Editorial: Fanning GMO fears

Published: Wednesday, July 2, 2014 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, July 1, 2014 at 4:29 p.m.

Genetic engineering is such a polarizing topic that it is hard to have an even-handed debate of the issue.

Some opponents of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, spread false claims about safety while ignoring the vast amount of research to the contrary.

That frustrates University of Florida researchers who have made advances in genetic engineering that might provide benefits in fighting crop diseases and reducing the need for pesticides if they could get beyond public misconceptions.

As The Sun reported this week, UF researchers have taken a gene found in bell peppers and transferred it to tomatoes. The process has made tomatoes that are resistant to a particularly troublesome crop disease and have a higher yield.

Contrary to scare stories about Frankenfoods, these methods represent a more technologically advanced way of doing the kind of crop breeding that has happen for millennia.

But Florida tomato growers worry they wouldn't be able to sell a GMO product, hampering the ability of researchers to attract investors.

"People are afraid, they don't understand why, they are just told they should be," Sam Hutton, a UF plant scientist involved in the research, told The Sun. "The anti-GMO crowd screams really loud, and there is a lot of fearmongering. It sounds bad to people who don't understand the science."

Other GMOs being developed at UF include a strawberry that can be grown without fungicides. A researcher involved in that effort told The Sun that the crop likely won't go beyond the lab without a change in public attitudes.

"You have solutions that can help the environment, help farmers and help people in the developing world, and you can't use it," said Ken Folta, professor and chairman of UF's Horticultural Sciences Department.

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Editorial: Fanning GMO fears