Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) undergo several assessments to ensure that they are safe and nutritious. For example, the composition (vitamins, minerals, protein, fatty acids, etc.) of food and feed from GM crops is compared to the conventional (non-GMO) counterpart for that crop. In these studies, composition data from GM corn hybrids and soybean varieties and their conventional corn and soybean counterparts were grown in many environments over many years. The study concluded that most of the variation in composition could be attributed to growing region, agricultural farming practices and the conventional genetic background of the crop. By comparison the presence of GM had little impact on composition and nutritional quality unlike the large effects from environmental conditions and standard plant breeding. The full journal article can be accessed here: go.nature.com/2einE8j. 

Venkatesh et al., 2015 further confirm these results by showing the significant natural variation found in crop composition due to conventional breeding compared to the lack of impact biotechnology has on composition (bit.ly/2dlvjol). 

This paper shows that the composition of foods from domesticated crops (which have been safely consumed for thousands of years) is highly affected by the growing conditions and plant breeding history. GMOs are compositionally comparable to these conventional crops supporting a conclusion that foods from both are equally nutritious and safe.

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This paper shows that the composition of foods from domesticated crops (which have been safely consumed for thousands of years) is highly affected by the growing conditions and plant breeding history. GMOs are compositionally comparable to these conventional crops supporting a conclusion that foods from both are equally nutritious and safe.

 [/ce_article_image_with_subhead]
George G Harrigan, Denise Lundry, Suzanne Drury, Kristina Berman, Susan G Riordan, Margaret A Nemeth, William P Ridley and Kevin C Glenn.  2010. Natural variation in crop composition and the impact of transgenesis. Nature Biotechnology  28, 402–404 (2010) doi:10.1038/nbt0510-402. 
Venkatesh, T.V.; Harrigan, George G.; Perez, T.; Flint-Garcia, Sherry.  2015.  Compositional Assessments of Key Maize Populations: B73 Hybrids of the Nested Association Mapping Found Lines and Diverse Landrace Inbred Lines. J. Agric. Food Chem., 2015, 63 (21), pp 5282–5295.
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