Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. You eat them every day whether you realize
it or not. And according to my demographics, most of you have been eating them your entire
lives. But there’s a fairly recent movement against them, so let’s try and understand why.
[Intro music]
Before we get into why people dislike GMOs,
let’s first talk about what they actually are – and perhaps more importantly, what they are not.
I’m not going to get too deep into the science of how GMOs are made,
that’s a bit out of my field. I’ll touch on it very lightly here, but If you’d like to know more,
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE, I highly recommend this episode of SciShow, where they talk about all
the different types of GMOs and how they’re made. First of all, genetically modified organisms have
been around since the beginning of agriculture. You eat them all the time. Just off the top of
my head I can name two examples. If you eat a carrot that isn’t colored purple,
you’re eating a genetically modified carrot. Through selective breeding, carrots in the
Netherlands were turned orange in order to match the Dutch flag. Now, we all eat orange carrots,
you’d actually be pretty hard pressed to find a purple carrot and… gross. But that’s selective
breeding, a natural mutation that was artificially selected for. So on to example two, if you’ve ever
eaten an apple that didn’t taste like an uncooked, raw potato, you’re eating a genetically modified
apple. Apples were pretty tasteless up until a few hundred years ago. There’s a reason why the
French word for apple and potato are basically the same. Through generations of selective breeding,
cross-breeding, and a version of sapling cloning, humans forced apples to taste the
way they do today. If you’d like to know way more WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW… way more about
how apples were modified, I suggest this video. Anyway, you’re likely saying whatever, those were
centuries ago and at least they were somewhat natural. Not like today where we’re injecting
frog DNA into potatoes. Okay, fair enough. But before that, in the 1920s, we used to just blast
plants with x-rays and gamma rays and just see what happens. If something beneficial occurred,
those plants were bred back into the food supply and no one cared- at least for a hundred years.
But today, when people are talking about GMOs, what they’re really talking about are genetically
engineered organisms. But for simplicity’s sake, let’s just keep calling them GMOs.
There are three types of GMO. Transgenic – when you deliberately
insert the genes of one species into another. Cisgenic – when you cross-breed related
species in order to combine desired genes. And Subgenic – when you use technologies
like CRISPR in order to turn off or cut out selective genes within a species.
So what do all of these mean to the layperson like me and perhaps you.
Well let’s go through a few examples. Some crops are engineered to endure a
harsher climate or have a longer shelf life. The classic example here is the FlavrSavr tomato,
made in 1994, it had the genes which create the hormone that ripens the tomato dialed back a bit,
thus creating a longer shelf life. This is the crop that sparked the entire GMO debate. But
other examples include staple crops that were engineered through cisgenic or subgenic means
to endure harsher climates. Many people in the biotech industry feel that cisgenic and subgenic
crops shouldn’t be held to the same scrutiny as transgenic crops, since they're not combining
species or doing anything that hasn’t been done for hundreds of years – just quicker. But I’ll get
back to how important these are in a moment. Other crops are engineered to be bacteria
resistant. Like the potato that was crossed with a frog using transgenesis. A South American
frog naturally created a hormone that fought the bacteria that caused rot and blight in potatoes,
so they took those genes and put them in the potato. Now those potatoes are protected from
a disease that would have wiped out entire crops. These potatoes are the prime example
people use when they talk about “Frankenfood.” But the biggest example, and perhaps the most
concerning example for most people, are the GM crops that are engineered to be resistant
to man-made pesticides and herbicides. These are the “Round-up ready” crops engineered by
Monsanto. They took the genes from a bacteria that was naturally resistant to the active
ingredient in Round-up and used transgenics to inject them into the plants. That way,
farmers can grow their crops closer together, increasing yield, and spray their entire field
with pesticides and herbicides, without worrying about destroying the plants they WANT to grow.
These transgenic frankenfoods and corporate-owned chemical resistant
foods are the GM crops that most people oppose and give the rest of the GM crops a bad name.
But is that bad reputation really deserved? First of all, the overwhelming scientific
consensus is that GM crops are no more harmful to you than any conventionally grown crop. You’ll
notice that I only said GM crops here. Because currently, there are no genetically modified
animals available for human consumption. There are genetically engineered fish to be neon colors,
but they’re sold as decoration. And there are mice engineered to be missing certain hormones
or amino acids used for scientific research. But there are none available in your grocery
store to eat. The first one that will probably be available is an Atlantic salmon that was crossed
with a Pacific salmon and an eel, but it’s not yet approved. So for now, it’s only plants.
Right now, in the United States, 92% of corn, 94% of soybeans, and 93% of cotton,
and likewise high numbers for soy, sugar, and other commodities are all genetically
engineered. Worldwide, 54% of all crops grown are GM crops. Why is this important? Because
the only way to feed the world is to use GMOs. This is Norman Borlaug. In 1970, he was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for single-handedly saving over a billion lives. How did he
do it? By introducing GM wheat, which was designed to be higher-yield, climate resistant,
and disease resistant into underdeveloped countries like Mexico, India, and Pakistan.
The only way to feed the world is to use GM crops. Myth number one, overpopulation is not a thing.
The people who study this for a living say that at most, the human population will top out at
10 to 12 billion. There are TED talks discussing this as far back as a decade ago – but in short,
as countries become more developed and have better access to health care, family planning,
and birth control, the birth rate drops to 2. Sometimes even less than two like in Italy and
Japan. Luckily, the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell recently did a video debunking
this myth, so now more people are aware of it. Stop saying overpopulation is a thing,
it’s not a thing. As long as we keep helping undeveloped countries reach a better standard
of living anyway. The point is, that we can easily feed 12 billion people. That’s not a
problem. But we have to use GM crops to do so. So let’s talk about the alternative, the one
that only middle and upper class people in America and Europe seem to endorse. [Angelic choir sings]
Organic farming. If all of the current farmland in the world were converted to organic farming,
we could only feed 4 billion people. That’s just math. With the current world population being
about 7.5 billion people, I don’t see half of them willing to go ahead and just starve so you can
organically farm. It requires way too much land and resources to grow organically, for very little
pay off. Growing organically is fine for you in your backyard garden, but it’s not enough to feed
the world. Study after study has confirmed that organic food is no more nutritious for you than
conventionally grown food. And in blind taste tests, nobody is able to tell the difference.
To be labelled organic, organic food only needs to be 95% organic. They cannot use synthetic
pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, unless they’re on an approved list. Natural pesticides,
herbicides, and fertilizers are totally allowed – and obviously required unless you want your entire
crop to fail. So the myth that organics are chemical free is… just that… a myth.
So… why do people dislike GMOs? The answer is psychology – and it’s two-fold.
People know very little about GMOs, which is why I prefaced this with a little recap. In survey
after survey, people are woefully unaware of the reality. In one survey asking basic
questions about GMOs, the average score was 60.8%. That’s a D-, barely passing. Another
survey asked people to check off which items in the supermarket are GMOs. People assume there are
genetically engineered chicken and salmon, there aren’t. People think that there are GM tomatoes,
apples, and oranges. There aren’t. The FlavrSavr tomato has been off the shelves for over 20 years.
The “frankenfood '' potatoes injected with frog DNA, while approved, aren’t commercially available
yet. Most of the GM crops that you consume on a daily basis are the commodity crops,
like corn, soy, soybeans, canola, and sugar. But while people are tragically misinformed about
GMOs, they also KNOW that they are tragically misinformed. 54% of people admit to knowing “very
little” or “nothing at all” about biotech or GMOs. But still, 64% of people are against GMOs. Which
means at least some of those people belong to the group that admittedly know they are underinformed.
So where does this opposition come from? Well, last week I did a video on disgust.
I only focused on the type of disgust you feel when handling gross body fluids,
or eating something spoiled, or what I feel when I look in the mirror. Physical disgust. But there is
another type of disgust – moral disgust. The classic thought experiment used by
people who study moral disgust, like Jonathan Haidt, goes like this: A brother and sister,
both of age and both consenting, want to have a sexual relationship. They’re using birth control,
so no children are possible. Should they be allowed to do it? Almost every answer here
is going to be no. But why? Most people’s go-to answer as for why not has to do with the potential
birth defects of the child, but there is no child bearing here, this is purely sex for pleasure.
Still no. But why? Because ew. And that’s moral disgust. It’s heterosexual, consensual,
and not for procreation, so any disgust you might feel because of homosexuality, rape, or
birth defects is negated. It’s just because… ew. There are very few things in life that elicit a
moral disgust response like that. Something where when you boil it all down, the answer is “because
ew.” And it turns out GMOs are one of them. You can present people with all of the facts:
That it’s just as healthy as conventional food, it poses no additional harm, it’s needed to feed the
entire world, and it tastes no different. None of that matters, they are absolutely morally opposed.
And that’s likely due to marketing. Words like “organic” and “natural” sound nice. Even I would
like to eat things labelled like that – at least until I saw the price tag. People are
totally fine eating GM crops as long as they’re not TOLD that they’re GM crops – which might be a
reason why some people want GM crops labeled that way. The problem is that just about everything in
the supermarket would have to be labelled then. The main issue is that stories like
the potato crossed with a frog make the news, and they’re called GMOs rightfully so. But then when
people hear that corn and wheat are also GMOs, and then are then fed to cows and chickens,
they assume that all GMOs and the animals that eat them are somehow “frankenfoods”.
The main moral argument seems to be that you shouldn’t be crossing plants and animals and
creating anything unnatural… and you certainly shouldn’t be eating anything
unnatural. That’s what elicits the moral disgust and absolute opposition. If people were made more
aware of what GM crops really are, and how important they really are, they’d probably
be more likely to endorse their use. Either that, or they’d assume I’m being
paid by Monsanto. I’m not… but if they were interested… Which is the second part of why
people dislike GMOs. Distrust of corporations. Because corporations like Monsanto, are often
accused – and often guilty – of doing some pretty despicable things, especially to the environment,
that umbrella of suspicion covers everything they do – even the genuinely good things they
do like trying to provide food for the entire world. Corporations are looked at with suspicion
and doubt. Just the word “corporation” [loud static] triggers a negative emotional affect
that words like company or business do not. So because GM crops are bioengineered by
corporations like Monsanto, and are therefore owned and controlled by Monsanto, people look
at them with distrust. Nevermind the years of FDA, USDA, and scientific scrutiny that goes
into approving them – even after approval, those crops may not be commercially available for years.
People have been tampering with our food for thousands of years. Through selective breeding at
first, to create cows and chickens with more meat, and corn with higher yields, to cross-breeding in
order to make apples taste better and carrots orange for some reason. Then we just blasted
our food with radiation just to see what happened. And now we’ve graduated to genetics.
Just take a moment to think about our superheroes. Way back in the day, it was just a man that
somehow got crossed with a fish. Then radiation was a big thing. Whether it was someone who was
blasted by gamma radiation or someone bit by a radioactive spider. But now it’s genetics. They
even changed one of the superheroes' backstories in the reboot so that he was bit by a genetically
mutated spider. Genetics is the science boogey-man of the day. And it shouldn’t be – we actually
understand quite a bit about genetics. I mean, I don’t, but people that I trust do. So the next
time someone tells you that you’re eating an apple that’s been spliced with a spider monkey,
or they tell you that organic farming is the only way to go, nevermind the billions of people that
will starve, maybe now, you’ll know better. Hey guys if you enjoyed that video, or you
learned something, make sure to give that like button a click. If you’d like to see more from me,
I put out new videos every weekend, so go ahead and modify that subscribe button. If you’re
already subscribed and you haven’t been getting notifications about me, make sure to hit that
little bell that’s right next to the subscribe button. This is one of those topics that a lot
of people have opinions on so make sure to follow us on the Reddit, and while you’re at it, find me
on Facebook, and Twitter. But in the meantime, if you’d like to watch one of my older videos,
how about this one?
[Outro music]