GMOs (GM food/crops)
GMOs have not been around for long all we know about them is that they modified food and animals to to produce a bigger yield and decreased biodiversity. We have no clue of what the long term effects are. So do we carry on a use it and hope there will be on negative affect the the environment or humans that consume it or do we make a stop to it now.
GMO studies have documented large difference between GM corn and GM soybean to their Non-GM counterparts. It has shown that Substantial Equivalence has failed in protecting public health and biodiversity. ‘Substantial Equivalence was first introduced in 1993 by the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD), an international economic and trade organisation, not a public health body’.(1) It says that for a food to be found equal to existing food products it can be treated the same way as existing products, obviously benefiting GMOs letting them bypass regulations.
Studies in egypt shows non-equivalent and toxicity in GM corn.
April 2013, an Egyptian publication by Professor El-Sayed Shaltout at Alexandria University did a series of studies that found that Monsanto’s 810 Corn that is modified to repel insects had increased substances and abnormal levels amino acid and crude fat. These differences in the corn showed toxicity after feeding the corn to male rats which then developed a wide range of organ and tissue abnormalities. The kidneys had congested blood vessels and dilation of renal tubules, spleen ha slight lymphocytic depletion and small intestines showed hyperactivation of mucous secretory glands. Testes necrosis (death) and desquamation (shedding) of sperm cells after only 91 days of feeding. This definitely gave the conclusion that GM corn was not substantially equivalent to non-GM corn.(2)
A study led by Thomas Bøhn at the Norwegian Centre for Biosafety tested 31 batches of soybeans from Iowa, US. They were put into three groups:
- GM glyphosate-tolerant soybeans.
- Unmodified soybeans cultivated using the normal ‘chemical’ regime.
- Unmodified organic soybeans
They were then analysed for chemical contamination of ‘(organochlorine, organophosphorus, pyrethroides, PCBs, glyphosate and AMPA (aminomethylphosponic acid – the major degradation product of glyphosate) based on the list of pesticide brand names used by the farmers)’(3) and nutrition content. They found that glyphosate and AMPA were only present in GM soybean samples and not the non-GM and organic varieties. The concentration of AMPA in the GM soybean were twice that of the non-GM soybean.
When looking at the chemical composition of the soybean samples the researchers noted significant differences between the organic soybean and both non-GM soybean and GM soybean. The organic soybean was extremely better nutritionally better than the other samples.
These two studies show that GMOs need to be tested before they can be put on the market for consumption by human or animal or even grown. But what about the benefits do they outway the drawbacks.
There is a global scale problem with hunger, most of them live in places where food is very expensive as it is very hard to grow (very wet/dry). Through genetic engineering/modification we can make food produce more yield, better nutritional content, produce its own insecticides and be resistant to diseases.(4)
In third world countries thousands of people die daily to diseases that are stopped by vaccines. This has led to research into edible vaccines, genetically modifying food to produce vaccines. Banana trees and tomato plant grown at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University are genetically engineered to produce vaccines. This could change the lives for third world countries as bananas are grown widely in many parts of third world countries and can be eaten raw. (5)
My views on GMOs are they need to be very careful regulated, when using it for human or animal consumption it should undergo extensive test to make sure it is safe. It is very effective in medicine as they can create insulin which is usually taken from the pancreas of a pig or cow therefore vegetarians can use it without worrying about where it comes from. Overall a lot more research need to go into it before we know it is effective and safe to use around the world.
References
- http://gmoreport.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/new-gmo-studies-demonstrate-substantial.html Blog, 07-12-2014
- http://www.academia.edu/3341205/Chemical_Analysis_of_Bt_corn_Mon-810_Ajeeb-YG_and_its_counterpart_non-Bt_corn_Ajeeb_ Scientific journal, Abdo E.M. and Barbary O.M. and Shaltout O.E., IOSR journal of applied chemistry, Volume 4, issue 1, March/April, 2013.
- http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Substantial_Non-Equivalence.php website,07-12-2014
- http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmpe080e/Spring05/projects/gmo/benefits.htm, website, 07-12-2014
- https://www.mcdb.ucla.edu/Research/Goldberg/HC70A_W05/pdf/EdibleVaccines.pdf Research paper, 07-12-2014, William H.R. Langridge
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