The New Frontier in the Food Industry, Friend or Foe?

I am one of those people that like to know what I am eating. I'm always label reading for ingredients and nutrition information. I try to mostly eat whole foods (fresh fruit, veggies, meats... things that have not been processed, or things that are one ingredient). I try to shop for organic or Non GMO verified foods. Now there's a new concern: synthetic bioengineered food, or synbio food for short.

It's all still new to me, as I have just recently heard about this a couple weeks ago and the research is still new. Here's a very basic understanding of how synbio foods are made: It's basically making DNA that does not naturally exist. This DNA is able to mimic smell, look, and taste of things that do naturally exist. The first "successful" attempt with food was making synbio vanilla flavoring. Apparently vanilla flavor was too costly to make, so scientists found a cheaper way to make their own DNA strands to create something that tastes like vanilla flavor. Now we are making artificial ingredients of artificial ingredients! 

I would not have a complete problem with this if the food industry was giving us freedom of knowledge on consumption. From my current understanding, it will not be mandatory for the food industry to label which foods are synbio foods, just like they are not legally forced to label foods that are GMO (You can thank Monsanto for paying off states in court hearings to prevent you from having the right to know).

I just want to be able to know that the apple I'm buying and eating is really an apple, and that it is pesticide free, and that it has not been altered with DNA from a fish, and that it hasn't had its DNA created in a lab. Is that too much to ask for!?

One beneficial claim is that with making synbio foods, scientists believe that they can make more cost effective food, and more volume of food... in hopes that this will help the world hunger problem. My question is, will it really be beneficial in the long run when we are no longer eating real food?


What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear comments about this one!


Here are some sources about synbio foods: 
http://www.foe.org/projects/food-and-technology/synthetic-biology/No-Synbio-Vanilla

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/beyond-gmos-the-rise-of-synthetic-biology/380770/

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/28/creators-defend-vanilla-flavour-made-using-synthetic-biology
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/17/how-synthetic-biology-could-solve-our-banana-problem/​