Expert response from Community Manager
Moderator for GMOAnswers.com
Thursday, 12/04/2018 14:39
Sun Pacific oranges are not a GM food, in fact, there is no such thing as GMO oranges . While nearly all foods today have been genetically modified or altered in some way through years of selective breeding, oranges are not an example of a GM crop because they have not had their genetic makeup altered through bioengineering.
Simply put, blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Tropicana oranges, seedless oranges – they’re all non-GMO oranges that are used to produce non-GMO orange juice.
However, citrus greening – otherwise known by its Chinese name “huanglongbing”, or “HB” – is a bacterial disease that’s been threatening to starve Florida’s $9 billion orange industry since it first appeared in 2005. The potential solution? To use genetic engineering to create orange trees that are resistant to the disease, a process promoted by the late plant pathologist, Erik Mirkov. This means that, while oranges are currently not a GM crop, the future of oranges may rely heavily on consumer acceptance of genetically modified food.
At present, there are only 10 commercially available GM crops in the US. These are: soybeans, corn (field and sweet), canola, cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, summer squash, papaya, potatoes and apples.
Below is a table outlining which year each crop became commercially available:
| Crop | Year |
|---|---|
| Squash | 1995 |
| Cotton | 1996 |
| Soybean | 1995 |
| Corn | 1996 |
| Papaya | 1997 |
| Alfalfa | 2006 |
| Sugar beets | 2006 |
| Canola | 1999 |
| Potato | 2016 |
| Apple | 2017 |
These are the only 10 GMO crops that are commercially available in the US, but it is also important to note that many of these crops are ingredients in other types of food you may find in your local grocery store.
The GM salmon was recently approved by the FDA and is the first GMO food animal to be approved. It is only commercially available in Canada. The salmon was genetically modified for a few reasons, including to conserve wild fish populations and provide low impact aquaculture. Read more about this first GMO animal, including why and how it was created here.
