many countries in the Global South,
in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in South and Southeast Asia. We work primarily with
what would be called food security crops. The crops that are being introduced into
these countries include crops such as cowpea, which I have beside me here.
Cowpea is a staple food for 200 million people. It's an excellent source of protein.
One of the problems that cowpea has, is that its yields are
very suppressed by insect disease pressure. So typical yields of cowpea in West Africa, are
around a half a ton per hectare, compared to the potential of two and a half tons per hectare. And
one of the problems is diseases caused by insects such as the legume pod borer. So we've been
working with a consortium of partners on improving cowpea to be resistant to that insect pest.
Other crops that we work on include cassava, which we're working on developing a virus
resistant cassava, specifically cassava that's resistant to cassava brown streak, a disease,
which significantly impacts yields of cassava, all across Africa.
[On-screen] The Future of GMOs.
[Katie Pratt] I think, moving forward to feed a hungry planet, that's going to reach almost 10 billion people by
the year 2050, we have some work to do. But I truly believe that agriculture is
going to meet that demand as long as we are allowed to use the technology and scientific
revelations that are coming to us in that fashion.
[Sue Wessler] And the only way we can do it is to breed variants
more quickly. And genetic modification does that, by adding genes, by tweaking genes. It's the only
way. Where it takes 10 years to add a trait to an elite crop by conventional breeding. If I take
two years to do that with genetic modification. It's a huge difference. It is a game changer.
[On-screen] GMOs: Safe to Eat.
[Katie Pratt] In the 20 plus years that genetically modified crops, and the ingredients and by-products derived
from those crops, have been on the market, there hasn't been one instance pointed to saying that
we've had detrimental health, because of that.
[Sue Wessler] Well, yes, GMOs are extremely safe for consumers.
We've had billions and billions of billions of meals, and there is really no recorded toxicities.
[Donald MacKenzie] More than 30 years of experience with bioengineered crops has demonstrated that they
are just as safe as conventionally produced crops. I think it's really important for all of us to to
appreciate that technology and biotechnology in particular, whether it's bioengineering or
genome editing, or any other type of crop improvement technology has a real impact.
[On-screen] Talk About GMOs: Experts Who Know Them and Grow Them
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