GMO's: The Whole Story--Opposed (Part 3 of 4)

Opposed

The three scientific concerns regarding GM foods are: “1) environmental hazards; 2) human health risks; and, 3) socioeconomic dangers” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 75).  These mirror the very reasons given in support of crops that have been genetically altered.  Oftentimes these three areas are intertwined and not stand alone issues.

Some of the most common types of GM crops are those containing BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), naturally occurring bacteria that live in the soil which have been genetically added to corn, potatoes, soy, canola and cotton.  The bacteria works by producing spores within the digestive tract of the insect that eats it causing paralysis and death (Conrad, 2007).  This bacterium is on the list of approved insecticides that can be sprayed on organic farms where the toxin in the bacteria is activated when the insect takes a bite of the plant (Conrad, 2007; Curry, 2013).  By inserting the BT genes directly into a plant’s DNA, the plant produces the bacteria itself that kills the insects that could destroy it (Mather, 2012).  The problem with comparing spraying BT on an organic farm and genetically inserting it into a crop is that the effectiveness of a BT spray is short lived.  It can also be washed off.  When the BT has been genetically inserted, it is being consumed, not just by the insects that eat the plant, but by any other organism that eats the plant as well (J. Fedance, personal communication, April 2014).  This becomes a problem when “86 percent of corn, up to 90 percent of all soybeans and nearly 93 percent of cotton” grown in America has been genetically modified (Mather, 2012, p. 2).

There are also Roundup-Ready crops which have been genetically altered to resist glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup (which was created by biotech company Monsanto).  These crops include soybeans, corn, canola, sugar beets, cotton, alfalfa and Kentucky bluegrass (Mather, 2012).  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), glyphosate is one of the most widely used pesticides in the United States (Mather, 2012).  Research on the effects of glyphosate has linked it to birth defects in birds and amphibians and to “cancer, endocrine disruption, damage to DNA and reproductive and developmental damage in mammals” (Mather, 2012, p. 4).  In straw alone there can be enough toxins from the herbicide to make pigs and cattle infertile (Mather, 2012).

These crops which have been genetically altered to already include herbicides and pesticides have not reduced the use of topical treatments on farms.  Instead, because of the use of stacked hybrids (which have more than one genetically altered component), insects are developing resistance to more forms of control causing farmers to have to apply more pesticides instead of less (Mather, 2012).  Weeds can also develop this resistance rendering the herbicides useless (Curry, 2013).  

The idea that genetically engineering plants is just a scientific way of doing what plants naturally do anyway is not entirely accurate.  While humans have been creating hybrids since the beginning of agriculture, they have never introduced outside organisms into the plants.  The hybridization has always been within individual plant species.  Plants eaten for food have never had genes outside of the food supply in them or genes from another species integrated into them (Curry, 2013).  Ecologists point to molecular biologists as having a limited view of how plants grow outside of a laboratory where they are free to crossbreed and limit crop diversity.  “Widespread use of a few varieties of GMO crops might limit genetic diversity and thus the ability to survive in altered form when pests or other hazards unexpectedly arrive” (Curry, 2013, p. 6). 

This causes human health concerns as well.  BT spliced into a plant’s DNA is being consumed by animals and humans (whether through eating the crop or eating the animal that has eaten the crop).  Celiac disease and digestive intolerances are on the rise (J. Fedance, personal communication, April 2014).  Glyphosate causes many problems in mammals, which are also on the rise in humans.  Allergies are on the rise and without knowing which genes have been added to which crop, eating GMOs is not safe for people with food allergies, as is seen in the case where a Brazil nut gene was added to soybeans and people with nut allergies had reactions to the soybeans as well (Wohlers, 2013).  Children are at greatest risk for these exposures because of their immature immune systems and undeveloped bodies (Wohlers, 2013).

Because of the way that genetically engineered seeds are produced, they can be created with a terminator, or suicide, gene that disables successive seeds from being viable.  This means that each year, farmers have to buy new seed (Wohlers, 2013).  This is true, not only for farmers growing GM crops, but also for neighboring farmers whose crops have been cross pollinated with those crops.  This could lead to the inability to save any seed in a variety of crop that has been genetically modified, which has begun happening in countries around the world.  “Once genetically altered plants are set loose…there will be no way to call them back” (Curry, 2013, p. 3).  And if those genetically modified crops happen to cross pollinate with crops on a neighboring organic farm, the farmer can no longer sell his crop at the higher organic price (Curry, 2013).  The instances where GM crops have escaped their field test plots (as well as other times they are found growing where they should not be) are referred to as unauthorized GMO or UGM.  There is not just the risk of cross contamination through pollination, but there are examples where crops planted on former GM crop sites actually become contaminated with the alternate gene through the soil (Broeders et al., 2012).  This happened “not only during the time the plants were setting seeds but also after the fields were taken out of production” (Broeders et al., 2012, p. 2).  Full containment of GM crops is almost impossible.

Buying new seed every year is expensive and small farmers cannot afford it, especially in developing countries where food is already scarce (Wohlers, 2013).  In addition, lawsuits can be (and have been) filed by biotech companies against farmers for saving seeds because it is considered patent infringement.  These seeds could have been produced by “windblown pollen, spilled seed on the farmer’s property, volunteer plants from a neighbor’s property, or in other ways” (Mather, 2012, p. 3).  Also, because seven major biotech companies control most of the world’s seed market (71%), they are able to control the costs of those seeds (Wohlers, 2013).  The price of a bag of Monsanto soybeans increased by 143% in the ten years between 2001 and 2011 (Wohlers, 2013).

In the 13 years since the FDA made labeling of GMOs voluntary, not one company has labeled GE ingredients in their products (Kimbrell, 2014).  There are many reasons that labeling of GMOs is voluntary.  One is that the FDA believes that putting a label on something makes consumers believe there is something wrong with the product (Mather, 2012).  However, labeling a product “organic” or “natural” actually increases sales of those products.  They point to raised food costs because of the new labels, but most manufacturers change their labels roughly every year anyway (Kimbrell, 2014).  More than 60 countries already require labeling (Wohlers, 2013) and “report that costs are far lower than the industry and the FDA claim” (Mather, 2012, p. 7).  This could be because most food manufacturers already have GE labels in order to export food to these countries (Kimbrell, 2014).  With 60 to 80 percent of processed foods containing GM ingredients (Wohlers, 2013), it is clear why the demand for labeling GMOs is bipartisan (93% Democrats, 90% Independents, 89% Republicans) (Kimbrell, 2014) with over one million people asking the FDA to label GM food (Wohlers, 2013).

Key Terms

biotech (biotechnology): “the use of living cells, bacteria, etc., to make useful products (such as crops that insects are less likely to destroy or new kinds of medicine)” (Biotechnology, 2014).

BT (Bacillus thuringiensis): naturally occurring bacteria which lives in the soil; allowed to be sprayed on organic farms as an insecticide.

genetically engineered (GE): refers to seeds that “have somehow been altered by science in order to produce more positive results such as bigger size, brighter colors, or sweeter flavor” (Barnes, 2005, p. 53).

genetically modified organism (GMO): “the rapid and accurate alteration of genetic material in such a way that does not occur by natural recombination” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 74).  “The technology inserts genetic material from one species into another to give a crop or animal a new quality” (Mather, 2012, p. 1).

organic: “yielding, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides” (Organic, 2014).

stacked hybrids: “varieties that have been manipulated to express several GM effects at once” (Mather, 2012, p. 3).

substantial equivalence: “’embodies the idea that existing organisms used as foods, or as a source of food, can be used as the basis for comparison when assessing the safety of human consumption of a food or food component that has been modified or is new’ (p. 14)” (Wohlers, 2013, p. 76).

transgenic crops: “being or used to produce an organism or cell of one species into which one or more genes of another species have been incorporated” (Transgenic, 2014).

unauthorized GMO (UGM): genetically modified plants found outside of their designated place.