Genetically Modified Organisms: Market Feasibility And Political Challenges

Who are the people being negatively affected by this problem? Identify specific groups of people or interests that are, or will be, negatively impacted by this issue. What is the magnitude of that impact on these groups? A great deal? Very little?

Scale: What is the measurable size of this problem? Is it a local problem, endemic to a certain area, but has national implications? Is it a national problem entirely? What could be the long-term effects should the problem go unchecked?

Market Feasibility: Should this problem not have any government intervention could it be resolved by the market on its own? If unchecked, are there market-based interventions that could feasibly solve the problem?

Final Recommendation For or Against:

A brief paragraph for or against government intervention, strictly based on the assessment of the scale and scope of the issue the government is attempting to resolve and the feasibility that the market can resolve the issue on its own. The challenge in this assignment will be to take the complex ideas that you are engaging with and condense them into easily readable but also informative sentences.

Identifying Those Affected by the GMO Issues

People have been trying to alter the animals and the plants for several years through the old and traditional breeding techniques. Recently, the developments in the genetic engineering have assisted the researchers to incorporate accurate changes into the organism through the insertion of new genes into an organism. The genetically modified organisms are the agricultural plants that are the most cited examples. There are some inherent benefits of genetically modified food crops like greater food security, disease and pest resistant crops, reduced costs of the drug or food production. Certain crops that have already been genetically modified are plum, canola, corn and soybean. There are different types of the industries that benefit from the genetically modified organisms. For instance, microorganisms are under research that can be used as bio degraders and also will be able to produce clean fuel (Nature.com. 2018). This study is based on the genetically modified organisms and the various issues that are arising in the in the market of the genetically modified organism business field and the associated politics which is preventing it to reach the general mass and the market.

The study tries to create a balance between the market requirements and the political scenario surrounding the use of genetically modified organisms. In the last decade, there has been increased focus upon the use of genetically modified organisms particularly in the medicine and the food industry. The genetic mutations caused within a number of species were used affirmatively for the production of recombinant proteins (Tosun & Schaub, 2017). As mentioned by Boccia (2015), the recombinant products either found usage in the food industry or the medicine industry.  The dependence upon genetically modified animal products has been particularly found use in the third world or the developing nations.  As supported by Twardowski & Ma?yska (2015), the GMO has been seen to reduce the food hunger or drive away the issue of malnutrition within the population.

There are two different aspects of using recombinant DNA technology for altering the genetic sequences in organisms.  It is mainly used for the production of genetically modified products such as recombinant drugs, which could be used for the betterment of the mankind. Additionally, the pharmaceutical companies are using the GMOs for gaining market profits long with allowing additional treatment options to the population. However, recently there   have been a number of issues on the political frontier regarding the use of GMO (Tosun & Schaub, 2017). Some of these are the health concerns which mainly focus upon the side effects which can happen due to the consumption of GMO for longer periods of time.

Market Feasibility and Government Intervention

The lack of knowledge regarding the GMO affects both the marketers and the customers alike. Therefore, transparent dissemination of knowledge is required over the same as little knowledge can lead to wrong selection of products affecting consumer health.

A study was conducted by Pew Research Centre and found that 39 percent of the Americans have a belief that the genetically modified food crops are worse for health (Funk and Kennedy 2018). One of the major and the vital issues that arose due to the emergence of genetically modified food crops in the market is the power has shifted from the local organic farmers to the biotechnology companies and the companies that are exclusively manufacturing the genetically modified organisms. Some of the major organic farmers have shared their opinion that the companies have gained the market control over the production of the food and crops. Another major concern is the too much dependence of the third world countries on the genetically modified food crops. This issue has affected global and national food and drug development industries alike, where the GDP from GMO still lies at 23.15 globally indicating less purchase (Tosun & Hartung, 2018).

Here, the marketing challenges and failure of introducing GMO have been discussed in details. One of the major issues which are faced in the marketing of GMO is the lack of knowledge in the participants regarding the products.  Due to lack of effective information and ideal outcome is not achieved.  The Food and Drug administration (FDA) had proposed a revised guideline in order to clarify its approach regarding the regulation of intentionally altered genomic DNA in animals.  The section FD&C includes articles intended to use in diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment and prevention of disease in man and animals. Therefore, all the articles used for the diagnosis along with the procedure need to follow the guidelines listed in the FD&C.  Thus, failure to follow the guidelines  can lead to legal barricades  where the drugs invented  through the use  of recombinant DNA technology has been  often been termed  unfit  for use (Rzymski & Królczyk, 2016) This serves as major hindrance to the marketing of the GMO. The guidelines effectively cover some of the basic questions pertaining to the safety of the altered genomic products, surrounding human, animal and environmental risks.  Therefore, in the lack of effective follow up with the FDA guidelines and principles there are legal obligations.  Most of the producers lack a clear stated policy regarding National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which informs the public regarding the process FDA is using to later the genomic sequences in e animals for the production of recombinant drugs (Tosun & Hartung, 2018). This further leads to greater level of doubt in the minds of the target customer group, which further hinders the sale of the product. In order to understand the market advantages of GMO a SWOT analysis could be performed as follows.

Benefits and Examples of GMOs

Table: SWOT analysis of GMO

(Source: author)

From the analysis one of the major drawbacks which have surfaced is less knowledge possessed by the consumers as well as the producers regarding the product which leads to product imbalances.

A news article published in The Washington Post which titled that the American government is working on countering the misinformation regarding the GMO food crops. According to the article, the Food and Drug Administration will provide funds for a campaign that will work for the promotion of the genetically modified food crops. This is done under a bipartisan agreement so that the government keeps on funding. In this regard, more than 50 food and agricultural industrial groups have signed a letter in order to counter the funding process (Washington Post 2018). The political controversy is that the self-sufficiency in terms of the food security of developing nations is threatened by the big biotechnology companies are based in North America. These companies are earning huge revenues and sweeping away the profits from the developing countries. Europe has stricter regulatory laws in comparison to the United States. There is another school of thought which says that due to the disapproval and mistrust there and the protectionist policies taken up by Europe hinders the movement of the genetically modified organisms. Zambian political crisis occurred in the year 2003 when Zambia refused genetically modified crops. Zambia rejected the genetically modified maize which was under a food program initiative taken up by United Nations. It was however later found that the Zambian government has later amended its policies and chose to approve the genetically modified maize into the country (Geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk 2018).

In terms of the politics, the genetically modified food crops remain one of the most controversial issues over the several governments. The United States remains one of the biggest producers of the genetically modified crops, while in Britain there have been turbulences both with respect to the general public and at the political level (Geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk 2018).

There are instances of debacle in France with respect to the lawlessness and politics. There have been several issues regarding the position of the government and researches carried out in the field of genetically modified food crops and the associated technologies and the experiments. There have been complications regarding the cultivation of the genetically modified maize in the country from the perspectives of the farmers (Kuntz 2014). It has become a fashion with respect to the opposition in the consumer and the environmental protection movement by the social part and the Green party in Germany (Katzek 2014).

Thus, form the above study it can be concluded that the genetically modified organisms are introduced in the market with the intention of increasing the crop yield so that the food can be sustained and fed to the ever-growing population. The complication, however, arises when it has been found that the genetically modified food may have adverse effect on the environment and the population as a whole. This has led to the worldwide protest both from the government and the consumers that are unwilling to accept the genetically modified food.  

Therefore, maintaining transparency with regards to the FDA guidelines while reaching out the customers can help in clearing of the vague concepts related to GMO within the target customers. The companies need to launch the animal derived products in lieu of the NEPA act which could reduce the political barriers.

References 

Boccia, F. (2015). Genetically modified organisms: what issues in the Italian market?. Calitatea, 16(145), 105.

Funk, C. and Kennedy, B., 2018. The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science. [online] Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: https://www.pewinternet.org/2016/12/01/the-new-food-fights/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].

Geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk, 2018. Political Effects of GM Foods. [online] Geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk. Available at: https://www.geneticallymodifiedfoods.co.uk/political-effects-gm-foods.html [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].

Katzek, J., 2014. At the end of the day everything boils down to politics: The evolving of German policy toward GMO crops and the existing stagnation. GM crops & food, 5(3), pp.178-182.

Kuntz, M., 2014. The GMO case in France: politics, lawlessness and postmodernism. GM crops & food, 5(3), pp.163-169.

Nature.com., 2018. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) | Learn Science at Scitable. [online] Available at: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732 [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].

Rzymski, P., & Królczyk, A. (2016). Attitudes toward genetically modified organisms in Poland: to GMO or not to GMO?. Food Security, 8(3), 689-697.

Tosun, J., & Hartung, U. (2018). Decentralising competences in multi-level systems: insights from the regulation of genetically modified organisms. West European Politics, 41(3), 803-823.

Tosun, J., & Schaub, S. (2017). Mobilization in the European Public Sphere: The struggle over genetically modified organisms. Review of Policy Research, 34(3), 310-330.

Twardowski, T., & Ma?yska, A. (2015). Uninformed and disinformed society and the GMO market. Trends in biotechnology, 33(1), 1-3.

Washington Post, 2018. The government is going to counter ‘misinformation’ about GMO foods. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/03/the-government-is-going-to-try-to-convince-you-to-like-gmo-foods/?utm_term=.6db9ad714a79 [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].