In this article, we will be taking a look at the top 20 real examples of genetically modified organisms. To skip our detailed analysis, you can go directly to see the top 5 real examples of genetically modified organisms.
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, refer to organisms which are produced through scientific methods and technology, rather than conventional, completely natural methods. While farming and agriculture came into existence around 12,000 years ago, scientific advancements especially in the past several decades have changed the entire industry and led to the creation of GMOs, which aim to revolutionize the world of agriculture in several ways.
While there are many conspiracy theories existing regarding GMOs and many countries are still reluctant to implement any such “unnatural change”, the truth is that their existence is only beneficial to the world, mainly by improving yield and output and minimizing damaging practices in the agricultural industry. In fact, nowadays, in many advanced countries, most food is made using ingredients which are derived from GMO crops. Some of the real examples of genetically modified organisms including very mundane, day to day food items such as soybeans, corn oil, canola oil and even some fruits and vegetables including potatoes.
Of course, concerns that chemicals are used to alter foods can be a cause for concern which is why such processes are quite strictly regulated. In the United States, some of the country’s most popular crops are examples of genetically modified organisms, and these are then used to make other GMO foods such as cornstarch being made from GMO corn. In the U.S. the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are all responsible for regulations concerning GMOs.
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Monsanto is credited with being the first company to start the creation of GMOs, and was bought by Bayer for $66 billion in 2016. Bayer has an entire entity known as Bayer Crop Science, which uses tech and science to develop GMOs. One of the biggest conglomerates in the world, Bayer states that to bring a single genetically modified seed to a market, it takes around 13 years and over $130 million. Unfortunately, despite being one of the biggest GMO companies in the world, Bayer has seen its share price fall primarily due to its Crop Science division, in particular the glyphosate business. The company is currently burdened with debt and has lost more than 11% in its share price YTD. Bayer’s poor performance and uncertain outlook has resulted in many hedge funds pulling out of the stock.
Broyhill Asset Management made the following comment about Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (OTC:BAYRY) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“The largest detractors to performance over the quarter were First Horizon Corp (FHN), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), and Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (OTC:BAYRY). Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and life sciences company, is firmly in the running for our most frustrating investment. Following a steady increase in consensus estimates since bottoming in early 2021, numbers took a dive after the company’s first-quarter earnings report. While the miss was relatively minor, the stock’s reaction was not, suggesting that investors were already pricing in additional downgrades to guidance. The incoming CEO may reset the bar even lower after taking a good look under the hood, but we think there is more risk that the CEO, a Roche veteran, will give in to activist investors who are pressing to break up the conglomerate.2 Should investors decide to sharpen their pencils and value Bayer’s individual segments on a stand-alone basis, we believe the discount to peers would quickly disappear. Our base case sum of the parts estimates pegs the company’s fair value at nearly twice current levels. Our longer-term upside estimates are materially higher.”
Of course, Bayer is not the only company to come up with real examples of genetically modified organisms. Other companies also operating in the space include Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) which is attempting to change the future of the food industry. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) has demonstrated an excellent performance in 2023 and has its share price jump by over 13% YTD. Despite a strong year, and a strong Q2 2023 earnings call, Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) called out the challenges being faced by the biotech industry in its earnings call, stating “We’ve seen industrial biotech, particularly the venture funding in that space dry up. This is certainly having a near-term impact, largely in terms of potentially smaller sizes of programs that we’re seeing when we’re signing customers up this year in industrial biotech, although we’re still seeing growth in new programs really across all market segments.”
At the same time, Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DNA) called out the potential of the biotech industry as well as its own ambition by stating “Well, that’s — this is sort of — we’re in that 1950s era when it comes to cell engineering today, right? It’s being done by hand and that high cost and the low quality of that ultimately limits the market for biotech today to really therapeutics and some agriculture products. We believe the potential is much bigger for biotech and our hope is that by automating these processes, we can drive our own version of Moore’s Law and get a scale economic that will ultimately move biotech into these new markets. And much of our focus, really, in history of Ginkgo, but certainly over the last 8 years as we started tapping into venture capital and could invest in increasing automation infrastructure at scale, has been to broaden the platform to serve starting with different species, different markets, notably in the last 4 years, we added mammalian cells to our previous infrastructure in microbial and fungal. That’s been really important in pharmaceuticals. So there’s been this big broadening of the platform, while all running it through the common infrastructure across these more than 100 active programs we talked about earlier.”
Of course, you can’t talk about GMOs and real examples of genetically modified organisms without talking about Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA), an agricultural company which earned nearly $17.5 billion in 2022. Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) has seen its stock price fall by 14% YTD, even though its seeds business has performed really well as mentioned by Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) in its Q2 2023 earnings call where it said “Seed continues what can only be called a terrific performance in the first half of the year, with about 240 basis points of operating EBITDA margin expansion and double-digit organic sales gains in corn. North America is benefiting from higher corn acres and pricing actions, both of which offset higher input costs. Our market share in Seed remains strong.”
Oakmark Fund made the following comment about Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“Corteva, Inc. (NYSE:CTVA) is a leading provider of seed and crop protection chemicals. We believe the seed and crop protection markets have sizeable barriers to entry due to the duration and magnitude of investment required to compete. Both industries require constant innovation: Farmers expect seed yield improvement each year while nature develops immunity to crop protection chemicals over time. As a result, advantages accrue to the largest players with the most R&D resources. Within this context, we believe Corteva is very well positioned. The company has scale, well-recognized brands, a loyal customer base, and a promising R&D pipeline. In addition, we see idiosyncratic opportunities for Corteva to improve its profitability over time, and we believe the current management team is executing well against this opportunity. More recently, the stock has been pressured by near-term headwinds related to inventory destocking and declining crop prices. We see this weakness as an opportunity to invest in a high-quality and defensible business at a discount to both its own historical trading multiple and private market transactions.”
Methodology
As we’ve mentioned earlier, real examples of genetically modified organisms aren’t going to be strange items but normal everyday items which are designed to improve yield and require less insecticide, hence improving both sales and profit margins. Our list of GMO food has been obtained from the Agriculture Marketing Service and Britannica.
20. Sugar Beet
Monsanto developed genetically modified sugar beet in 2005, engineered to have the ability to resist glyphosate and in 2011, around 95% of sugar beet acres in the U.S. were planted based on seeds which were glyphosate resistant.
19. Canola
Monsanto has pioneered many of the real life examples of genetically modified organisms, and the same is true for canola, with Monsanto’s early version being called Roundup Ready.
18. Gal-safe pigs
In December 2020, the FDA approved “a first-of-its-kind intentional genomic alteration (IGA) in a line of domestic pigs, referred to as GalSafe pigs, which may be used for food or human therapeutics.” The modification will result in the elimination of alpha-gal sugar on the surface of the pigs’ cells, and allow for their meat to be consumed by those allergic to alpha-gal sugar.
17. Potato
Genetically modified potatoes are among several examples of genetically modified vegetables, and the Innate potato was first approved in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Innate Potato has been created to avoid browning and blackspot bruising.
16. Summer squash
Summer squash plants are engineered to be able to resist certain plant diseases such as the watermelon mosaic virus, and while these diseases have a lower chance of success against such GM plants, full immunity is yet to be achieved.
15. Pink pineapple
First developed in the early 2000s, the pink pineapple was created by Del Monte Fresh Produce and has a higher concentration of lycopene, a pigment that gives it its distinct pink hue.
14. Zucchini
An important vegetable, zucchini has been genetically modified primarily to become resistant to the zucchini yellow mosaic virus.
13. Soybean
Soybeans are among the biggest American food exports in recent years and soybeans were first genetically modified by Monsanto in 1996 and now, the vast majority of soybean cultivation areas are home to GM soybeans, especially in the U.S.
12. Papaya
Hawaii and China are the two main locations which are home to real examples of genetically modified organisms in papaya, with said modification making them virus resistant.
11. Apple
Apples are one of the most popular fruits out there, and elongating their lives has been something that scientists have been wondering about for decades. Arctic apples are genetically modified fruit which have the ability to delay browning after being cut, an important advancement as nearly half of all produce in the U.S. is thrown away.
10. Alfalfa
Alfalfa is a type of plant which has been genetically modified to increase yields and improve nutrient content. The modification resulted in Alfalfa being immune to glyphosate, a herbicide and has even allowed cows consuming the plant to produce more milk.
9. Cotton
Cotton is one of the most important crops in the world, cotton has been genetically modified in various countries and in 2023, Bangladesh also started growing cotton. Pakistan, one of the largest cotton producers in the world, has also been using GM cotton.
8. Eggplant
Inserting a bacterium into eggplant is a real life example of GMOs being used, in a bid to make eggplants able to better protect themselves against some types of insect pests. However, genetically modified eggplants are some GMOs that have recently been banned by the Philippines Supreme Court as the battle against GMOs continues unabated in many countries.
7. Salmon
Canadian scientists patented genetically modified salmon in a bid to reduce costs through giving a year-round appetite to salmon and allowing it to reach a bigger size much faster than farmed salmon.
6. Golden Rice
Golden rice is one of the real examples of a genetically modified organism, where it has been genetically engineered to produce up to 23 times more beta-carotene as compared to original golden rice, and received the support of more than 100 Nobel laureates in 2016.
Click to continue reading and see 5 Real Examples of Genetically Modified Organisms.
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Disclosure: None. 20 real examples of genetically modified organisms is originally published on Insider Monkey.