P.C. Shannon

Wired’s current coverstory is about so-called “superorganic” foods, which the article sells as the next generation of genetically modified (GM) foods, frequently referred to as “frankenfoods.” The current crop of GM foods has genes inserted from other species to give them improved functions, such as drought resistance or added nutrients. Superorganics do this one better and activate dormant genes or insert genes from different strains of the same species.

First off, let’s not mince words the way Wired does. Superorganics are still genetically modified. But so are dogs and wheat. Dogs and wheat are the product of controlled breeding whereas “frankenfoods” come out of a lab and, more importantly, contain genes from other species, usually bacteria or some equally foreign donor. Superorganics get sold in the article as being equivalent to the breeding process, just one that has been accelerated by lab techniques. The fact of the matter is that superorganics probably spend more time in the lab than GM foods and achieve results that no breeder in a thousand years could do.

That’s not to knock them at all. Much to the contrary, I think these “superorganic” foods are the way to go. They solve two of the biggest problems of GM foods. The scariest is the idea of “genetic pollution,” which can be thought of as artificially changing the wild gene pool. If a gene that produces beta-carotene is transferred from a GM crop to some native species, who knows what the effect of that would be. Or if a crop contains a bacterial gene that makes it naturally resistant to insects, we run the risk of breeding hardier insects the same way that antibiotics have resulted in many strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. By using only genes native to a species, superorganics avoid this problem. Indeed, many strains currently under development simply reactivate genes that have been shut off by generations of controlled breeding.

The second problem is intellectual property rights. Most of the GM strains were developed by Monsanto, and they have patents on not only the crops but the techniques used to create them. This makes it difficult to feed hungry people in developing countries. Superorganics instead rely on public domain techniques that are free from intellectual property issues.

Superorganics also overcome a number of other issues associated with both modern and traditional techniques of genetic modification. Inbreeding, for example, is a big problem for dog breeders but not superorganics. I’ve long thought that the solution to humanity’s current food crisis — malnutrition is responsible for something like 30 million cases of blindness annually — lies in modifying our crops to better accommodate our needs. As the population grows over the coming century, the food crisis will only worsen. Superorganic foods are part of the solution.