Frankenfoods

GMO stands for genetically modified organism or any living thing that has had its genetic material altered using genetic engineering techniques ... see: Wikipedia Entry for much detail about this process. The purpose of these genetic alterations in plant foodstuffs is primarily to enable them to resist disease, pesticides and insects ... or better tolerate environmental stress. Some examples of foods that have been so altered are corn (insect resistance, etc.), wheat (drought tolerance, etc.), and soybeans (survive saline conditions, etc.). Monsanto has been a leading developer of such products with its Roundup Ready line of products.

Obviously genetic engineering is akin to natural evolution only on a vastly compressed time scale. In nature, genetic mutations occur as a matter of course ... with good ones surviving and bad ones being selected out. Genetic engineering speeds up this process with (hopefully) good intentions. But as could be expected there has been a public backlash against such Darwinian tampering  ... with the term "frakenfoods" being the pejorative used to turn the public against such scientific advances.This public aversion is similar to the hysteria that now surrounds vaccinations and that which once pushed back against the use of fluoride in drinking water. In both cases there seems to be a very small risk associated with a very large public benefit. To me, this same cost-benefit trade-off also applies to GMOs.

However, GMOs have apparently now become a real bugbear ... with marketing hucksters now using the banning of foods containing GMOs as a selling advantage, The most recent example of same is Chilpolte Mexican Grill which now brags that it will phase out meals that contain GMOs ... see: Organic Connection Magazine Article. This is easier said than done as huge amounts of worldwide acreage is now devoted to growing GMO crops (see the above-referenced Wikipedia article) and many nearby non-GMO fields have also been cross-pollinated by such plants. And since the testing for GMOs is not easy and cheap, it is quite likely that much of this marketing hype is just that ... empty claims ... see: USA Today Article..

So until such time as Al Gore travels the country with his PowerPoint presentation decrying the evils of frankenfoods, I'm not going to fret too much about this newest GMO way to feed mankind.
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