What are genetically modified foods?
Genetically modified foods or organisms are foods that come from animals or crops whose genes have been altered through an unnatural method, such as incorporating one organism's genes into another organism's genetic material. The initiative behind the genetic engineering of plants or animals is to create products with little input and greater output. For example, GM seed developers, or the people behind the genetic altering of plants, wanted to alter plant genes in order to better protect the crops from diseases caused by viruses and insects, and to create plants more tolerant towards herbicides, which will result in more food.
Well, we don't want this...
So let's do this...
- Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)- a bacterium that produces crystal proteins that are toxic to many insects; Bt is inserted into the genes of many plants to help produce toxins, which are used as pesticides against insects
- The genes of viruses that cause diseases in plants are put into plants to immune the crop from the diseases
- To create herbicide tolerance, seed developers take a gene from a bacterium that shows resistance towards herbicides and insert it into plant genes
Insight on Bacillus thuringiensis...
Bt comes from the family of Bacillus cerus. The strains of this bacteria are known to produce toxins that cause food poisoning in humans.
Feeling queezy?
Don't be...
Bt contains a plasmid that produces the crystal proteins that are toxic to insects...not humans. Bt does not cause human food poisoning.
Notice the difference between these trout?
Try 15 to 20 percent more flesh in the first one..
The genes that create the powerful Belgian blue cattle are now being incorporated into fish for more flesh.
So if this process is safe, why are GM foods considered risky?
Let's face it, they're not harmful! Genetically modified foods are beneficial. We have an increasing world population, estimated to double in the next several decades. If we all want to eat, we need to find ways of creating more food with less input.
With GM foods, one day we will have enough food to go around...
“The promise was that you could use less chemicals and produce a greater yield. But let me tell you none of this is true.” – Bill Christison, President of the US National Family Farm
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| GM foods will create a chain of events that will harm humans, the environment, and economy. |
GM foods will cause allergic reactions:
One of the most common crops that has been genetically modified is the soybean. In 2007, over half of the world's production of soybean crops was genetically modified in order to feed the aggressive population growth. Countries prefer the GM soybean because they have an "added" gene that naturally produces a natural pesticide, known as herbicide resistance.
This tiny tweak in the genetic makeup produced a new, and unnatural, protein to the soybean. This artificial protein is triggering allergic reactions. In the mid-1990s, scientists decided to incorporate a gene from the Brazil nut to the soybean to try and make the crop healthier. People who were normally allergic to Brazil nuts developed allergic reactions to soy-based products. The production stopped immediately before any of these beans were commercially planted. People who are deathly allergic to certain foods, such as nuts, can die from unrelated foods, such as fruit, because they have been given the allergic gene.
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| At grocery stores, people buy GM foods without knowing what exactly is in the products. |
Creating a virus:
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| Viruses add their harmful DNA into some human cells. What if food did the same thing? |
Jeffery M. Smith, a writer for the Institute for Responsible Technology and expert on genetically modified food, states that "The only published human feeding study on GM foods ever conducted verified that portions of the gene inserted into GM soy ended up transferring into the DNA of human gut bacteria".
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is when a gene spontaneously transfers from one living organism to another. There are many barriers that protect human DNA from other genes from food, bacteria, and other organisms. But, GM foods do not have many of these boundaries and could transfer foreign DNA into the human genetic makeup.
Bio Warfare
GM crops are also hurting the environment by hurting animals and tainting the soil. The Bt found in GM corn have wiped out a "non-target species," an animal group meant for the pesticide. Based on the life cycle, the lack of monarch butterflies could starve other predators in that ecosystem and hurt other species as well.
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| Scientists have to clean the toxic soil before it spreads into other fields |
Soil:
Normal crops exhaust the soil's nutrients. However, organisms in the soil, such as earthworms, help reestablish nutrients into the ground and help produce healthy crops. Bt crops have released a toxin into the soil and weakened other non-target species that help enrich the soil. Sadly, these small issues will hurt agricultural production in the long run.
GM food should not continue to be produced because it will harm non-targeted species and create horrible issues in local ecosystems in the long term.
Genetically Modified Foods should not be produced in the United States
Although some see genetic engineering as a solution to feeding the world's increasing population, tampered crops will cause unforeseen allergic reactions or illnesses and hurt the environment. By giving a crop a foreign gene to create a natural pesticide, farmers are producing a food that could potentially transfer harmful genes into the human DNA. In addition, these modified crops are endangering other species in local ecosystems that enrich the soil. Toxins from the GM foods are destroying the food chain and will lead to some devastating consequences. If the United States continues to use genetically engineered crops, the environment and overall health of the citizens will be endangered.
