Many different views have already been expressed towards a touchy subject of GMO. But what is GMO?
GMO stands for the Genetically Modified Organisms, a biotechnological breakout in late 70s that allows the replacement of natural material an altered, genetically modified bodies. The bodies as subject of modification can be any means of living creatures including animals, plants, or bacteria. More detailed is at Wiki GMO or in Human Genome article
Generally, Biotechnology is concerned with such living organisms (or, rather bacteria) as enzymes, which widely used in production of yogurt cultures and other milk products such as cheese, brewing beer, or preparing wine.
Worldwide, farmers from different regions of the world (total of 10.3 million) are using the Genetically Modification (GM) technology in order to increase quality and growth time of their products. Few of the most popular modified products are soybeans, cotton, corn, alfalfa and canola. In Canada alone as much as 6% of all food supply are genetically modified products. Just to note, those are the ‘official numbers’.
The GM technology started capturing the major audiences’ attention only in very recent years, prior being either left out unnoticed or else hidden as long as possible from it’s attention.
After wide acknowledgment that humans are, in fact, consuming the GM products, the society stroke back with anticipation and demanded explanation.
Here’s what I located in my search of truth. There are two sides of the question, one of which guarantees biotech products presenting no harm to human beings and that, on the contrary, are beneficial to society. The Monsanto Inc, biotech supporter and producer of Roundup pesticide created a series of interviews made by leading field specialists and scientists who claim that there’s really nothing wrong with technology. Here’s their video series with detailed overview of their views and statements Few of DM’s great benefits were such as: it was tested thus – is safe; it increases the quality of food and its nutrition level; it saves the products from diseases and pests; it even saves society from poverty and hunger in 3d world country, such as Africa.
On the other side we see a huge number of campaigns going against the DM foods all over the world. There’s a countless amount of issue related videos, some of which truly cheesy but have some interesting points including few about Monsanto Inc it self
and some of which are truly alarming
No one seems to hurry and prove that GM foods are, in fact, a harm for a health. Yet, without any notice of approval that those products are harmless they rapidly escaped the laboratories to the market without a hint of government approval.
Alarming indeed, especially considering the severe change in DNA of the GM products and its possible effect on the human beings. Will our kids have four legs, a tail or simply become 6’5” long ? Possibilities are undoubtedly wide and unexplored ! As ornl.gov states that “allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance markers, unknown effects” may occur… I particularly enjoy the “unknown effects” since genetic modifications in organism usually occur in next generations
After digging the Internet sources I went to the store to purchase some groceries and to my greatest astonishment I found 90% of the content either containing the modified products or being modified it self. I then examined the substance of my fridge and discovered the similar situation.
Changing my eating habits would be rather expensive since the organic food cost more than genuine products on the market. Aftermath of the research, however, shows that this change is a necessity, unless we feel exceptionally adventurous toward the future generations.
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Yeaaah….organics are much better….but did you state anywhere the viewpoints on GMOs…I must have missed it.
This is hardly what you would call an objective article. While all the supposed “threats” of GMO’s you mention are potential dangers (that after over TWO DECADES of testing by scientists all over the world) hold no scientific claims, no where in this article did I read about the many other GMO’s that are irrefutably beneficial to society. What about golden rice that aids in the struggle against vitamin A deficiency in Africa and South East Asia (VAD is responsible for 1–2 million deaths, 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness and millions of cases of xerophthalmia annually)? What about the medical advancements in the production of Human Growth Hormone in GM animals, that previously had to be extracted form cadavers. Europe has banned GMO’s because they don’t have the starving population and ravishing poverty our countries have. It’s very easy to advise people to ban GMO’s and buy organic, when you don’t children starving to death on your way to work everyday. It’s up to the next generation to feed and increasingly growing population with less land, less water and less energy. Biotechnology can help us achieve that. Don’t believe everything you read, especially when it’s written by activists and lobbyists, who last time I checked, didn’t hold any kind of scientific degree.
Can Science and Technology help allow everyone to eat a healthy diet?
By: Nawapak 8B (Draft)
Today, researchers, scientists and food companies are studying and experimenting with genetically modified organisms (GMO ). GMO is an organism whose genetic materials have been changed by splitting a gene of another organism and adding it to a new organism (genetic engineering materials). Therefore, GMO’s can make clones out of animals or they can even add a specific nutrient or chemical to a particular type of food. In my opinion, I think GMO’s is an unquestionable improvement of science and technology. But are GMO’s good or are GMO’s bad? This question leads to one of the biggest conterversy today. Therefore we will have to see the pros and the cons in differen’t views. So if we look at the pros. GMOs are good and has a positive effect on the world.
Firstly, this is because GMO’s makes food healthier and more nutritious because normally a particular type of food wouldn’t include all the five nutrients. They would usually contain 1-3 nutrients and some people barely eat other kinds of food to make their diet become more balanced, or don’t even have the choice to eat a variety of food groups. For instance, since 500,000 children go blind every year, as a result of not having enough of vitamin K. Scientists have modified normal rice to a new type of rice called golden rice by adding a daffodil gene that provides vitamin k for the rice. Therefore just by modifying GMO’s you can save a lot of people. Moreover, not only does nutritious food make undernourished children have a healthier and balanced diet , it also makes medium or high class people such as us, no longer need to try and eat a variety of food because of the nutrients inside .We can just save our time eating a meal that already consist of multiple nutrients and chemicals. That will make us healthy. On the other hand, if we didn’t have GMO, most of the world wouldn’t have a balanced and nutritious diet due to the fact that, the majority of the world is in the state of poverty. This leads to people becoming unhealthy and that would contribute to a health issues change. Since, the air would be polluted with coughs and diseases.
Secondly, GMO’s on the other hand, not only make our food more nutritious yet make it even more resistant to diseases and sometimes even making it have the substance we need to fight of a certain disease. To illustrate this, Scientists and researcher have made bananas that produce antibiotics, strawberries loaded with cancer fighting chemicals and many others. Therefore, if these products are on sale on the markets it would make medication cheaper and more effective as well. The reason for this is because you don’t need to go to a pharmacy to buy antibiotics you can just eat them from strawberries which will also give you other nutrients as well. Admittedly, by doing this if medication is cheaper there will be a higher percentage that poor people would have a chance of buying these foods. This would be a positive ethical change owing to the reason that the people who sell the food would have a higher income. Despite, having an all in one food loaded with antibiotics, you shouldn’t be eating too much of it because it can lead to over use of antibiotics and have a damaging effect on your body. In short, and all in one loaded antibiotic food is good in a way but don’t eat too much of it.
Thirdly, Farming would be an easier job for farmers and agricultural businesses, which mean a cheaper and better quality of food. Since some genetically engineered crops can resist against drought conditions, herbicides and have a higher resistance against insects and pesticide. This could be good for farmers who may face a lot of pesticide related health issues or bugs eating issues. So, not only will farmers will be happy but the political side would be better too. Due to the fact that, the country that use GMO for their crops will be able to import the goods to other countries which would mean that, the particular country would have a higher income of money and the prime minister or president of that country could use the income earned from GE crops to do other areas which would help improve the countries development. Therefore, as you can see science can make a really big impact from just a better quality of food to the development of a country, which is a political change.
Fourthly, genetically modified organisms can then help reduce the rates of pollution both in the air and in the land. Due to the fact that, GMO’s can genetically engineer micro organisms to break down toxic substances and other hazardous wastes. Furthermore, it can make plants produce a smaller amount of biodegradable plastic. Lastly, if the GE crops that don’t need pesticide then the pesticide won’t go on land, air or water, this means that animals don’t get affected by pesticides as well. Which is a good thing because who knows? Some of our foods may come from these polluted sources, both the meat we eat or the crops we eat. Since if the animals that we hunt down ate the hazardous plant, grown from polluted land and air, the affect will become a chain reaction. The pollution from the air and land are absorbed and spread in the plant, then a herbivore eats it and the bad stuff is past on to the animal. lastly, we as humans hunt the animal down and eat in the infected feature right away. To recap, GMO can also make an impact on the environmental factor and our health factor.
Although GMO and Science have some good parts, such as making people have a healthier diet, which is cheaper and is an increase of qualities. GMO also have some negative effects. Because let’s face it GMO’s are like the shot in the dark. We don’t have enough experience and there can also be some errors that can cause a serious problem.
Firstly, this is because we haven’t experimented and researched on GMO’s long enough and haven’t really tested it on a human being before. There may be side effects that we do not know about. In particular, harmful and uncontrollable bacteria which can be produced accidentally. In other words, when the double helix (rungs) are connected to each other from two different organisms there is a percentage that the DNA can change completely from what the scientist hypothesized, and a bad bacteria could be released or there might be some human mistakes and lead to the break out of bad bacteria . Namely, instead of a taking a good bacteria from a certain organism there might be an error and the scientist might have brought the bad bacteria or factor instead. At first it might react as we predicted but then in a long term period this could as a result turn into a new type of disease that we have no information and data of and may also spread to animals (the food we eat).
Secondly, even though GMO’s may reduce some environmental pollution it is still a threat to environmental issues today. The reason for this is because if there was a genetically modified flower which doesn’t need Pesticide and is more resistance against bugs. When the wind blows and this GE Flower’s pollen drift into another flower and reproduce. Then we as humans wouldn’t notice or even know about it. Moreover, like the Monarch butterfly caterpillars when they eat these types of GMO’s they can die and get extinct. Likewise, other animals or even us might die as well, with the instant change of their diet and may die like the caterpillars.
Thirdly, Pesticides and other insect killing chemicals won’t work on insects and bugs anymore owing to the reasons that, insects after a long period of time might evolve and be resistant to these types of flowers and we wouldn’t be able to use Pesticide anymore. This means that in the future we will have to use something that is even more hazardous. This then leads to unhealthy diet. Also you don’t even know if these insect resistant crops are healthy for you.
In conclusion I really think that GMO’s could help the present world. It can make our foods have a better quality and make our food cheaper. As a result, poor people can also have a healthier and balanced diet. Getting more nutrients form fruits or vegetables, as well as having a higher resistance against harmful disease. But like many other people say it’s quite a shot in the dark right now. We don’t know if there might be some negative effects after words, such as a new factor that has occurred now that if you extract a DNA from peanut butters to other organisms then people with peanut energy might not know so before bringing GMO’s with any peanut DNA’s there should be label for it. Consequentially, there are other theories as well. Therefore we should try testing it on a human for his/her life span and then improving it or if it’s already good then bringing it to the market. So if you’re unsure of it then don’t do it until you have proof. Thus, as you can see here, GMO’s is very amazing and would be listed for the most advanced scientific technology ever; in the past GMO wouldn’t even exist it would be only a dream. Splitting DNA’s into half and connecting it to another DNA is very astonishing.
Bibliography:
• Milano, Carol. “WHAT’S HAPPENING TO YOUR FOOD?” Current Health 2 April 2007 Middle Search Plus. EBSCO. 28 October 2008
• Rubenstien, Irwin. “Genetic engineering” World Book Student. World book, 2009. web. 6. Oct. 2009
• “Super food or double trouble?” Scholastic Choices , February 2002, Middle Search Plus, EBSCO.28 October 2008
• Weir, Kristen. “Your world”, November 2007, p26-28
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• “What is Genetic modification (GM)?” CSIRO 2 November 2007, 6 October 2009.