Food Biotechnology; a threat or improvement?
Why is food biotechnology so controversial? Consumers particularly in Europe, Britain and Japan are particularly hostile to transgenic crops. Many consumers and environmental groups believe that these crops are potentially dangerous to humans and the environment and that these risks have been insufficiently assessed. There is also a common perception that food biotechnology is beneficial only to the companies involved in its development, and not to the general public. It is also a favourite target of anti-globalization activitists, who view biotechnology as a means to exploit producers in the developing world.
Public concern about biotechnology increased in the fall of 1999, when large scale contamination of ‘Starlink’ corn was found in taco shells and various other foodstuffs destined for human consumption. This variety of corn contains a gene that produces a protein toxic to the European corn borer, a destructive pest. However, it was never approved for human consumption; prior to the ‘Starlink’ scandal, however, it could be used in animal feed. The reason for this regulatory strategy was a concern that the novel protein had the potential to provoke an allergic response in humans, because it was somewhat resistant to breakdown by digestive enzymes. As a result of this contamination, several companies suffered substantial fiscal damage and public distrust of food biotechnology grew.
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