Demystifying GMOs

is. A young professional woman also found it difficult to answer the same question.
A tricky question for them, I suppose.

It is really sad at this stage to know that everyone is talking about GMOs yet few truly understand what they are.
When people hear this term, what often comes into their minds, is a foreign idea that has no benefit to Zimbabweans.
There is so much negativity surrounding the issue of GMOs. This article will serve to demystify GMOs.
Genetically Modified Organisms are organisms that are deliberately altered to add, remove or alter genes for the improvement of crop productivity or resistance to pests and diseases.

Terms that are used to refer to these organisms are; transgenics and GM for Genetically Modified.
The same genes that are transferred during conventional ways of breeding are the same genes that are responsible for the production of GMOs, genetic modification only speeds the process.
This practice of producing GMOs is a scientific practice that is done in a lab and falls under the study of Biotechnology.

With the development of science, scientists are able to identify the genes that are responsible for certain characteristics that some organisms possess; like eye colour in humans, seed shape and size in plants, the list is endless.
It has been this discovery that changed breeding of plants and animals of late.
When one organism has a characteristic that is required in another organism, the required gene, is studied, fished out and transferred to that new organism for its own benefit.

A series of laboratory tests are done to ensure the correct incorporation of the new gene and its safety before the new GMO is released to the market.
For this kind of an operation to be successful, the donor organism should be able to be manipulated in the laboratory.
In the case of plants, the resultant plant is multiplied and tested again in the laboratory and then greenhouse and later in the field.

At this point, Government (The National Biotechnology Authority) regulates the process to ensure that nothing happens that is against the national interest.
Genetic modification has many benefits in different industries.
In agriculture genetic modification reduces the impact of agriculture on the environment reducing revenue directed towards pesticides and environmental pollution.

With GMOs only the important pests of a crop are targeted allowing more diversity in the ecosystem.
In the field of medicine, drugs, vaccines, proteins, hormones, vitamins and test kits production have been revolutionised by biotechnology.
In the food industry, beer, bread, yoghurt, cheese and cooking oil production can now utilise genetically modified organisms.

This method of genetic modification is so beneficial because it breaks the limits that exist when using conventional ways of breeding and has the potential to deal with many other deficiencies and diseases.
The technology has been adopted in some countries like South Africa and South America where they have managed to protect their yields from pests and also reduced the price of producing their food.

From a scientist’s point of view, I would encourage our country to adopt certain GMOs mainly because of their benefits.
We do not necessarily have to import GM seeds for our farmers but we can encourage the local seed companies to develop their own GM crops.

There are some varieties that have proven to be so good to local farmers. These can be engineered for the benefit of the nation.
The risks that most people talk about are mostly theoretical, long-term “possibilities” and they need scientific back up to be valid.
There is no paper that has been published scientifically and peer reviewed that supports to confirm these alleged risks.

To make a correction, there are no genetically modified chickens anywhere in the world being sold on the market. It has to be clarified because most people have an impression that the imported chickens are GM. These so called GM chickens were bred using conventional methods and high feed conversion breeds were selected and the conditions of growth altered to promote growth.

In Zimbabwe, the University of Zimbabwe, Chinhoyi University of Technology and the National University of Science and Technology are producing high quality graduates at undergraduate and Masters Level.
These graduates have found their way into sophisticated Laboratories in the United States of America, South Africa and other counties.

The questions we need to ask now are do we shun GMOs and continue the brain drain and importation of GM foodstuffs or give our scientists a platform to produce our own home grown solutions to our challenges of food availability.

What this country needs is an enabling environment for research and production of GM crops and commitment from the local industry and people at large.