Why We Need to Differentiate Genome Augmenting Methods

It keeps coming up, and so I thought I'd write a blog post about it: Which are GMO's and which are not?

Wheat is not a GMO. If anyone was going to lie and say Wheat was a GMO, certainly the Non-GMO Project would, but they don't. Here, they list the current GMOs, here in the USA: http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/what-is-gmo/

Wheat is on the "Monitored" list, but is not a current GMO. Rather, it has been bred to possess more gluten than wild-type because gluten is the molecule that gives bread its structure and texture.

So, aren't we just playing semantics if we harp about GMO versus nonGMO if the organism is genetically changed in some way?

Yes, and no. Biotechnological genetic modification is a specific process that has come under fire in recent years, partly for what the process can do to the environment, for the fact that it isn't required to be labeled, and for diseases that have cropped up in greater abundance than ever-before recorded. It's the dog of the family, meaning: it's getting blamed for everything.

But the way wheat has been changed is through a process that has been around for ages and ages, and in fact, happens naturally in the wild. We could wait around for nature to cause widespread mutations that benefit both the plants and ourselves, which could take eons, or we can force the hybridization process to benefit ourselves. If it hurt the plant, it would die.

It could be that the increased amounts of gluten in the wheat have caused otherwise nonreactive people to become ill, or it could be that along with the increase in gluten, another part of the plant that ends up in our food that might assist in the development of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity has increased as well. A lot of these changes don't occur in isolation.

Another reason why we might want to be careful with our terminology is because we want doctors and researchers to hear us and do something, anything they can, about these illnesses that are reaching epic proportions. If we come in, guns blazing, railing on about GMOs, then find out they really aren't GMOs and the doctor already knows that, I'm not sure how much the doctor will be inclined to listen. However, if the doctor realizes we know our stuff, he or she may be more inclined to hear our complaints and do something about it.

On the note of getting the doctor to listen, I did have a nurse practitioner say that wheat is a GM food. While I try not to judge someone's abilities on such statements, it made me pause. I think she is a GREAT NP and the office is AMAZING! I really love that place. I will use the office in the future if the need arises. So, no, I didn't "throw the baby out with the bathwater." It's just that the claim she made took me aback.

Stay well,

RG