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Saturday, 12 May 2007
Health and Environmental Post: Genetically modified food (GM food)Introduction:
Genetic Modification of food is said to be a relatively new technological development which promises to increase food production even more. It is the process whereby one or a few specific genes from another organism (plant, animal or human) which will be beneficial to the growth and development of the plant are added directly to the chromosome of a plant in order to create a plant with certain desired traits, such as being resistant to pests or herbicides.
However, in traditional selective breeding, farmers choose the seeds from the best crops and grow them the following year. Eventually, only a strain of crops which has a desirable trait is grown. Thus traditional breeding make use of the method that two plants are cross-bred to produce a crop with the best-mix of traits/characteristics. However, traditional selective breeding or cross-breeding require a long time before the best crop is produced. In genetic modification, the desired gene from one plant/organism can be selected and directly inserted into another plant to produce a plant with the desired traits. It is a more accurate and effective process than traditional methods
This emergence of use of GM food is closely related to globalization as GM has been a popular topic within every country internationally. Many countries, actually most of the countries in the world, have participated in debate of whether GM food should be encouraged in each country, and every countries have stated their stand about the issue on GM food. This can be seen from the map shown below: (You can visit the website for a clearer view of the picture and different stands of the countries.)
http://www.ifg.org/pdf/gmoworld.pdfIn 2003, countries which produce the most GM food were the United States (63%), Argentina (21%), Canada (6%), Brazil (4%), and China (4%), and South Africa (1%). Some of the most well-known GM food is: frost-resistant tomato, golden rice, corn and banana.
Frost-resistant tomato is created by adding ‘anti-freeze’ genes from a cold-water fish, called founder, to the tomato. After isolating these “anti-freeze” genes, the scientists inject them into a tomato cell. The anti-genes which still manage to work in the tomato cell enable the tomato to withstand frost.
Golden rice, on the other hand, has been genetically modified to produce beta-carotene, which is the pigment which forms vitamin A when absorbed by the body. In this case, the beta-carotene is taken from the genes of daffodils and this modification could prevent the occurrence of permanent blindness in 250 million people around the world who are at risk due to their diets which is low in vitamin A.
Even corn has also been genetically modified and there is this particular type of corn developed that is able to produce its own pesticide. This thus enabled the crops of corn to be resistant to pests and weeds. Some of the bananas in South Africa are also genetically modified with cholera vaccine. Now, whoever eats it is vaccinated from cholera or has a lower risk of contracting the disease. One such example is to reduce the spread of cholera.
However, despite the several advantages of different GM-food, various controversies surrounding GM foods and crops also exist; commonly focus on human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation.
http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/news_print.asp?ID=486Health aspect: Good and Bad
GOOD:
It is said that genetic engineering could lead to larger and more nutritious crops of staple foods, such as rice, cassava, maize, wheat, yams, sorghum, and sweet potatoes. This will address the lack of food availability in LDCs which leads to food insecurity.
Crucial vitamins and minerals could also be added to wheat and other crops. For example, the golden rice as mentioned beforehand. Being a genetically modified type of rice which contains beta-carotene, golden rice is said to be able to help combat Vitamin A deficiency in LEDCs. This is due to the fact that Beta-carotene can be converted by the human body into Vitamin A. Thus more nutritious food can be made available in LDCs and food security can be improved.
BAD:
It has been pointed out that Genetic modification creates more allergy attacks. Some food such as wheat, legumes, milk, eggs, shellfish, and some varieties of nuts contain allergens, and they cause human being to have allergic reactions that could include hives and breathing difficulties.
During genetic modifications, genes from food which are known to contain allergens may be moved between species to improve the quality of other food. This may cause the creation of new allergenic proteins and also allow more food to contain allergens which may be difficult to identity. Thus, this causes people to be unknown of the food which may cause them to suffer from allergic reaction, and hence cause allergies to occur more frequently within human.
Controversies have also included that Genetic modifications cause genetic pollution. This is due to the spread of seeds and pollen by the nature factors such as insects, birds, wind, and water. The occurrence of genetic pollution was proven not long ago where eleven out of twenty “GE-free” products are tested to contain tiny amounts of GE ingredients, while five were loaded with them. Some other factors that may result in the genetic pollution may be due to the process where seeds are being stored and shipped. Mix of seeds between different species may occur, thus causing “GE-free” products to contain GE ingredients.
One of the effects of the genetic pollution is that farmers will not be able to market their crops as organic due to the GE corns sprouted in the nearby fields. This invasion thus destroy the opportunity for farmers to market their crops as organic as US prohibits genetic engineering for organic food standards.
One such examples of the effect of the genetic pollution are shown in 2002. Parts of southern Africa were so afraid of the genetic pollution that they did not dare to accept the GE corns donated by the US to them when famine struck. This fear for GE products is due to the leaders of Africa, wanting to prevent the possibility of losing the ability to sell produce to Europe, where shoppers are highly skeptical of GE produce and where many countries require it to be labeled. Temporary suffering and even death of some of their people from famine, the leaders thought, was better than losing money in trade with Europe and risking permanent poverty.
Environmental Aspect: Good and Bad
GOOD:
Breeding crops which are pest and disease resistant can reduce the use of agrochemicals e.g. pesticides, insecticide, so less pollution or damage will be done to the environment. There will also be no problems of pesticides being washed into the rivers, hence causing illnesses and diseases to people who drink it.
With GM crops that have shorter growing seasons and produce higher-yields per hectare, each piece of land is more productive. We can probably produce enough food to feed the world in the present arable areas without having to carry out more deforestation (to make space for agriculture by clearing forests).
Crops can be genetically modified to grow on land which used to be unsuitable for agriculture – for example regions which are very dry or have saline soil. Again, this means that we may no longer have to carry out deforestation to clear more land for agriculture.
BAD:
There is a fear that the genes from GM crops may escape into the wild and wind-up in non-GM organisms, resulting in what that is called the genetic pollution. This could mean, for example, that the herbicide resistance in the crop could be transferred to "weeds" and create "superweeds" which would need to be controlled by even more powerful and therefore more toxic herbicides. This may have severe consequences on the biodiversity of the area.
There is a concern that the creation of pest-resistant plants could result in the evolution of ‘superbugs’ – pests which are more resistant to toxins, which could pose a major threat to environment and could chomp off (destroy) the GE foods with ease. All of this could increase, rather than decrease, farmers' dependence on pesticides, resulting in more pollution to our environment.
Conclusion and link to globalization
In conclusion, there are both benefits and controversies in GM-food. Although GM food has several benefits like reduces maturation time, increases nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance, improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides, it also has potential human health impact such as allergens, unintended transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination, unknown effects on other organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of flora and fauna biodiversity. To be exact, specific effect of GM food on human beings and ecosystems has not been discovered yet. Hence, there are various concerns on the safety of GM food as some people suspect that there could be possible unforeseen toxic effects caused by the GM food. Thus, this explains the following statistics and graphics below:
http://www.sacbee.com/static/live/news/projects/biotech/imgs/grfx_c5_2.gif
According to the result of a survey released in June 2000 on consumer reaction to GM foods by "Angus Reid Group," Japanese consumers hold the most negative views of GM foods among the eight countries polled. It concludes that 82 percent of Japanese consumers hold negative views. The percentage of consumers holding negative views in the other countries polled are also high and even in the United States and Canada, over half of the responding consumers are negative.
Another recent survey, which was conducted by researchers of a university in Japan, also shows a trend of declining positive views of GM crops/foods in general. According to this survey, supporters for pest-resistant GM crops has dropped from 52% in 1997 to 33% in 2000, and supporters for GM foods has dropped from 45% in 1997 to 31% in 2000.
The above mentioned trend is confirmed by the other survey by the Tokyo metropolitan government. Reluctance to eat GM foods obviously increased during the last two years. Approximately ninety percent of consumers are unwilling to eat GM foods.
http://www.s.affrc.go.jp/docs/genome/APEC/apec.htmIn issue of GM food, it has shown one of the effects of globalization, as several countries have often come together to solve this problem where technology and advancement in our present world is the main factor of this issue. Science and technology might improve our lives, such as those benefits that GM-food brings, but there are always the “side-effects”, and in GM-food, the negative impacts on health and environment have been shown.
However, in my opinion, I feel that the health of mankind should always be placed as the priority. We should not risk our human lives just because the GM food has gains in the health and environmental aspects. We should further investigate in this issue, make sure that there is no more doubts, and confirm both its advantages and disadvantages to mankind before we decide whether or not to take GM food as one of our alternatives as food. Hence, if I were to have a choice, I would support the people who does not agree with the establishment of GM food and hope the scientists would carry out further experiments and hence come up with an effective and healthy food for man.
Websites Visited:
http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=100255&catId=100288&tid=100008&p=1&title=GM%3a+Genetically+modified+foodhttp://www.foodfuture.org.uk/farming_intro.aspxhttp://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.phphttp://www.globalautonomy.ca/global1/glossary_entry.jsp?id=CO.0006http://www.eubios.info/EJ123/ej123g.htmhttp://www.sevananda.com/issues-with-organic-the-effects-of-genetically-modified-food.htmlhttp://www.carleton.ca/ces/PolicyBriefings/2006-11-06-Briefing-PatentsPlantsPower.pdfRONG QI Signing Off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
3:46:00 pm
