Topic: 2024-GMOs and Food Security
Country: Viet Nam
Delegate Name: Isabella Feenstra
The beneficial and adverse effects that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) pose in the realm of food security, health, and sustainability produce widespread impacts on families, societies, and populations. Since biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen discovered the method of recombinant gene crossover between disparate organisms in 1973, producing the first genetically modified organism (GMOs), genetic modifications surfaced in vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, starches, and organisms. The implementation of GMOs to reduce herbicide use, increase crop yields, and improve nutrient density holds promise for alleviating food insecurity and the severity of famine. However, the ambiguous inimical threats GMOs pose to human health and the integrity of food sources remain largely unknown. Thus, GMO use must be carefully monitored and limited within the mainstream lines of agricultural and animal production.
Public opposition to GMOs stems from the obscurity found within their long-term effects on human health, as these nascent culinary items and organisms have yet to undergo extensive testing due to their recent creation. The public remains wary because GMOs have the potential to destabilize safe foods, introduce allergen contaminations or new allergen proteins, increase antibiotic resistance, plant immuno-suppressants, and cause nutrient deficiencies. Various Vietnamese communities hold this GMO reluctance stemming from VietNam’s past encounters with Agent Orange and DDT during the Vietnam War with the United States of America during the 1950s-1970s. Both Agent Orange and DDT—a herbicide and pesticide used to clear vegetation and insects around military bases— are persistent organic pollutants that proved to impart detrimental health impacts, including congenital disabilities and cancer, on the Vietnamese population. Additional inimical results of colonization and wartime pesticides/herbicides encompass the Great Famine of 1944-45 and contaminated agricultural grounds. Consequently, VietNam suffered high rates of food insecurity and low crop yields after the ecological destruction from herbicides. In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Viet Nam underwent the “POPs and Harmful Chemical Management Project,” which removed 50 tons of post-war pesticides like DDT from high-risk areas. However, despite these efforts, VietNam persists as the country with the highest DDT exposure even though the government banned its use and acknowledges the negative influences of pesticides on human health.
To mitigate the effects of hunger and the low productivity of agrarian fields, The Socialist Republic of VietNam seeks to implement sustainable agricultural practices that support consumer markets and local farmers alike. The invaluable benefits of GMOs for food stability, production, and prices cannot be overlooked. The Vietnamese terrain of dense, insect-infested jungle compounds the need for insect-resistant crops that GMOs afford. Recognizing the delicate nature of our communities’ past experiences with alterations to the environment, we seek to gradually incorporate gene editing and “biotech crop solutions through scientific research, technology transfer partnerships, and the continuous refinement of regulatory frameworks” to achieve food security, sustainability, and safety for the welfare of our citizens. In 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) instated the Inter-Ministral Circular 45/2015 that demands all GMO food products must be equipped with a biến đổi gien (genetically modified) label if their GMO contents exceed 5%. Moreover, this applies to imported GMO goods. This legal framework leaves the decision of GMO consumption with the consumer by providing them with adept information on the origins of their food resources.
We support further research regarding the effects and possibilities of GMOs in agriculture to achieve greater economic prosperity, greater food security, and greater sustainability within our country.
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3791249/
https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename=Vietnam%20issues%20mandatory%20GMO%20labeling%20Circular_Hanoi_Vietnam_12-30-2015.pdf
https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/science-and-history-gmos-and-other-food-modification-processes
https://thediplomat.com/2023/06/remembering-vietnams-great-famine/
https://vietnamnews.vn/society/1664429/viet-nam-has-slow-adoption-rate-of-genetically-modified-crops-gap-with-world-widening-ministry.html
https://www.undp.org/vietnam/blog/overcoming-viet-nams-toxic-legacy
https://grain.org/en/article/6863-gmos-in-asia-what-s-happening-and-who-s-fighting-back
