General Article Consumer benefits of GM crops

Topic Selected: Biotech and Bioethics
This article is 9 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

To date, most GM crop production has addressed the productivity, availability and cost of food supplies, and hence has no clearly visible or easily identifiable consumer benefit. This is now changing, with specific consumer benefits close to market.

Healthier oils and foods

  • Omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in oily fish and widely known for their health benefits in helping to fight cardiovascular disease, are now contained within GM soybeans currently under development. These soybeans will be processed into soya oil (often sold as ‘vegetable oil’) and used to provide a range of foods with significant health benefits.1
  • A GM tomato supplemented with genes from snapdragon flowers (rich in an antioxidant called anthocyanin), developed by the John Innes Centre, could have cancer-fighting properties.
  • Golden Rice, fortified with increased levels of pro-vitamin A, is now at the advanced field trial stage of development in the Philippines, and is now supported by the Gates Foundati...

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