OGM tra leggende e realtà

GMOs have always been a hot topic: for many people, they are a cause for concern, while others believe that they offer hope for the future. Although the issue of GMOs is widely discussed and debated in many countries, it remains somewhat taboo in Europe, where the use of GMOs in agriculture has been heavily criticised.

The acronym GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. They are created using biotechnology, which is the science of applying technology to biological systems, in other words living organisms, in order to create or modify products. In recent decades, these processes have been used in the food industry to produce bread, cheese, and beer.

In reality, however, biotechnology has simply copied what has always occurred in natural evolutionary processes, which are the result of the metabolism of microorganisms, such as yeasts and bacteria, or crosses between different species of the same type. The wheat that is cultivated today, for instance, is the result of crossing different types of wheat with each other gradually, over time.

Science has now surpassed nature, however, and is now able to transfer genes, which are pieces of DNA, from one species to another. Today, GM animals and plants are more widespread than we might think: the first genetically modified salmon has already been marketed in Canada, for instance, and many countries introduced GMOs into agriculture several years ago. These innovations are the result of new agricultural varieties developed by scientists, laboratories, and large corporations.