Genetically Modified Organisms happen when a set of technologies alter the genetic makeup of a living organism such as plant, animal, or bacteria. I won’t get into the technical part of how this is done because I’m not a biologist and unless you are its pretty complex. Lets just say that they take favorable genetic traits from one organism and combine that DNA trait with another organism which they want to have that specific trait. For example, if you wanted a pepper plant to have a longer growing season you might take a DNA trait from another organism that has a high tolerance to cold such as a fish and take that DNA trait and mix it with the pepper plant’s DNA. Sounds a little Frankenstein right? That is why there is so much controversy surrounding it.
According to the government’s Human Genome Project, in 2006 a total of 252 million acres of transgenic crops were planted in 22 countries by 10.3 million farmers. The top countries for this were the US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, China, Paraguay and South Africa. The majority of these crops were herbicide and insect resistant soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, alfalfa, and rice with increased iron and vitamins. The hope was that this rice would alleviate the chronic malnutrition in asian countries. According to the HGP coming soon will be bananas that produce human vaccines against infectious diseases, fish that mature quicker, cows that are resistant to mad cow disease, and fruit trees that yield years earlier.
Some make it seem like GMO is the answer to all our problems. We can take natural organisms and make them the best DNA has to offer. Well not so fast, whenever you mess with mother nature (and god if your the religious type) then there is usually a price to pay. As with many of the issues today regarding safety of chemicals and pesticides, GMO foods have not been tested enough to accurately determine what the human health impact will be.
The government says that the benefits will include reduced maturation time, increased nutrients, resistance to pests and herbicides, and new growing techniques. They say animals will have improved health, better yields of eggs and milk, and better resistance, productivity, and hardiness. As for the environment they claim conservation of soil, water, and energy, better natural waste management, and bioprocessing for forestry products. And finally they claim that it will be increased food security for growing populations.
I can’t help but think that most if not all of these “benefits” can be achieved using natural organic methods and that those that cannot are pretty much against the natural way of things and shouldn’t be achieved anyway! I mean we know that mad cow disease comes from cows eating animal bi-products and unsanitary conditions so why do we need to mess with DNA to make them resistant to it? Wouldn’t that just give the slaughterhouses more reason to treat the animals inhumanely and keep them in filthy conditions? We are trying to increase efficiency and produce more from animals but I just don’t think that its natural to expect cows to produce that much more milk or chickens to produce more eggs. Why not put that money back to the farmers and encourage farms here in the US that could help with food shortages and boost the economy? There must be a reason that plants don’t mature years earlier than they already do and that is up to nature. What will happen to the bees now since they are in charge of pollinating these new GMO crops? Some things are just the way they are and not to be messed with!
So the controversies as the HGP calls them are potential human health impact, allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects of environmental impact, unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity. Other cons could be that few companies would dominate the world food production, increased dependency on industrialized nations from developing countries, and foreign exploitation of natural resources. Ethically speaking there is the violation of nature, tampering with nature by mixing genes among species, and stress for the animals.
Labeling is not mandatory in the US and probably won’t be even in the future so you will have no way of knowing what you are eating. I think its easy to see that the negative aspects of GMO far out way the positives at this point. I don’t know what it will take to get away from this trend but being educated about it is the first line of defense. Try to purchase non GMO foods that you can find in health food stores and even sometimes in the regular supermarkets. A CSA or farmers market might be your best friend so talk to the farmers nearby and see what growing techniques they are using, most likely a smaller farm wont be using GMO crops. As always try to keep your family safe and healthy!
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