It’s Friday after work. Thomas and Bob are at their usual bar drinking beer. Bob gets up to buy another round and get another bowl of peanuts. When he gets back he finds Thomas has turned a bright red and is struggling to breathe. Later, at the hospital, it turns out Thomas has suffered an allergic reaction to peanuts. He’s 28 and he’s never been allergic to them before. So why now? Thomas believes the legumes were genetically modified. By splicing genes together scientists created a different type of peanut, one to which he had a bad reaction.

Is this true? We can’t necessarily blame genetically-modified (GM) foods. Although most allergies appear in childhood, you can also develop them later in life. To someone like Thomas—and the average consumer—the idea of GM foods is straight out of a sci-fi movie, complete with evil scientists crossing genomes to breed killer crops.

The term GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) refers to crops that have been modified in the laboratory for human or animal consumption. The idea of modifying a plant is to increase desired traits and decrease undesired traits. Examples are making a tomato redder and juicier, and increasing its shelf longevity. Or making a mealie kernel larger and more nutritious. Or making a mango less stringy.

The idea is not new. People have been using selective breeding for centuries (dogs were never meant to be as small as a Chihuahua or as large as a Great Dane). Our own Professor Perold of Stellenbosch University is the inventor behind the hybrid grape Pinotage, which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Cinsaut). There have also been numerous fruits that have been cross-pollinated to our liking. The orange, for example, is reputed to have had a more bitter flavour.

Radioactivity, not the type specifically emitted by uranium, but that is found throughout the earth and is emitted by the isotopes of dozens of different elements—gases, metals, minerals—also modifies the genetics of plants. This process has been going on, not for centuries, not for millennia, but for aeons. We have adapted to and evolved alongside these changes. But perhaps these processes don’t seem as nefarious as GM foods because, in a sense, they are deemed to be natural.

GMO supporters say conventional plant breeding methods are time consuming and often inaccurate. With GM foods also comes the hope of eradicating world hunger, of getting greater yields from smaller crops and fewer hectares.
Do GM foods pose a health risk? GM foods have been blamed for allergies, asthma and even cancer. There is, however, no conclusive evidence that they are bad for your health. They do nevertheless pose a number of other threats. The loss of biodiversity is one. The rather more capitalist issue of large corporations controlling the world’s food supply is another—corporations can actually own the crop (or organism) they produce, and have all rights over it.

So while it is not our health to which GM crops pose a threat, it is probably more the mental and physical health of our planet as a whole about which we are anxious.