GMOs An End to World Hunger Leah Gray Katie Gilbert Michaela Lott Eric Westich Gregor Mendel first discovered genetic inheritance in 1865 with his experiments on crossing peas It wasn t till much later in 1889 when Hugo de Vries came up with the name gene to represent the unit that was responsible for inheritance of characteristics In 1905 William Bateson established the name genetics for this field of study DNA was discovered in 1944 and its structure in 1953 Once DNA was discovered it created a demand to find ways that it could be manipulated and further researched With the discovery of DNA ligases in 1967 and restriction enzymes in 1970 this allowed scientists to select specific parts of DNA and cut them out and replace them with other DNA sequences This allowed the creation of recombinant DNA After the addition to the discovery of a method to sequence DNA it became more and more manipulatable for scientists A genetically modified organism GMO can be defined as an organism in which its genetic material has been altered in such a way that does not occur naturally ABA HEALTH This allowed scientists to create foods with favorable characteristics that were wanted In 1983 the first genetically modified plant was produced The plant was an antibiotic resistant tobacco plant American radio works This was controversial due to the fact that no one really had an idea on the repercussions this could have In 1994 the first GM food was approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States The food was a tomato that ripened slower than a natural tomato ABA HEALTH After this more and more foods were getting modified in order to create more favorable products In the United States Today the majority of corn soybeans and cotton that is produced are genetically modified To create genetically engineered plants scientists take a plant like corn for example and then add one or more genes to its genome in order to produce the desired characteristics It is then tested and if it passes the necessary requirements seeds from that plant are collected and used in field tests in order to see if it was successful The crop is tested for safety and the amount that is produced If successful then the company modifying the plant seeks approval from the FDA If everything is accepted the seeds are mass produced and sold to farmers who will grow the plant Because the population is expected to double by 2050 the next 30 years need to be focused on food security PLANT PHYSIOLOGY Our production of food now is not going to support the large population projected for the future so we need to double if not triple it People won t notice how large of a problem the expanding population is until there is a short supply of water Because of this we also need to start preserving food that is produced on agricultural lands now Agricultural production needs to be increased to meet the projected population s needs This can be done by the use of fertilizers improved pest control soil and water conservation and the use of improved plant varieties produced in either traditional or biotechnological means PLANT PHYSIOLOGY With these improvements biotechnological applications transgenic plant varieties and functional genomic projects are the best hope of increasing agricultural production when properly introduced into traditional systems The effect of transgenic plant varieties in increasing production and lowering production costs is already being shown In 1996 and 1997 the cultivation of virus insect and herbicideresistant plants accounted for a 5 to 10 increase in yield as well as for savings on herbicides of up to 40 and on insecticides of between 60 and 120 U S dollars per acre James 1998 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY Even though these increases in production are helpful they will have a small impact on the global food supply because the products on the market are for farms that have intensive agriculture over a large area PLANT PHYSIOLOGY Up till now the purpose for most transgenic crops was to reduce production costs but yet they come from high production level areas or wanting to increase the value of the product One example of a transgenic crop doing this is improving the oil quality of seeds By improving the oil quality of seeds you are increasing the overall value of the product Thus the oil from the seed is a transgenic crop One of the main benefits of biotechnology is that it generates strategies for crop improvement that can be applied to many crops Genetically engineered virus resistance insect resistance and delayed ripening are good examples of strategies that could potentially benefit a diversity of crops Transgenic plants of over 20 plant species that are resistant to more than 30 different viral diseases have been produced using variations of the pathogen derived resistance strategy PLANT PHYSIOLOGY Insect resistant plant varieties have been produced for several important plant species including tobacco tomato potato cotton walnut maize sugarcane and rice Of these maize potato and cotton are already under commercial production It is hopeful that these strategies can be used for many other crops important for tropical regions and other regions in the developing world This could be helpful because many plants get eaten by insects and therefore can t be eaten by people Genetically engineered delayed ripening although only tested on a commercial scale for tomato has an enormous potential application for tropical fruit crops which suffer severe losses in developing countries because they ripen rapidly and because there is a lack of appropriate storage conditions and efficient transport systems for them to reach the final consumer Another advantage of plant biotechnology is that it does not require much change from small farmers So far the most of the developments in plant gene transfer technology have been influence by the economic value of the species or trait The economic value of the species or trait is determined by their importance in agriculture To increase global food production it is necessary to make sure that the technology is effectively transferred and adapted to local crops Adapting biotechnology to local crops is an especially an important consideration because indigenous crop species often have deep social and or religious meaning to a culture and simply replacing local crops with another crop to increase productivity could potentially destroy local cultural traditions With that being said most people are