Genetically modified foods face hurdles

University of Florida researchers are making significant advances in genetic engineering — breeding strawberries, papayas and tomatoes that are disease-resistant and growing plants that produce larger yields.

But their work is not destined for commercialization, due to a lack of financial backing and interest in getting these products through all the regulations necessary to put them on the path to the local supermarket and our dinner tables.

Public opinion is having a detrimental effect on research, scientists say, because growers in Florida don't want to invest the millions it would take to push GMOs — short for genetically modified organisms — through the federal regulatory process for fear the public won't buy them.

“People are afraid, they don't understand why, they are just told they should be” afraid of genetically engineered products, said Sam Hutton, a plant scientist specializing in tomato genetics at the Gulf Research and Education Center in Wimauma, located east of Interstate 75 between Tampa and Bradenton. “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.”

Very few of the whole foods that consumers buy are genetically modified. Less than 1 percent of genetically modified foods are eaten whole, some sweet corn, papaya and squash, scientists say.

Source: www.ocala.com