GMOS 101: Your Basic 

Questions Answered

feed your mind 

GMO foods have been available to consumers since the early 1990s. Since then, 

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have worked together to ensure 

that crops produced through genetic engineering are safe for people, animals, and 

the environment. Despite there being a wide range of foods—GMO and 

non-GMO—available to consumers, there is some confusion around what GMOs 

are and how they are used in our food supply.

What makes it a GMO?

A GMO (genetically modified organism) is a plant, 

animal, or microorganism that has had its genetic 

material (DNA) changed using technology that 

generally involves the specific modification of 

DNA, including the transfer of specific DNA from 

one organism to another. Scientists often refer 

to this process as genetic engineering.

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Did you know?

Bioengineered food is the 

term that Congress used 

to describe certain types 

of GMOs when they passed 

the National Bioengineered 

Food Disclosure Standard. 

The Standard defines 

bioengineered foods3 as 

those that contain detectable 

genetic material that has 

been modified through certain 

lab techniques and cannot be 

created through conventional 

breeding or found in nature.

Is it called GMO or 

something else? 

“GMO” has become the common term 

consumers and popular media use to describe 

foods that have been created through genetic 

engineering. This term is not generally used 

to refer to plants or animals developed with 

selective breeding, like the common garden 

strawberries available today that were created 

from a cross between a species native to North 

America and a species native to South America. 

While “genetic engineering” is the term typically 

used by scientists, you will start seeing the 

“bioengineered” label on some of the foods 

we eat in the United States because of the 

new National Bioengineered Food 

Disclosure Standard.

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Non-GMO versions of these crops are also available.

What GMO crops are 

out there? 

Only a few types of GMO crops are grown in the 

United States, but some of these GMOs make up 

a large percentage of the crop grown (e.g., 

soybeans, corn, sugar beets, canola, and cotton). 

In 2020,

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 GMO soybeans made up 94% of all 

soybeans planted, GMO cotton made up 96% of 

all cotton planted, and 92% of corn planted was 

GMO corn. Most GMO crops are used in food for 

animals like cows, chickens, and fish. They are 

also used to make ingredients that are then used 

in food products like cereal, snack chips, and 

vegetable oils. Even though you won’t find many 

GMO fruits or vegetables in the produce section 

of your grocery store, GMOs are a common part 

of today’s food supply. 

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GMO crops in the United States:

Alfalfa

Apples

Canola

Corn

Cotton

Papaya

Pink 

Pineapple

Potatoes

Soybeans

Summer

squash

Sugar 

beets
Why do we have GMOs?

Humans have used traditional ways to modify 

crops and animals to suit their needs and tastes for 

more than 10,000 years. Cross-breeding, selective 

breeding, and mutation breeding are examples of 

traditional ways to make these changes. These 

breeding methods often involve mixing all of the 

genes from two different sources. They are used to 

create common crops like modern corn varieties1

and seedless watermelon. 

Modern technology now allows scientists to use 

genetic engineering to take just a beneficial gene, 

like insect resistance or drought tolerance, and 

transfer it into a plant. The reasons for genetic 

modification today are similar to what they were 

thousands of years ago: higher crop yields, less 

crop loss, longer storage life, better appearance, 

better nutrition, or some combination of these traits.

Did you know?

As of 2017, GMO crops 

are grown in 24 countries 

around the world, such 

as Canada, Brazil, the 

Philippines, and Bangladesh. 

The approval process for 

GMO crops varies from 

country to country, but all 

regulations are based on 

the same objective that 

GMOs should be safe for 

human and animal health and 

the environment.

Do GMOs affect your 

health?

GMO foods are as healthful and safe to eat as 

their non-GMO counterparts. Some GMO plants 

have actually been modified to improve their 

nutritional value. An example is GMO soybeans 

with healthier oils that can be used to replace 

oils that contain trans fats. Since GMO foods 

were introduced in the 1990s, research5

 has 

shown that they are just as safe as non-GMO 

foods. Additionally, research5 shows that GMO 

plants fed to farm animals are as safe as 

non-GMO animal food.

Do GMO plants reduce 

pesticide use?

Some GMO plants contain plant-incorporated 

protectants (PIPs)6 to make them resistant to 

insects, reducing the need for and use of many 

spray pesticides.

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 As another safety measure, 

EPA works with developers and scientists to help 

develop GMOs that will resist insects for as long 

as possible through their Insect Resistance 

Management program.

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 Other GMO plants are 

developed to tolerate certain weed killers, which 

allows farmers a wide variety of options for weed 

control. Some people are concerned that 

farmers who grow these GMOs will use more 

weed killers. While this is sometimes the case, 

EPA regulates the safety of all weed killers that 

farmers use on GMO crops and non-GMO crops 

alike. EPA also shares information9 to help 

farmers who are concerned about weeds 

developing resistance to weed killers.

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Get more information about GMOs at 

www.fda.gov/feedyourmind. 
Sources:

1

https://www.fda.gov/food/food-new-plant-varieties/understanding-new-plant-varieties

2

https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be

3

https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/bioengineered-foods-list

4

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us.aspx

5

https://www.nas-sites.org/ge-crops/2016/05/17/report/

6

https://www.epa.gov/regulation-biotechnology-under-tsca-and-fifra/overview-plant-incorporated-protectants

7

https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/basic-information-about-pesticide-ingredients

8

https://www.epa.gov/regulation-biotechnology-under-tsca-and-fifra/insect-resistance-management-bt-plant-incorporated

9

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-09/documents/prn-2017-2-herbicide-resistance-management.pdf

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