Key Messages for Understanding GMOs: Questions and Answers
Explore key messages addressing priority questions on GMOs, covering topics such as public engagement, health concerns, environmental impacts, history, and safety assessment. Get insights into the safety of GM foods, regulations, and more to help you understand genetically modified organisms better.
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Presentation Transcript
Developing key messages: what priority questions do we address?
Overview Over 500 comments received Comments are mostly on: (2) health concerns; (5) safety assessment; (6) fundamentals; (8) benefits; and (10) regulations.
Example Are GM foods safe to eat? The answer (key message for this question) could be elaborated from: GMOs approved by national authorities are as safe as their conventional crops or products. Safety assessment based on international standards forms the basis of evaluating the safety of GM foods. (Ref. Kenya)
Topic 1: Public engagement 1. Can I have a say in the authorization process? 2. Can I apply a genetically modified organism for approval? 3. Is there any possibility of being involved in establishing/ changing a national legislation? 4. Where can I get more country information? 5. Where can I get more information at global level?
Topic 2: Health concerns 1. Are GM foods safe to eat? 2. Has there been any serious illness or death resulting from eating foods derived from GMOs? 3. What will happen if the transgenic gene in a GM food item is eaten by human beings? 4. Is there any international consensus? (Codex) 5. Are foods from GM plants more likely to cause an allergic reaction or be toxic?
Topic 3: Environmental concerns 1. Are GM foods safe to our environment? 2. How is risk assessment for the environment done? 3. How do we manage GMO after their release in the environment? 4. Will a new species be created when transgenes from a GM crop escape to its wild relative? 5. Will the target pests develop resistance towards the toxins produced by the GM crops?
Topic 4: History 1. Were people using genetic modification techniques thousands of years ago? 2. When did we start using current genetic engineering techniques? 3. What are the recent significant events in the use of biotechnology? 4. Since when have GM food items been in the market? 5. Are we already consuming foods derived from GMOs?
Topic 5: Safety assessment 1. How is GM food risk assessed? 2. Who conduct the safety assessment of GM food? 3. What is the situation in my country about GM food safety assessment? 4. How many have safety assessments of GM foods been conducted in the world? 5. I have heard of risk management . What is that?
Topic 6: Fundamentals 1. What is gene? 2. What is genetic engineering/ modification? 3. What is GMO? 4. How do we make GMO? 5. What are the differences between conventional vs modern biotechnologies?
Topic 7: Uses and applications 1. What are the food items that have been genetically modified? 2. Is there much GM food on the market in my country? 3. Are any of GMOs already cultivated in my country? 4. Are there any other fields than food and agriculture this technology is used? 5. Give me one example of the use of technology - Bt ?
Topic 8: Benefits 1. What are the benefits for me as a consumer? 2. How can farmers benefit from food biotechnologies? 3. What can modern biotechnology do? 4. Why do we have GMOs? 5. Is this sustainable?
Topic 9: New developments 1. What is genome editing? 2. How are the genome editing techniques used? 3. Can I benefit from this genome editing techniques? 4. How can the genome editing techniques advance scientific researches? 5. What are new development in my country?
Topic 10: Regulations 1. Who is in charge of regulating food biotechnology? 2. How food biotechnologies are regulated? 3. What are the GM products authorized so far? 4. Do GM products need to be labelled? 5. How about issues related with trades, any international harmonization?
