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BGH is
currently being used by approximately 10% of the U.S. dairy farms. Some other
benefit expected in the near future are reduced levels of natural toxins in the
plants, extending the shelf life of food, and simpler and faster methods in
located pathogens, toxins and contaminants. Some products being released soon
with these benefits are healthier oils, sweeter peas with higher plant yields,
bananas and pineapples with delayed ripening qualities and higher protein rice
using genes transferred from peas. Further in the future it is expected to help
avoid starvation as the world population grows to over 10 billion people by the
year 2050. This is expected to be accomplished by increasing a crop's ability to
withstand drought and other environmental factors.
The benefits expected down
the road include safe foods with less allergenic proteins, drought and flood
resistance, and tolerance to salt, metals, heat and cold. OPPONENTS This part is
going to touch on some of the opponents to genetically modified (GM) foods. One
of the biggest is the Prince of Wales and all of England. The Prince has been
very vocal in the past on this issue he has given a few speeches and even
starting an online forum on the subject. He is pushing for public debate on GM
food. He believes GM is more than just an extension of selective breeding
techniques that mixing genetic material from different species that would
normally not breed takes us into areas that should be left to God. He says we
should not meddle with the building block of life. He does feel that genetic
manipulation could lead to good in the field of medicine, agriculture and the
health of the environment, but that advanced technology brings dangers with it
also. He, along with several others, think that herbicide resistant crops will
lead to more chemicals being used on crops not less.
Him and others says that
the trait for herbicide resistance will spread to wild plant life and make weeds
that are resistant to weed killer as well. If plants produce there own
pesticides it will kill the good bugs as well as the bad ones. Also, with the
pesticide everywhere in a crop, it will lead to a tolerance to the pesticide on
the part of the bugs and they will eventually be immune to it. During
pollination and with winds the pollen can spread from the GM crops to
conventional and organic crops contaminating them. He wonders about the claims
that GM crops are needed to feed the world's growing population. He thinks it is
more a lack of money than a lack of food that is the problem. The
representatives of 20 African states, including Ethiopia, have published a
statement saying that GM crops will not help their farmers produce the food that
will be needed in the 21 century. In fact, they think it will destroy the
diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems and
undermine their capacity to feed themselves.
He also wonders how the developers
of all this technology are planning to make a profit from selling their product
to the poorest parts of the world where they claim it is need the most. He feels
it would be better to concentrate on sustainable techniques that can double or
triple the yields from the traditional farming systems. England has been pushing
for labeling requirements to inform the consumer that food is genetically
altered, so that they can make their own decision as to whether they want to eat
it or not. The questions raised by opponents are Is it safe? so far there is
nothing showing that it is not, but there is also not much data showing that it
is either. Why are the rules for approving GM foods less stringent than those
for new medicines produced using the exact same technology? If GM food is going
into our bodies just as medications do, it should be subject to the same
testing. What is the effects on the environment? Laboratory test have already
shown in the U.S. that the pollen from GM corn has damaged the caterpillars that
turn into the Monarch butterflies, if it can hurt them what is it doing to other
species? They are not even testing the corn it is in widespread production and
this should have been caught if testing had been done.
It should have been
caught by the company that makes the seeds or by the regulatory authorities that
let the seeds be sold on the market. It would make sense to plant a small test
section of a crop and see what will happen. If something goes wrong with a GM
crop, who will be held responsible? This is a big one who is going to be legally
liable for the damage, whether it is to human health, the environment, or both.
Will it be the company who produced and sold the seeds, the farmer who grew it
based on being told it is safe, or will it be everyone which is the case with BGH. There has been a statement put out by a group of scientists from 13
countries all over the world calling for a moratorium on GM crops and an
outright ban on patents of GM seeds. They put out to all the governments of the
world this statement and have asked the governments to do the following: ·
Impose an immediate moratorium on further environmental releases of transgenic
crops, food and animal-feed products for at least 5 years. ·
Ban patents on
living organisms, cell lines and genes. Support a comprehensive, independent
public inquiry into the future of agriculture and food security for all, taking
account of the full range of scientific finding as well as socioeconomic and
ethical implications. They are concerned that there needs to be more testing due
to growing evidence of hazards to biodiversity, food safety, human and animal
health. They do not feel that neither the need nor the benefits of genetic
engineering of agriculture have been proven. They say that new scientific
evidence warrants an immediate moratorium. They say that cross pollination is
already happening creating many species of superweeds and that the chances of
transgenes spreading to other plant is 30 times more likely than a plant
spreading its own genes. These 61 scientists have me convinced after reading
their statement that the governments need to put a halt to this and have further
testing and refining done before anymore are grown commercially.
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